“I know this is the seventy-one time I'm going to be saying this, Ruby, but... I'm so happy to finally meet you. I only just heard about you today, but Gabi won't let my ears rest since... You're very welcome.”Hearing the woman of the house, Mercedes, say these words with a smile on her face and excited gestures made Ruby feel very good and much more comfortable.“Thank you, Mercedes... I'm happy to meet you, too... I was nervous before coming because I didn't know what to expect, but... Yeah, I'm happy..”“You were nervous? Of what? We don't bite... Gabi, what did you tell her?” Mercedes turned to her cousin with surprise on her face.Ruby admired the woman. She was heavily pregnant and looking like she would go into labor any minute but she was still very pretty and agile, too, unlike some women Ruby had seen who would look bloated and inflated and as though they weighted the world inside them. Seeing her made Ruby ache for a family; well, she had seemingly found one, now. And hope

“It's getting crazy over here, Sensi..”“I knew it would... The US is not too far away from Mexico, so I'm not surprised that it still feels like you didn't go too far, with all these people popping up who know everything about you and Mercedes.”Gio, having been distressed all through the weekend, after the dinner, and up until this moment, a Monday evening after the close of work, at about 8 pm, was putting a call across to Sensi as he balanced books for the day and prepared to leave for his house.“So, what would you suggest? Or, what would you do, if it were you in this mess?” Gio asked.Whenever he was in trouble, 'What would Sensi do’ was the question that would pop up in his mind.Sensi exhaled heavily over the phone before saying, “Honestly... If it were me, I'd be leaving Mexico, first thing tomorrow morning.”“What?” Gio asked, stunned.“What do you mean 'What’? If it was so easy for all these people to come into your life who knew and still know so much about the past you'r

“Woah.. What the fuck happened here?” The following morning, Detectives Paz and Selena, who'd been informed of an incident at the house in a certain residential area that looked to be more than it seemed, had shown up to the house with Omari and Snyder in accompaniment, who hadn't even known that it had any connection with Mercedes and had just simply wanted some investigative action. The house was a mess; windows had been smashed up, the door had been taken off its hinges, the expensive flat screen TV had been ripped out of the wall and smashed, the couches had been turned upside down, the walls had been battered by what looked like baseball bats, wardrobes and cupboards had been destroyed, portraits hanging on the walls had been thrown down and around. It looked as though someone had been paid to make the house uninhabitable forever. “And, the weird thing is, people living around here say that they didn't hear any gunshots or screams; just the breaking of glass and sounds of c

“How did you get here?”“That, my dear, is no complicated story, regardless of how surprised you may be to see me, and I understand your fears, but I can assure you that I'm not a threat... I'm simply here to help..”Seeing Doctor Deona in Mexico when she'd last seen her at Don Fabrizio's Mansion was surprising for Mercedes because, to the best of her knowledge, this woman was an ally of Don Fabrizio, and Mercedes was scared that she'd bring the Don here to snatch her and kill Gio, so she was wary of her.“Breaking the news of your pregnancy caused more harm than I could have ever imagined, even in a wild dream. I didn't know this until Sensi snuck into my car and pointed a gun at my head. It was at that point that I knew that there was an internal crisis in Don Fabrizio's family, and this was something I wanted no part of... I decided to quietly exit the city and country as a whole and come here, to my home country, and live as quietly as I could..”“Wait... You're Mexican, too?” Mer

“I'm sorry, Gio..”“Mercedes.. Shut up..”“No, let me take responsibility..”“Mercedes.. I said 'Shut up’..”The moment they'd both woken up from the rest they'd taken after the fiery pleasure session Gio had initiated, Mercedes had started trying to apologize for 'causing him pain’. She blamed all the unfortunate events that had befallen them both on herself; his stabbing, the fact that he'd nearly died, the fact that he could no longer have his regular life, the fact that he was a target for so many reasons, and hated immensely both by his father and Aleksandr Matiç.He had now come to sit by her and she was leaning her weight slightly on him and running one finger on all his tattoos (and they were many), having missed his touch and the feel of him but also being careful so as not to hurt him, seeing as his back was still heavily bandaged.“No, no, I won't... Let me speak, Gio... Let me speak... Promise you won't interrupt..”“Mercedes.. You don't have to take responsibility for any