Chapter Seventeen part 1/2

"What are you talking about?"

"There's no use lying Lucas, because I overheard your conversation with a certain Milena. You have a son is that it?"

"Yes Marina, I do."

She remains silent for a few seconds and then says:

"Why didn't you tell me anything?"

"I was afraid love. Of you not wanting me, I'm sorry."

"Look, I'm pretty hurt about it. I don't mind you having a child, as long as you didn't cheat on me, but hiding it from me?!How do you expect me to trust you by lying like that?"

"I know I was wrong not to tell you, but it's just that I haven't heard from my son in a while."

"I need some time. I don't know if I want to do this anymore."

"Okay, I understand. Will you tell your parents?"

"No, but let's go inside, because I don't want them to notice anything."

The two walk in silence to the living room and the girl goes into the kitchen, while her parents are talking to Lucas.

Marina keeps her distance from Lucas the entire time he has been at their residence.

When it's time for him to leave, he pulls her in and hugs her, saying:

"I'm sorry Mari. I really am. I should have told you, but I didn't know she was coming back. When she got pregnant she didn't tell me anything, she just broke up with me and I didn't understand. I only knew about this child a week before you came into my life."

"Lucas, let's talk later, okay? Next week I'm going to Sete Lagoas and it will be good for us to put our minds in order.

"I'll miss you.

"Will you really go?"

"Don't doubt it my princess, I love you."

"See you later, bye."

She leaves his arms and doesn't even wait for him to get into his car and enters the house going straight to her room and begins to cry.

She falls asleep after a few hours and only wakes up when her cell phone wakes her up reminding her that she has class.

She gets up, takes a shower slowly, gets ready and leaves home without eating breakfast.

She decides to go by bike and arrives at school in 30 minutes. She puts the lock on the bike and goes to class.

Lucas arrives and sits down next to her, but she pretends not to see him. He tries to talk to her, but she ignores him.

Marina is very sad about all this and can't wait to be with her brother.

She does her exams, but during the break she doesn't even leave the room. She picks up her headset and puts on a song called Victory Time by Nayara Yamamoto.

She doesn't even notice when someone approaches her.

"I guess you already found out, huh?"

"Yes Diego, but he didn't even have to tell me, because I saw everything, but he confessed to me afterwards."

"I told you he couldn't be trusted, but you didn't listen. Did you break up?"

"Not exactly. We just took a break. I'm going to visit my brother and it will be good to put my mind at rest."

"I understand. If you need me I'm here okay?"

He leaves without waiting for her to answer him and Mari continues listening to the songs of this singer mentioned above. One of them is called If I Have to Rise from the Throne.

She sings a little part of the chorus:

[...] A if you only knew what I'm capable of doing, to prove that I love you....

Class starts again and she finishes the last test, and since today they are going to visit a museum in the afternoon, she decides to go to the cafeteria and buy a can of Coke and a baked snack.

She puts the materials in her backpack and goes to the yard to wait for the school bus to arrive so they can go on the trip.

The biology teacher Janete asks the students to form their pairs to sit on the bus and soon Lucas approaches her.

- "Can we go on the bus together?"

"Yes."

"Why are you avoiding me the whole class?"

"You know why."

The bus arrives in a few minutes and the teacher makes the call and the students position themselves in their seats on the bus.

The vehicle continues its journey to the museum in downtown Nova Friburgo.

During the trip she realizes that she is not feeling well, and then remembers that she has been fasting since last night, but decides not to eat, because she is not hungry.

When she arrives, everyone gets off the bus and heads towards the museum.

They put their backpacks on the balcony and take the elevator to the fourth floor.

When they arrive, the teacher separates the class into two groups of twenty students.

Marina asks the teacher to go to the bathroom and as soon as she enters, she feels a strange sensation, as if she were going to faint.

She tries to hold on to something, but she throws herself off balance in the bathroom doorway and falls to the floor unconscious.

Lucas Narrating:

We are on the school walk, and suddenly my girlfriend asks to go to the bathroom and I stand waiting for her near a painting.

It is very old. From the nineteenth century, from a very important family, by the way. They wear very formal clothes and the woman wears a very puffy outfit.

I wonder what it would be like if I had been born in this century, but I soon come out of my trance when I feel that something is wrong.

I don't really know what it is, but I have a bad feeling and I'm starting to wonder why Marina hasn't come out of the bathroom yet and it's been twenty minutes since she went in there.

Since I can't go into a women's restroom, I try to look through the door and am startled to see her lying on the floor unconscious.