CHAPTER 11

Felix

I get up from my bed and go to the bay window.

I look around at all the men who work for us, who are working in the garden and all over the house. The reality is that I am not so oblivious. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have all these luxuries at my fingertips.

I think about my older sister Patricia, the sunshine of the family. I adore her so much because she has always been there for me. She has always had this attentive ear. Ever since we were little, she has always been very protective of me.

I wasn't always so rambunctious, carefree or even oblivious. I would even say that I am very aware actually. Patricia's words this morning, touched me to the core. When I was a child, I was joyful, very bright and alert. Adolescence changed me, yes, but what changed me even more was the death of my father. I shut myself off because as surreal as it sounds, I didn't think he would die one day. Certainly because of the way he made us feel like he was invincible, confident, unassailable. I wanted to be like him, I wanted to be as strong as him, I wanted to start things and make them bloom as much as he did .....

He was my idol. I loved my father more than anything. I had a hard time accepting it, but I had no other choice. Life had taken him away from us and that was that.

Beyond all this money, I have a lot of love for my sister. She acts like my mother, always there to lecture you, to bring you back on the right path, to remind you of this or that.

I still remember that rainy evening when Patricia was at her dance class and Mom and Dad were in their office. I was being punished for taking my computer without Mom's knowledge. She pretended to be angry. But I knew that it was only a facade. I knew that all I had to do was walk up to her and give her my childish pout that would melt her in the blink of an eye.

I was dragging my feet and just as I was about to knock on the door, I heard a word that popped into my head: adopted.

I immediately thought it was me. So I slowed my pace and put my ear to the massive office door.

Mom: .... Honey, I can't believe this innocent child was going to be our greatest treasure.

Dad: well, that's life.... Do you remember her beautiful face at the orphanage that day? You said right away that she was the one you wanted.

When I heard "her" I felt more and more confused.

One thing led to another and I realized that it was Patricia.

Mom:...our beautiful Patricia, I can't imagine our life without her. Nothing happens by chance.

I don't know what exact feeling I had when I heard the news but I turned around in a weary, slow step. I even remember our housekeeper at the time rushing over to me and asking me what was wrong. I was thirteen at the time and had just learned that my sister was an adopted child.

Pablo

I wake up with a bitter taste in my mouth. It takes me some time to remember the events of the day before. These resurface while darkening my face.

Anthony! What have I done now. But I didn't do anything. I'm disappointed. Why did Marita have this reaction? She could have simply told him that nothing had happened. But her silence gave Anthony ideas. I don't even know how to deal with this situation.

I sit down with difficulty on the bed and then a deafening alarm starts to sound throughout the department. What the hell is this? It sounds like a military camp. I get up slowly, staggering. It looked like I had been drinking all night. Which is not the case.

When I get to the living room, I step on the popcorn debris. The ones I ate yesterday with Anthony when we were talking, laughing and giving him advice to seduce Marita.

If there's one thing I hate, it's being called a traitor, and worse falsely accused of something I didn't do and never intended to do. I am disgusted.

I get up and open the door to the apartment, sticking my head through. Everyone else in the hallway as well is at their front doors.

Peligro, a former house rookie, is standing in the hallway.

Peligro (to me): Hey, you think you're in the jungle here? And you're the one who takes all the time like a princess, without even standing in front of your apartment.

The laughter is everywhere.

Me: Sorry, but I'm actually naked.

Peligro: And what do I care?

Me:I....

Peligro (starting to shout): ... WHEN I TALK YOU SHUT UP.

He approaches me and fixes me with a black look in the eyes.

Me: understood!

Peligro: There!

He turns around in the hallway and starts pacing back and forth.

I know what he is trying to do, he is trying to intimidate me. I don't have the time or energy to waste on situations like this. I am here for a more specific purpose and I intend to do everything I can to achieve it.

I meet Anthony's gaze but he takes it away the next second.

A silent pain takes hold of me.

Peligro: I'll meet the Baroness in ten minutes... and the girl there (addressing me)... Don't be a sissy...we won't wait for you.

The laughter starts again and everyone goes to his apartment to get ready.

