Chapter 20 #2
“I can control fire and wild horses,” I said, turned around and headed toward where Aurora was, feeling his laughter and his burning gaze on me.
Aurora took my hand and explained that she wanted to collect seashells and colorful pebbles until her beach bucket was full.
This transported me back to my childhood when I used to do the same with my father.
I had an indelible memory of him, and our walks along the shoreline and building sandcastles were among those beautiful memories I would never forget.
While we were collecting, Aurora would run and come back to take my hand.
I couldn’t stop thinking about when I was little and did the same thing.
Summers at the beach were among those few memories where I played with my sister and we had fun like two little sisters should.
Aurora’s voice brought me back to reality.
“Mommy, I want to sit down,” she said, tugging at my hand, and I imagined that after all the running around she was already tired.
“Do you want to go sit with your daddy?” I asked.
“No, here,” she said, sitting down at the shoreline.
“If you want, afterward we can ask your father to help us build a big sandcastle.”
“Yiii,” she said with great joy, while moving her feet and laughing happily.
I sat next to her while the water wet our feet and we laughed. A voice that sounded very familiar to me and that seemed to speak with terrible pleasure made any trace of a smile disappear from my face.
“Hello, my queen.”
I immediately stood up and tried to look at him with an expressionless face and make my voice sound as cold as possible.
“Hello, Lino. How have you been?”
“Now that I see you, much better,” he said, remaining unaltered, and he came closer and gave me a kiss on the cheek, but I noticed that he looked at Aurora who was still sitting on the sand playing with the seashells.
I looked at him through narrowed eyes. I didn’t understand this attitude.
He had completely erased me from his life without any consideration.
That man had made me understand that I was a flawed woman and had even called me selfish for wanting to stay with him without giving him children.
And now he was telling me that seeing me made him feel better?
He was a real imbecile. His words were a tasteless joke that I wasn’t willing to tolerate.
“I’m sorry I can’t say the same,” I stated, looking at him seriously.
“Ouch, that hurt, my queen. I don’t understand your aggression. We were together for many years and…”
“Years that you forgot in the blink of an eye,” I said, without erasing the fake cordial smile I had decided to give him.
“Are you done with the sermon?” he asked, but without getting upset.
“Lino, it’s better if you go back the way you came. We’re not friends or anything like it, and honestly, I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Well, I do want to talk to you. You’re even more beautiful than I remembered.”
I was already getting fed up and was about to say something inappropriate when his voice and his embrace made peace return to my body.
“Good afternoon,” he greeted, with seriousness.
Lino looked at him with arrogance, but competing with William Cavaller’s wasn’t for just anyone.
“William, we were just about to come to you. This is Lino Coller…”
“Her husband,” he said, interrupting me, with a smug smile that made fury run through me from head to toe. What had he just said?!
“Ex-husband, Lino, don’t make mistakes or say things that aren’t true. We’ve been divorced for quite some time.”
“I am her future husband,” William stated firmly, “and I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t address my woman in those terms. Shall we go, my love?” he said, and his protective attitude made me feel a warmth in my soul that I had rarely felt before.
“Yes, let’s go because Aurora is hungry,” I said, and picked Aurora up without paying any more attention to Lino.
“I want to keep playing, mommy,” Aurora asked, and I knew, without looking at him, that the way Aurora had called me was going to throw him off and he wouldn’t be left wondering.
“Mommy? How old is that child?” he asked, and he seemed confused and annoyed.
Did he really just ask that? In the few seconds it took me to analyze his question, I understood that the imbecile suspected that Aurora might be my daughter. I couldn’t believe it! That man was a complete idiot.
I looked at William and noticed that he was also furious and tense, and it didn’t escape me that he was restraining himself, probably because Aurora was there.
I looked at him trying to explain that it wasn’t worth having a bad moment because of him.
Directly, Lino wasn’t worth even one of the seconds we were wasting not enjoying ourselves.
“Goodbye, Lino. Take care,” I said goodbye, and at that moment I looked at William for him to follow me.
