Devoted Love, Mr. Hayes’ Darling Wife

Estrella Berrocal leaned on his shoulder and they chatted, talking a lot.

Adán Rouco remains silent.

Estrella Berrocal reached out and gently cupped his face, asking curiously, “Adam, why are you ignoring me?”

Adán Rouco did not answer him, he only asked, “Is it cold?”.

Estrella Berrocal shook her head, “I’m not cold.”

He reached out his little hand and caught several snowflakes, then mischievously pushed the cold little hand towards Adam Rouco’s neck.

Estrella Berrocal looked at him with a smile, “Are you cold?”.

Adán Rouco, however, hugged her even tighter, turning her gently against his body and carrying her more firmly, and only returned two words in an affectionate tone, “Begging to be beaten.”

Estrella Berrocal helped the unmelted white snowflakes in her short black hair and brushed them aside with a wave of her hand. “Adam, your hair is really all white.”

All I got was a faint “hmm” from the man.

Estrella Berrocal leaned close to his ear and said, “I have heard that lovers who turn white with the first snows will turn white in old age. But sometimes I wonder if you are eight years older than I am, and when we get to old age, you will go before me, and then I will be so lonely and even forlorn.”

Adam Rouco paused in his stride, glanced slightly sideways, through the wind and snow, at the small woman he carried on his shoulder and said, in a single word, “I will not leave you before.”

His look, unmistakably serious.

Estrella Berrocal didn’t notice and just rambled on, “Then you have to keep your word, if you leave first by then, I find an old partner again!”

“If I go before you, I’ll take you before I go.”

“Adán Rouco, you are so cruel that I suddenly regret having married you.”

“You’re so unintelligent that if I leave, you’re going to get bullied, and I’m doing it for your sake.”

Estrella Berrocal leaned over his shoulder, looked at the handsome side of his face and, for no apparent reason, smiled sweetly.

…

It was after 7 p. m. when we returned to The Villas at Repulse Bay and a thin white blanket wrapped the roofs of the houses outside.

Estrella Berrocal offered: “Don’t you want to eat boiled eggs with mugwort tonight? I’m a little sleepy and I’d like to take a bath and go to bed afterwards”.

Adán Rouco’s eyes darkened slightly and he said, “It’s okay not to eat for a day, the doctor says you’re fine, go take a shower and go to bed early.”

Maybe Adán Rouco was too good at hiding it, or maybe Estrella Berrocal trusted him too much to suspect anything.

“I’m not going to eat then, I’m going to take a shower oh”.

“Hmm.”

Estrella Berrocal took a shower and went straight to bed. Adán Rouco went to the studio to take care of his work and she stayed in bed for a while before falling asleep.

In the studio, Adán Rouco phoned Santino Yepes.

“Make arrangements to schedule the abortion for this week.”

After hanging up the phone, Adán Rouco stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out at the falling snowflakes with a cold gaze that contained a great sadness.

…

In an instant, Estrella Berrocal heard Adán Rouco calling her.

“Po, po?”

Estrella Berrocal frowned, felt an itch on her face, reached up to push the man’s face and mumbled, “Well … stop … I’m still trying to sleep … …”

The man’s thin lips, had intermittently fallen on her cheeks and lips.

Estrella Berrocal’s eyes snapped open at the breathlessness of the kiss.

“Well…”

Reach out, push it.

The man in front of her, his eyebrows full of tenderness, looked at her with a smile, “Good morning.”

Estrella Berrocal shuddered and got goose bumps.

Wait… what did Adán Rouco just call her, Po?

This, this, this… This man is not Adán Rouco!

“You, you’re another personality?”

Nor was it Jerold Rouco, who could never have called her Po, nor could he have said good morning to her with such gentleness.

The other man clasped her in his arms, his dark eyes burning with affection as he said, word for word, “I’m Lorenzo Rouco, you can call me Lorenzo, I’m more than happy.”

“…”

The corners of Estrella Berrocal’s mouth twitched and she got goose bumps.

… Lorenzo Rouco?

Estrella Berrocal recalled, “Yo, we met once!”.

Lorenzo Rouco smiled slightly; they had met more than once.

Still, it was enough for him to remember that they had met once.

Estrella Berrocal stood up and stared at him, “Was it you who called me, called me Po, back in S.?”

Lorenzo Rouco was frank enough to admit: “Yes”.

When she stepped back a little, he moved closer until, as Estrella Berrocal approached the edge of the bed and almost fell off, Lorenzo Rouco wrapped his arms around her slender waist and pulled her back.

“Am I so scary to you that you have to be so far away from me?”

Estrella Berrocal felt tremendously uncomfortable, even though that man shared a body with Adán Rouco, and Lorenzo Rouco, technically, was Adán Rouco, but Estrella Berrocal could not get past the point in her mind and pushed him slightly away, saying. “You, don’t come near me, you stay out of it.”

This Lorenzo Rouco, by the looks of it, gets along better than Jerold Rouco, but Estrella Berrocal doesn’t know him yet and doesn’t know how to get along with him.

She pulled up the sheets and got out of bed in anger, with the result that wherever she went, Lorenzo Rouco followed her.

Estrella Berrocal was unable to call Esteban Zaragosa at any time while he was under surveillance.

Estrella Berrocal had been walking from one side of the house to the other for more than half an hour, with her head in her hands, saying: “I beg you to stop following me”.

Lorenzo Rouco approached her with a vaguely pained expression under his eyes, “Are you trying to call the doctor to have me put back in jail?”

“…”

Estrella Berrocal was astonished: “You, how did you know? No, of course I didn’t.

Lorenzo Rouco took her small hand in his and said, “Don’t kill me, okay? I just want to be with you.

Estrella Berrocal: “…”

This Lorenzo Rouco is so different from the character of Adán Rouco and Jerold Rouco!

I can’t believe how soft it is!

If Jerold Rouco had known she was going with Esteban Zaragosa, he would have tied her up, but this Lorenzo Rouco, with all the pleading and tenderness in his eyes …

Estrella Berrocal bit her lip, took a deep breath and said, “Yo, I can stop calling, but…. can you tell me why you’re out all of a sudden?”

“Normally, when Adán Rouco is extremely sad and upset, I show up.”

Very sad and upset?Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

But yesterday, Adam was fine.

“Adam was in a normal mood yesterday. Besides, that time in S. Adam was also in a good mood.”

Lorenzo Rouco explained, “What happened yesterday, I’m not sure, but the time in S., it was because he was in the bathroom showering and he saw the burn on his right arm and he was curious about that burn scar and because his conscience took him, I was in the bathroom that day.”

Estrella Berrocal frowned: “Burns? What do the burns on Adam’s right arm have to do with you?”.

Lorenzo Rouco’s eyes were suddenly fixed on hers: “We met, not once, but three times”.

“What did you say?”

“We met when you were fourteen.”