4. An Obvious Answer

"You don't have a room, Elena," he tells her to get her used to it, "you sleep with the boss."

More terror, she felt. He was slowly plunging into a pit with no way out, in a constant spiral of bad news, each one worse than the last.

"Come on, he has to be anxious now," he continues to tell her and takes her arm again, this time, he has to pull her harder, she doesn't want to walk.

They go downstairs and start walking down a long hallway, the hallway of her sentence, or at least, that's how she feels. They stop in front of two huge doors and Pablo gently knocks on them with his knuckles.

"Go ahead," announces a hoarse but calm voice from within

"Please remember everything I told you," Pablo repeats, almost in a whisper, before turning the doorknobs and giving him a look inside. Immediately, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 envelops her tightly as if this were the first attack received.

His brow furrows. How is it possible that someone so terrible can have such good taste? Perhaps, to his own luck, Paul was exaggerating only in an attempt to prepare her for the worst.

"Oh! At last my butterfly is back in the rosebush – as husky as her voice is, there is a soft tone to it, which makes her feel a little more confident – come closer, please. He says, as he gestures to Pablo with his hand to get him to leave, an order that Pablo fulfills before the gesture is finished, closing the huge doors behind him.

Amanda takes a strong breath in an attempt to fill herself with courage and walks towards Alejo, not going to give him time to have to repeat it to her. He stops a few steps away from him, who has already surrounded his bureau and is leaning against it.

"You got away with it, didn't you?"

Couldn't the conversation have started any other way? Now she has no idea what to do, whether to answer him truthfully or keep silent.

"Answer me, you fucking bitch!"

The sweet tone that had anchored her a few minutes ago no longer existed, there was not a hint of it, instead rage reigned now, both in her voice and in her expression as she grasped it with strength from her jaw.

"Did you think I wouldn't find you, that I'm one of those thugs out there?!" You don't know me very well, you hadn't gotten into that taxi yet and I was already following you," the voice echoes against the walls, echoing

"I... I didn't mean to do it," she replies quickly panicked, and the most malevolent laugh she's ever heard ever comes straight out of his throat. What has she gotten herself into?

For what seemed like a couple of minutes, devilish laughter reigned in that room, until, all of a sudden, she felt a pain all over the right side of her face incomparable to anything she had ever felt before.

His arm shot out from below into the sweet girl's face, causing her to fall to the ground from the blow. Instinctively, she brings her hand towards the pain of the blow only to discover that a trickle of blood is coming from her lower lip that begins to tremble accompanied by a few tears that she cannot contain.

He shouldn't have hesitated, he shouldn't have thought that what Paul had told him was exaggeration, in fact, he had surely fallen short. No doubt this was what he meant when he told her that, if found, it would be difficult to handle.

"Shut up, bitch! Did I tell you you could talk? How many times do I have to tell you that when I speak, everyone has to be silent? The only time you're allowed to respond to me is when I'm you. You're just my whore, you know? The only thing that keeps you alive now is the fact that you are the mother of my child, my heir.

"Son?"

The question came out of Amanda's mouth before she could realize it. By the time she brought both hands to her lips it was too late, he had already heard her. He closed his eyes tightly as he waited for the next blow, or perhaps, his death, but it wasn't.

"What do you mean?" My wish was to have a miniature version of me, someone I could teach everything to from a young age, a son who could take care of my legacy. Tell me that's what you gave me. Amanda doesn't dare to answer, just a few minutes ago he had given her a terrible slap for doing so, she doesn't want to earn a second.

"But did you have your ears plugged today?" Answer me!

"She's a baby, a girl, not a boy

"Aren't you even good for that?"

He walked up to her quickly and grabbed her by the top of her hair, as close to her skull as he could, and dragged her across the floor until she was next to the bureau. The scream accompanied her until he let go of her only to take her by the arms and bring her to her feet.

He pushed her until his lower back was against the edge of the wood, which was hurting him, and, as if it were an old habit of Alejo's, he held her hard by the chin again.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

This time, when she spoke her words she spat in his face making her stomach churn again and again, having to make the greatest effort not to vomit on him, she was sure that this would be her death sentence.

"Lo..." she pauses briefly to study Alejo's reaction, it doesn't look like he's going to hit her again, at least not for now, "I'm so sorry. She is ready to tell him, as she wonders if this man is still in the stone age thinking that she as a woman is the one who gives the gender of the baby. He's accusing her when, in fact, the responsibility falls on his shoulders, but he can't tell her.

"It doesn't matter, you're lucky that you're hot enough to want to have another child with you and that you put me on as much, just like I do now. He says as he takes one of her hands and leads it straight to her hardness, drawing a smile on her face. "You feel it, don't you, bitch?" There's something strange about you today, I don't know what it is, like giving birth has changed you, you're more divine.

The disgust and revulsion she felt when his saliva accidentally fell on her face is nothing compared to what it is now. He has to muster all his strength to stand firm while his mind thinks over and over again about what to do to free himself.

He pulls his face closer to hers and runs his filthy, filthy tongue all over his face, over his lips, down his neck, and over the V on his chest.

"I'm going to take you right here," he tells her as he begins to rip all over her blouse with his big hands.

Amanda feels weak, she feels useless as she tries to hinder her work and repeats "no" a thousand times. His first time can't be with this monster in front of him. Life can't make her suffer so much, she doesn't deserve it.

Another punch goes straight to the same side of his face, but, this time, he's able to stay on his feet.

"You have only one duty here, and that is to satisfy me!" Do you understand? He snapped, as he grabbed her by the neck and squeezed tightly, his eyes wide open.

"M-i sir," she manages to say almost breathlessly and he lets go of her. She immediately brings her hand to the area of pain and, after swallowing a couple of times, succeeds in finding her own voice. "I haven't forgotten my duty to you, only that, right now, I'm very weak and being with you could bring me devastating consequences, not being able to come out in a state again would be one of them. I want to give you the heir you want so much, let me rest for a few days and I promise that we will not stop until we achieve it

"Very well," he replies to her surprise, "until that time passes, disappear from my sight."

This time, he didn't have to tell her twice, she nodded her head and shot off into the baby's room. Apparently, this time, luck was with her, she just hopes it doesn't abandon her...