The message was understood and he took my hand to start walking away, but Lino couldn’t let us leave without having the last word.
“See you soon, my queen,” he said, and the snide tone with which he said it didn’t escape me.
I didn't understand his behavior, I truly didn't. He had pushed me out of his life and now he seemed to suggest he had some right over me, and worse, some interest in me.
What game was he playing? While my mind was asking all these questions, William had stopped with every intention of going back.
I pulled his hand and managed to stop him, but he didn't stay quiet.
“Coller, I told you to address my woman with respect. She is nothing to you anymore, not your queen nor anything else, you lost that right a long time ago. Devon is my woman.”
“I don't believe I disrespected her, I simply said that because she was and will always be my queen.”
It was evident that Lino had lost his mind or wanted to prove something I couldn't understand.
This time I couldn't prevent William from stepping away to confront him.
I watched in horror as he confronted him.
His fists were clenched and his muscles tense.
The fury with which he looked at him was such that I feared he would knock him down with one blow.
I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I was extremely nervous and sad to have made him go through that moment.
A few minutes later he was by my side and took my hand again to lead us to our umbrella.
“What did you say to him?” I asked.
“To leave you alone, not to mess with my family,” he replied without looking at me.
“I'm sorry about what happened. I didn't think he would behave like that.”
I put Aurora down on a towel and looked at him because he seemed upset.
“Had you seen each other again? I mean, after the divorce.”
“Never. We hadn't seen or spoken to each other. This was just a coincidence.”
William looked back to where Lino had been, but he was no longer there.
“When we leave here, we'll drop Aurora at home and go to the Civil Registry to register. I'd like us to get married as soon as possible,” he stated, maintaining his serious demeanor.
“I hope you're not saying that because of this encounter. I assure you that Lino is part of my past, nothing more, and I also assure you that it's a past I want to forget.”
“Haven't you forgotten him?”
“Him, yes. What I experienced with him is more difficult, but I assure you he gave me all the tools to do it.”
“Then?”
“Then? I don't understand,” I asked, confused.
“Why is it difficult for you to forget what you experienced with that son of a bitch?”
“William, don't talk like that in front of Aurora,” I scolded.
“She's not listening to us,” he said, looking at her, then looked back at me and insisted, “Well?”
“It's not easy to forget pain. I'm not saying everything I experienced with him was bad, because if I did, I'd be lying. But our separation was painful and disillusioning, and that's what's difficult to forget.”
“He seems to still have an interest in you,” he stated.
I shook my head and smiled ironically.
“Even you don't believe what you just said. William, we were married and he was the one who abandoned me. Do you think he could have any interest in me?” At that moment something dawned on me, I don't know if it was a gesture from him or remembering Lino's face when he was talking to me, but I was overwhelmed with anguish and couldn't hide it.
“I understand now, what you're saying is that I'm not good enough as a wife, but he might be interested in continuing to sleep with me,” I stated.
“After all, if he happens to have a partner, he can rest easy because I won't complicate things with pregnancies. Is that it? Is that what you think?”
“I didn't say that.”
“Then tell me, what interest could a person who abandoned you because you couldn't give him children have?”
“I don't know,” he said, shaking his head, “and that's what worries me, because in his eyes I could identify the desire he feels for you.”
“And in mine? What did you identify in my look?”
He looked at me seriously, as if he were evaluating me and thinking very carefully about his answer.
“No; you just seemed nervous and upset.”
“And I was. It wasn't pleasant to run into him. In our last conversations, he was very hurtful,” I said, and a flash of anger crossed his blue eyes.
“Lino awakens nothing in me... nothing, not even resentment anymore. A great friend once told me that for every disappointment, there are new hopes waiting to bloom, and with you I was able to confirm she was very right,” I affirmed, caressing one of his cheeks with my hand.
“Thank you for taking care of me, because I know you did today and I felt protected. I love you.”
William came closer and kissed my lips.
“Promise me that if you run into him again, you'll let me know immediately. I don't like that guy, he was looking at you in a way I didn't like, as if he could claim you as his.”