He doesn't know who he's dealing with. I grew up in the mockery, insults, humiliations, intimidations. So all his circus there is really only water poured on the back of the duck.

But what does Adriana still want to tell us?

Marita

This morning I wake up, all weird. The wickedness of my yesterday's action has just hit me in the face.

Anthony thought that Pablo and I were having an affair. I understand that he was hurt knowing that he is interested in me and that Pablo certainly told him that I didn't say anything to him.

To see such a closeness between us, it surely hurt him.

I felt so bad that I wanted comfort and in a desperate way, I forced things again with Pablo but he was clear from the beginning, he was not interested in me.

The only time I was wrong was when I did nothing to dissuade Anthony from what he was thinking.

I plan to explain things to him. I really hope he wants to hear me out.

This cold atmosphere between us will not be bearable especially since we are a team and we will have to work together.

I still remember Adriana calling me: Cassie.

I fall down the bathroom wall. My tears are streaming profusely. And I hold my hair in my hands. It is very painful. I don't know if I'll ever recover.

A few minutes later, I resign myself to getting out of the bathroom. I think of these ten minutes that we have to get ready and of Adriana who is going to ignite if we show up one second late.... It would not miss any more that she calls me by this cursed first name in front of everyone at the risk of triggering in me an avalanche of foul feelings.

Adriana

In the meeting room, I'm standing with my back to my file in hand. I'm thinking about all these new strategies being put in place.

All it takes is a little hard work and hello millions.

With my legs crossed, I find myself again at that night when my husband died. This feeling of insecurity, of anguish takes hold of me. But I force myself to remain strong, unperturbed.

We were all at that evening with the children. I don't know what he went outside to find. I don't even know where those bodyguards went. But I remember that horrible noise.

There was soft, quiet music in the room, but we heard it clearly, that sound of the gun.

Someone had just been shot. I started to look for my children with my eyes. I saw him at a few distances from me. Our eyes had met and I could read the same questioning on their faces.

Me (addressing my husband):... Honey! ....

As I put my hand on the chair next to me, it was empty. My heart leapt. How is this possible? He was standing next to me just a few minutes ago. I hadn't even noticed he was out.

Nevertheless, I remained unperturbed as usual.

A few minutes later, someone comes and talks to my ear.

-Madam, please! Come and see outside.

I look at the face of the stranger and it is our heart guard. The expression on his face is indecipherable: He has a closed face.

I get up anyway and follow him.

When I get outside, I see a body lying on the ground. Blood is everywhere.

I rush to him and start shouting: It was my husband.

He was lying on the ground in the bath of his blood, inert.

Me (shouting): ...CALL THE AMBULANCE! Why are we paying you morons?

My tears were unstoppable. I was screaming at the top of my lungs.

-Madam, Madam.... He is dead.... Mr. Dos Santos is dead. He was shot in the heart and in the spinal cord, he died immediately.

I gave him blows that he accepted without flinching.

Me: NO, NO, don't tell me that... My kids are inside. How am I going to tell them?

As if I had called them, Patricia and Felix ran towards me and threw themselves on the floor.

It was Patricia's shrill, piercing scream that broke my heart.

Seeing her children suffer so much, not being able to help them because it was a situation I had no control over. A situation that tore my heart out as well as theirs.

Felix was also crying but he couldn't believe how things were going. It was like being in a dream. He didn't want to believe it. Felix was traumatized at that moment.

I can still hear their desperate tears. Our expensive clothes were all stained with the blood of their father, my husband.

At that moment, those who were there saw an Adriana they would never see again. I was devastated because I had just lost my confidant, my man, my best friend.

I realized that the next step would not be easy.

I promised myself that I would never let the Monte Carlo Mafia go under. I promised myself that I would carry on my husband's work. I promised myself to make him proud of me. And above all I promised myself to find that scoundrel who took his life.

-Madam, Madam!...

The sound is almost distant.

-Madam, everyone is here.

I had totally forgotten where I was and the appointment I had given them. I didn't even hear them enter the meeting room.

I use my fingernail to brush away the tear that is about to fall.

I uncross my legs and turn around in the shifting chair.

I put on a cold, hard smile

Me: Good morning ladies and gentlemen!