Valentina

"How could you?" Agustin scoffed, turning away from his door.

I expected him to bang it over my face but he was gracious enough to keep it open. I walked into his room. Welcomed with the sight of rock band posters and musicians that perched on all parts of the wall, I was surprised. Never did I picture him to be a music lover but standing in his room, I replayed one of my biggest mistake of judging him too soon.

Agustin watched from his peripheral vision as I walked and took the view of his room. As opposed to mine, his didn't have any instruments residing at the corner. He turned, shutting his hardbound book forcefully to register his annoyance.

I had disappointed him at various times. He had asked me for help with Sofia and I did the opposite of that. Not only did I break his heart, I did it all wrong.

"Agustin, what I said outside.."

"I don't care," he held his hand up. With a voice that intonated with each word, he moved closer. "What I don't get was how you played me. How you let me lead onto her, thinking she liked me and then," he blew up his hands, onto both sides, resembling an explosion. "You knew what I felt and yet."

Walking away, he tossed the book that stayed at the table. It fell with a loud thud bouncing off only to emerge open in the middle. It resonated with the situation we were in. Agustin wanted me at one point during my initial phase of marriage. He moved onto Sofia when she arrived and his pent up feelings opened up again, right where he left them. Right in the middle.

"Oh fucking hell," he cried into his palms that hid his face. I sat next to his chair, kneeling on the floor. "You must be thinking how pathetic I am," uncovering his face, his crimson face and eyes met me. "Always chasing after the girl who wouldn't have me, ever."

It hurt me to know that he was hurting. Agustin was the few who made me feel comfortable in this place even when I treated everyone as the enemy. In a way, he was my savior and I was it pained inside my chest, seeing him hurt. I was hurting the godsend, my guardian angel.

"You know what," I picked up his fallen face to face me. "There are many others out there." I said, unconvinced myself of that statement.

He smirked, knowing fully well it was only words that were meant to make him feel better for a while. The hurt would linger for long. It would invoke wretched feelings inside his chest, every time he'd see her. There would be even days where hurting her would rule his mind. But eventually, all of that would fade into that one day where he would find solace in the arms of someone, who would be rightfully his.

Agustin nodded sidewise, letting out a fake smirk for me. Upon hearing my name yelled out, I knew it was Antonio who was asking around for me. Since yesterday, he would hollowed my name to get my attention. In a sweet yet irritating way, I adored that gesture.

Walking back, I turned to check on Agustin once more. He waved his hand, asking me to leave. My heart couldn't leave without one final attempt to make him feel better. "The right one in is just around the corner."

He turned to look out the window, smiling. "Ya, I can see her." 

Agustin's mockery resonated in me as I walked back to Antonio's voice.

He stood in front of his room, looking out the window. Upon my approach, his face lightened up. "There you are," he lent me his hand, pulling me closer. "I was looking for you." Leaning in, he whispered. "Where were you?"

My whole body was like a stoked furnace over which, his whispery aired words rekindle fire. Antonio knew just how well his whispers worked for me. Always the loud and the yeller, he held my puppet strings every time his voice lowered. I could feel the rumbling inside his chest, a cat purring which stirred my body alight.

"I was with Agustin." I said, running the pad of my thumb over his clean shaven face. He obliged when I complained about his stubble. His forehead cringed in confusion. Patting his chest, I answered, "Sofia matters."

Bobbing his head, he coiled his hand around my waist, reducing our distance. "I have a meeting,"

"I know. The one with everyone."

Being part of the allies club, as Ramon used to call, Antonio would meet them once a year with his decisions and strategies. This was his first meet. There were times when Antonio appeared human with his hands fidgeting and teeth digging onto the skin's flesh, while reading up on each member. Before that, I assumed Antonio never felt a thing, let alone be nervous or scared.

"I wish you could have come," he nuzzled his head into the crook of my neck. "It would have been fun." Biting into the tender skin near my shoulder, he made me writhe under his touch.

"Fun for you," I looked up. "I would be cooped up in some hotel room till your meeting was done." I pushed his back, tugging him onto the door of his room.

Turning the knob, we trampled in, giggling. His hand roamed over my body while mine held his face, kissing him. He groaned. I felt his aroused.

"Come with me," he whispered, knowing well what he was doing. "I will take you to the meeting."

As much as I craved, wanting to jump into his arms, chanting yes, there were things that needed to be taken care of. Elena matters to be precise.

She still hadn't contacted me and there were things that I wanted to confirm before telling the family about her existence. She had appeared at the time the deal with the Italians was finalized and Santos was on the verge of removal. The twins were clearly her pawns, placed as per her wish. With missing puzzle pieces laying around, I wanted it to all sorted. I wanted to find the puppet master.

