CHAPTER 6

(Five years later). 

"Are you sure you want to leave? There's still time." Dolores Sullivan's anguish was evident in her freckled face and her accentuated expression lines. 

Standing in the Barajas airport, Sofia and her sister said goodbye. 

"Mom, is it true that Aunt can't come with us?" 

Both women crinkled their faces tenderly, looking down at Liam's sad little face, even though he was already six years old. 

Sofia bent down to talk to him face to face. Dolores would if it weren't for her tears, which she was trying to hide. 

"Honey, aunt has to stay for work, you know that, right? But at Christmas, she's coming home to celebrate it with us. Do you like that idea?" 

The little dark brown-haired boy, a color that was changing with time, nodded with a kind of smile, not very convinced by what his mommy was saying. 

"Hey, buddy, give me five," Dolores asked with a clean face and high-fiving him. "Time will fly by. In less than a rooster's crow, we will all be with the family." 

The call to board was heard on the loudspeaker, and the sisters hugged tightly for several seconds. They loved each other very much, and despite the difficulties, they kept good company during all that time. 

"What if Liam's father shows up?" Dolores was still afraid of Sofia's return, but it was just the effect of being in that place. It was in that flight terminal where she received a frightened and shattered sister for the terrible reasons that had brought her there. And now she was leaving. 

"That can't happen," Sofia replied in a whisper so that Liam, who was looking everywhere at the time, couldn't hear them. "You know I did my research. Gael has been quiet in all respects. I have to get on with my life, Dolores, and this job in the States will give me that financial freedom I so desperately need." 

Dolores sighed, swallowing the lump in her throat, nodding. Her dear sister was right, only fear made her want to stop her. 

"Will you look for the man who helped you?" She almost didn't want to ask; it seemed crazy, but she knew her sister so well that she practically knew the answer. 

"Of course I will, you know it's like a dream I will fulfill." 

"How are you so sure you'll find him?" 

"I'm not sure at all, even if that surprises you. But I'm coming back, sister, I'm coming back and I still have alive in my chest that great longing to be grateful for all that Leonel Vos did for my son and me. If it wasn't for him, maybe I would..." 

"Shhh, ok, ok, don't talk about it, it's been a long time, the best thing to do is to transmute." Both women sighed. "But I'm worried that you'll get your hopes up and never see him. It's just that... you've never been able to contact him, how will you know where he is?" 

"I don't know. I'll talk to Larry, tell him all the missing details, and give him names. I'm not giving up hope." 

The plane took off smoothly and landed for a short layover in Mexico and then headed for John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City, the Big Apple, the birthplace of the Sullivans, but not the destination of Sofia and her young son. 

  

***

"Is my favorite man awake yet?" 

Leonel Vos inhaled deeply to calm himself. The words of the beautiful female approaching his back caused a little tension in his body. 

When he felt her hands touch and embrace him, he stopped her. 

"Don't do it, you'll ruin my shirt," he demanded in a commanding voice, pulling his hands away from her as if they were burning. "I need you to leave. I'll be very busy, and I'm already late."    

The woman stopped her movements. She stuck her tongue between her molars and took several steps backwards, without taking her eyes off the broad back of the guy who had just treated her as if she was worthless. 

"It will be done as you say, Leonel, isn't it? Everything is done as you say, or am I wrong?" She turned around and walked her slim body, only dressed in underwear, out of the room, gathering her things, leaving the apartment, and closing the front door with obvious annoyance. 

Leonel sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. Serious, with a frown on his face, he continued to stare at the vastness of the city of Albany through his bedroom window. That had been his home ever since everything had turned dreary and gray around him. 

It was September 1st, a very important date for him. It was five years since that fateful day when he met the woman who changed his life. 

«Five years already», he thought. 

Five years he hadn't heard from her, five years he hadn't forgotten her. 

He tried at all costs. Casting her aside in his memories was always one of his greatest challenges, but that morning and the whole day, he would allow himself to remember her; he would allow himself to think of her joyfully with his son, smiling perhaps, maybe accompanied by his sister or someone else. He would close his eyes and just hope that she and little Liam would be okay on the other side of the ocean. 

But just as he couldn't erase the memory of that woman running for her life, neither could he erase what came after. Those bitter memories were tattooed in every corner of his brain. 

His cell phone vibrated loudly, so walked over to his nightstand and looked at the screen. 

Sighing, he picked up the device and slid the green band to answer. 

"Good morning, boss," Frank Loman greeted his assistant, a man of more than forty years, an expert on many subjects and many things that benefited Leonel. He was also very good at his job. "The protocol is ready, sir. You will be expected at the school for the inauguration of the new educational areas."

"Perfect. Prepare the vehicle, I'm already dressed. Elizabeth left the building?" 

"Yes, sir. Miss Cord's car just pulled off the street." 

Leonel disconnected the call, put his cell phone in his pants pocket, and put on the black jacket, adjusting his tie and cufflinks as he left his apartment, hoping that the activity he was about to attend would calm the raging sea inside his soul that morning.