Chapter 3
“I never knew I had a dream until you came true”
—Pablo Neruda
William
When I entered the medical clinic room and saw my daughter on that woman’s lap, a new emotion invaded me and my heart began to race wildly.
Aurora was hugging her, giving her a kiss and laughing, and that wonderful scene made me feel a strange sensation of vertigo like I’d never felt before, which forced me to stop.
I made a great effort to hide my bewilderment, but I noticed that Alba was looking at me strangely and perhaps somewhat fearfully.
I wasn’t a man who was often left speechless; usually I was the one who left others without words, but nothing had prepared me for seeing my daughter so happy in the arms of a stranger.
I took a few moments to observe them. The attractive woman was looking at her with indescribable tenderness and speaking to her sweetly.
Her voice was captivating and melodious and managed to seduce you; it was no wonder Aurora looked at her as if she were an angel.
“Mr. Cavaller, I apologize for not notifying you personally, but your secretary told me you were in an important meeting and couldn’t be disturbed,” said Alba, forcing me to look at her and bringing me back to reality, because I had been completely enchanted and had even forgotten the reasons why I was there.
“My daughter comes above everything else and you should know that, Alba. It’s not what my secretary says, it’s what I say,” I stated, without raising my voice, but firmly. My secretary would soon find out who decided what was important and what wasn’t.
“I apologize. Fortunately, Aurora is fine. The doctor examined her thoroughly and found absolutely nothing wrong,” she informed me, filling me with relief, though I could tell that Alba was extremely nervous.
Alba was the one who had helped me care for Aurora since her birth because Cristina, Aurora’s mother and my ex-wife, had never devoted herself to her.
Cristina was a beautiful woman who worked as a model and was more concerned with her weight and physical appearance than with her daughter and me.
She had died in a car accident when Aurora was just over three months old.
She was returning from one of those parties she always attended to be seen and photographed, but she had drunk too much, which caused her to lose control of her car and crash into a column.
The impact was so severe that Cristina died instantly.
Although I wasn’t in love with her, that moment was very difficult, and it took me a long time to recover.
We had married because of the pregnancy, because while she had dazzled me with her beauty, I wasn’t in love with Cristina, nor she with me.
I was clear that she had used me because my surname was powerful and had opened many doors for her in her profession; I was even convinced that her pregnancy had been premeditated so that I would marry her.
Our short marriage had been torture, but I didn’t complain because she had given me the best thing in my life, Aurora.
Since her birth, she had become my priority and my greatest responsibility, in addition to having taken over my heart and making me feel a deep devotion for my daughter.
Aurora had never had a mother and I had never seen anyone look at her the way this woman was looking at her, with such great tenderness, and I must confess that I had never seen my daughter look at a woman with such emotion either. I couldn’t get over my astonishment.
I noticed that the doctor, because I assumed the woman who was with Aurora was the doctor who had treated her, hadn’t looked at me at any point, as if I hadn’t entered the room at all; she had only dedicated herself to talking to my daughter and pointing things out on the phone that Aurora had in her hands.
“Alba, wait for me outside,” I ordered.
At that moment, the doctor decided to look up and meet my gaze, and the wild hammering of my heart took me by surprise.
If she had seemed attractive in profile, when her magnificent gray eyes met mine, I realized she was beautiful.
Her features were sublimely perfect, and I had the sensation that her penetrating gray eyes wanted to reach my soul.
Her gaze conveyed purity, and that left me stunned.
She was also looking at me with surprise, but in her case, I assumed it was because she was waiting for me to say something.
I cleared my throat and asked her what was obvious. Where had my confidence and wit gone?
“Are you the doctor?” I felt so embarrassed that I wanted to hide my bewilderment with arrogance, and the question sounded contemptuous.
“That’s right. My name is Devon Dulcet. I assume you are Aurora’s father,” she responded, but made no attempt to greet me with a handshake as would have been proper in such cases.
The first thing that came to my mind when I heard her last name was that it did her justice, because she clearly seemed like a very sweet woman with children.
“I’m William Cavaller; and yes, I’m Aurora’s father. Explain to me right now what happened to my daughter,” I ordered, because I wasn’t going to show that she had affected me.
