Chapter 87

Two days later, a man in a suit, in a black Audi, ambles into the Williams mansion. Arriving at the door, he is ushered into Kiki’s office, where the woman greets him with a smile.

-I’ll ask them to bring Luz, here they can talk without anyone bothering them.

-I don’t want to bother her, I know she’s a busy woman.

-Don’t worry, I can handle my business from anywhere in my mansion. I’ll send something for you and after that, no one else will interrupt you, until you’re done.

The woman walks out elegantly, while Luz walks around her room, looking at the phone, from where she has sent several messages to Rafael, but he doesn’t answer them.

Chloe knocks on her door, announcing a visit and that she is waiting for her in Mrs. Williams’ office. Luz feels that she is going to give her something, because only one person could want to look for her. With that mix of fear and excitement that she felt when she first met Gerard, she heads downstairs, but she can’t hide her disappointment that it’s Dan.

-Light – he tells her with a slight nod – -Dan, I’m afraid you’re a little far from home, aren’t you? – she surrounds him and sits on a comfortable sofa -.

is -I am afraid that the circumstances force me, but in reality I am here for loyalty and for a promise that I made to my friend.

Luz stirs uncomfortably and looks out the window, she doesn’t want to ask and the truth is that she doesn’t need to. Dan pulls up a chair, places it in front of her, and begins to speak.

-About five months ago I convinced Gerard to accompany me to a party, he had been in mourning for five years and I just wanted him to be distracted.

“Very reluctantly he agreed. But there isn’t a day that I don’t regret doing it.

-Excellent distraction – Luz tells him sarcastically, but Dan denies it and sighs -.

-I need you to listen to me with an open mind, only then can we help Gerard – she finally looks at him and sees Dan’s worried face -. That night, Gerard only planned to have a couple of drinks and go home.

However, I wanted him to be completely distracted and, due to his oversight, I put this in him – he shows Luz a small capsule and she frowns -. It’s not a drug, it’s a natural stimulant that my grandfather used.

“I got Gerard to agree to hang out with one of the local girls, you know, the escorts. I know he wanted to kill me, because my friend had never been with a woman other than Margaret in his life. But I was willing to deal with it.” with the consequences after he broke free a little.

“Five years seeing it go out, it wasn’t something easy for me – he looks at his hands and then at Luz -.

Minutes later I saw him appear, he was pale and excited, he told me to accompany him to the private room and he went crazy when he couldn’t find someone. the girl he had abused.That same night, Gerard was going to turn himself in to the police, but I didn’t let him.

“I told him to wait and if the complaint appeared, I would tell myself what happened. I dedicated myself to tracking hospitals and police stations. But the girl never appeared.

-Because he never filed a complaint or went to a hospital. I didn’t want to, I was ashamed.

-Gerard imagined it, but after all the commotion, he realized that you were drugged, someone was going to do the same as Gerard, only without remorse.

” He put me to investigate and we found a drug network, we found a series of antecedents and we found the head of the operation and the distributor, even who doped you.

“Rickon Bowman is the son of Henry Bowman, a very dangerous mobster, but lately he has become stupid. He has not found out that for weeks the prosecutor has locked up his son, he got the last information he knows from Rickon, with so that they protect him in jail.

“You know what happens to a rapist in jail?

-They do the same to their victims – Luz answers in a low voice –

-Worse if he is responsible for twenty-five, you could have been number twenty-six, but you fell into Gerard’s arms that night.

“I’m not saying it was luck, but at least that made us investigate and go to give justice to twenty-five girls, who were drugged and abused by that bastard.

-So, they’re playing superheroes – she tells him almost mockingly, she wants to cry, but she can’t do it now, not in front of him -.

-None of that – he answers with annoyance -. Look, if I’m here telling you all this, it’s because I’m making it clear that the only person responsible for what happened to you is me. And don’t think it’s because of my friendship with Gerard, so that you come back to him running into his arms, because it’s clear to me that you won’t.

“This is because that man is my brother and I am not going to let you continue to believe that it is only his fault. If you think that it is male solidarity, I tell you that there is a limit, I could lose my license, be convicted, lose my reputation and all that right now is worth a hat, if with that I can save my friend from going to jail..

“Any common criminal would deserve it, of course they do, but he is not a criminal and besides, he has a daughter – Dan begins to shed silent tears and turns around so that Luz can’t see -. If I thought that my friend was a living dead for five years, I was completely wrong… now he is much worse than that, hell climbed up to that room and is going to follow him wherever he goes.

Luz looks at Dan and understands everything he is telling her.

Swallowing her pride, letting the tears fall, she walks over to the man and grabs his arm to make him turn around. They stare at each other for a few seconds, until she hugs him, as if he were in the middle of a storm and he was her lifeline, the only one for miles around.

Why didn’t you tell me anything? – That is the question that has been going around since he began to tell her all that -.

– For an idiot, I don’t know – he walks with her to the sofa and they sit down, without taking their eyes off the Persian rug -. When he found out it was you, one night you had a nightmare, he went crazy. On the one hand, because he couldn’t believe that fate was so likely to make him fall in love with that girl he had been looking for so long, and on the other, because he was going to be a father.

“I guess that’s why he kept quiet, to try to extend those happy moments with you as long as possible, as a way to save for when the sad ones came, but apparently they weren’t enough to keep him strong.

“You should have told me as soon as you found out.”

-Would you have reacted differently? – Luz remains thoughtful for a few minutes, until she manages to answer–The truth is that I don’t know, maybe yes or maybe not, but it would definitely have been better to find out through her mouth than seeing that mask in her hands. her. Why did she keep her? “Tests,”

Dan says with a shrug. To torment herself, to not forget what she did to you… I don’t know anymore.

-Dan, I need to go with him, with my princess… I’m dying to hug her.

-It seems to me that I can help you immediately – he tells her smiling –

They get up, go looking for Kiki to tell her that Luz is going back to New York with Dan and she sends to prepare food for the trip, because Luz can’t eat anything, according to her.

As soon as they’re ready, they head out to Dan’s car, but stop when their phones both ring simultaneously.

Dan responds to a very upset Dorothy and Luz to a tired Matías. Both to give the same news:

Gerard turned himself in to the police for rape.