And the best time was when all three men left the house. It was the time when I could use Nico's help to know more.

"I can't," I reluctantly placed my hand over his chest, pushing his back. "You are getting late, Anto."

"I don't want to leave, cariño." He nuzzled his nose onto my neck, tickling me with the cold tip. "Put me out of my misery."

What was he doing to me?

Always the stoic and expressionless man, my husband was acting opposite to what he always appeared before. He had opened his heart, read mine and made me feel the most vulnerable. At this point, all I could say was I had fallen. Hard and deep.

Irretrievable and irrevocable.

After another embrace, one which took my breath and heart away, Antonio walked out, letting me stand alone in his room. I looked around his place before closing the door and walking back to mine.

A neatly wrapped black box sat on my bed, bow held a card. My stomach produced butterflies, all of which danced around as I opened the card.

'It maybe too late to say this but I you are being watched. Don't do anything stupid.

E'

With a lightening pace, I rushed to my balcony. The trail of black vehicles had moved away. Antonio had left. I walked back in, shredding the gift wrapping to check the contents of the box. A burner phone with a note.

I will call you soon, hung from it.

Rushing out, I walked towards the outhouses. Gabriel had left with Antonio and the boys but Mateo stayed back. I knocked on his door continuously till he opened it.

"What," shoved the door open before his mind registered who it was that stood at his doorstep. With a hand that clung onto the towel on his wet torso, he called me in with wide eyes and slurred words. "Sorry, I thought Agustin was pranking me again."

I walked in silently, placing Elena's note on the table. "I found it on my bed."

With a calm voice, I tried controlling the upheaval inside. How was someone able to breach the protection of the mansion security? Were we that vulnerable?

"Find out who kept it there."

Mateo nodded before darting into his room. His muffled voice escaped through the door. "Any idea who it might be?"

I scoffed, "If I knew, don't you think that person would have been hanging upside down by now?"

He slid out, nearly dressed in a white shirt and jeans. Partially dried, his cotton attire clung onto his body. Picking up the card, he read the message aloud. "Whose E?"

Elena is E. She was smart not to sign her name. This was her message to me, to show how she could still manipulate things to trouble me. I was on the fence about telling Antonio. But with her challenge, an open one over to my side, I took it upon me to take her down.

Knowing what her plan was, I needed to gain her trust. An intelligence agent, she was trained to see the lies and deceit. I had to play carefully, more than ever. With traitors in the house and in the family, anything I did would be informed to her.

Turning to Mateo, I replied. "I don't know who E is. Find out and only report to me for this."

I was taking a chance with him. Gabriel and Mateo's undying loyalty towards Antonio made him indispensable, yet, it was nobody else I could trust on it. With Mateo's funny salute of a fluttering wing, I walked out.

In my room, I saw Sofia pacing around. Seeing me, she smiled and walked ahead.

"I was told that my marriage-"

I nodded at her words, halting her stride and speech.

Antonio came up with the plan to confirm her marriage. Although that would be our last resort, we knew that if she was in contact with Santos, he would want to get her back than getting her married to Alejandro.

"Yes, you will marry him in a couple of months. Maria would know more details." I walked inside, fetching the gift and shoving it inside my closet. Sofia moved back, waiting for me to talk further. My eyebrows twitched, watching her stand as a statue in the middle of the room.

"I know you are angry," she spoke softly. "But tell me, Val. If you were in my place, wouldn't you do what I did? Wouldn't you try an escape? Will you simply submit to the oppressions because two families and their egos are bigger than a girl who was held captive?"

Sofia's words were to the point, striking the win. I resonated on the inside, accepting her argument but outside, I was a beacon of the Moralez loyalty. Agreeing to her would be accepting that we were wrong. Sometimes accepting being wrong was worse than being wrong itself.

I waved my hand, dismissing her. With teary eyes, she walked out. Outside the boundaries of my door, her feet dashed towards her comfort place in this whole mansion. The garden.

I could see from my balcony, her rushed steps and witnessed her fall onto the grass, wailing. Captivity was only getting to her now. Her fate was sealed the day she landed in this country. She didn't do anything wrong. The only thing what was wrong with Sofia was the part of the family she stood with, carried the last name of.

Salazars were not to be trusted, Antonio had told. I considered Sofia to be different, naïve, till the day she attempted her escape. Now I knew better than to trust her. From my room, I watched her sob onto the ground and wipe her tears. It killed me on the inside, unable to console her.

But there were times when duty to the family took precedence over love for a fellow beings. I realized today, I was always a Moralez by blood. 

~

And our girl is back, being loyal to her name, to her bound blood. 

You think it would last? 

Or it will wither away?