“There’s no need to raise your voice, I don’t have hearing problems, Mr. Cavaller,” she stated, leaving me surprised because few people dared to respond to me that way, especially women who always competed for my attention.
“Your daughter is healthy, there’s absolutely nothing physically wrong with her.
You can take a seat here while we finish watching Sleeping Beauty or you can wait outside, whichever you prefer. ”
“What?” I asked, completely bewildered, because not only did she have the audacity to give me orders, but I had no idea what she was talking about.
At that moment, my daughter looked up and met my gaze. Her beautiful little blue eyes made me forget everything else.
“Daddy, daddy,” she said, smiling at me like she rarely did and stretching out her little arm to show me the phone she had in her hand, which I assumed belonged to the doctor.
Although I wanted my daughter to avoid using any technological devices for now, at that moment she looked so happy that I decided to overlook it. I smiled and approached her to greet her with a kiss and lift her into my arms.
“Hello, my love. How are you?”
“Daddy, look,” she said, showing me the little device again.
“Do you want to come with me?” I asked, stretching out my arms to receive her, because she usually adored being in my arms, but...
“No,” she responded with conviction, looking first at the doctor and then at me.
I couldn’t believe it. What had this woman done with my daughter?
“Your daughter is fine, you can relax. The woman who brought her did so as a precaution because Aurora wouldn’t stop crying, but I examined her thoroughly and her crying isn’t due to anything physical,” she informed me, looking at me with self-assurance.
It was obvious she was pleased with Aurora’s refusal to leave her arms, but I had earned that look by treating her the way I did, so I wasn’t offended. The woman had character.
“How old are you?” I asked, because it was obvious she was challenging me, and I wasn’t one to back down from challenges, even from a beautiful woman.
“Excuse me?” she asked, with the typical expression of someone who’s been offended.
“I believe I was clear. I asked your age.”
“And why do you need to know my age?”
“How long have you been practicing medicine?” I insisted.
“Are you suggesting I’m not capable?” she asked, and at that moment I realized that this angel could also transform into a demon because she was looking at me as if she wanted to murder me slowly and painfully.
“My daughter’s doctor is Miranda Nur, and I demand that she be the one to examine her,” I demanded, because Dr. Nur had been treating her since birth and had my complete trust.
“Dr. Nur isn’t at the clinic, but you can call her if you wish. Regarding your daughter’s health, she won’t tell you anything different from what I’ve told you,” she stated firmly.
“Divon, look,” Aurora said, preventing us from continuing our staring contest by putting the phone in front of the doctor’s face.
“She’s a beautiful princess, but not as beautiful as you,” she said, and gently caressed her cheek.
That gesture had already left me amazed, but when I saw Aurora hug and kiss her again, my heart nearly leapt out of my chest. I had never seen my daughter behave like this, and the tenderness I felt cannot be described in words.
It was a new and disconcerting emotion. So disconcerting that I felt we needed to leave there as soon as possible.
“Aurora, we need to go.”
“No,” she said, looking at me seriously.
“Aurora, we need to go home,” I insisted.
“No.”
“We can’t stay here, we have to leave. You have all your toys at home,” I said, but my daughter wasn’t even paying attention to me. “Fine, then I’ll have to pick you up and take you anyway.”
Once again I was paralyzed when Aurora looked at me and hugged the doctor again, clinging to her. With great gentleness, the doctor spoke to her, trying to convince her.
“Aurora, you know what you can do? Ask your daddy to take you shopping and ask him to buy you Princess Aurora’s dress so you can dress up like her. I’m sure it will look beautiful on you.”
“Daddy, daddy, I want Princess Aurora’s dress,” she exclaimed, with a joy I had rarely seen in her.
“Go with your father so you can go buy it,” she said, and very delicately separated her from her body so she would come to me, causing my daughter to stretch her little arms toward me.
“Come here, little one.”
“Well, now you’ll have to take her shopping. Aurora wants the Sleeping Beauty dress, I don’t think it will be too difficult for you to find it.”
“What?” I said, because I still didn’t understand what she was talking about.