Devoted Love, Mr. Hayes’ Darling Wife

The dim candlelight reflected off her small, white face as she looked at the cake and said, “I don’t have any wishes.”

Severo Laris’ long, slender arms rested on the back of the chair she was sitting in, leaning close to her, a gesture so intimate it was as if he was wrapping his arms around her.

He looked at her and said, “How could you not have a wish?”

Paula Rouco turned her head to look at him, “My wish is to ask you to please stay away from me, will you help me fulfill my wish?”

A dark look crossed Severo Laris’ gaze, but it was quickly disguised, “I promise you anything but that.”

Paula Rouco blew out the candles.

Severo Laris turned on the light, “I’m going to serve the food, I’ve made the rice with pork mince and pickled beans that you like so much.”

She waited for Severo Laris to bring up the finished hot dish and hand it to her.

Paula Rouco looked at the less-than-perfect strawberry tart on the table and said, “This is an ugly tart to make.”

Severo Laris was not offended by the antipathy, but smiled slightly and said, “You have to be understanding because this is the first time I’ve done something like this. I spent an afternoon learning in a pastry shop and failed several times, so much so that even the pastry chef advised me to give up.”

He is successful enough to be seen as he is now.

Severo Laris admits he’s a bad hand at doing this, and the cream doesn’t come out right.

When she kept quiet, Severo Laris said, “It’s not long lasting, but it shouldn’t taste bad, do you want to try it?”

She didn’t refuse and Severo Laris sat down in the chair next to her, took the plastic knife with which the cake was cut, cut a slice with fresh strawberries and placed it on the porcelain plate in front of her.

Paula Rouco took a bite with her fork and it didn’t taste bad.

Severo Laris asked, “Is it good?”

Paula Rouco said, “It’s much worse than the ice cream cake I had at home.”

“Then next time I’ll learn how to make an ice cream cake.”

Severo Laris is patient to the extreme and treats her better than he did seven years ago.

Severo Laris served her rice with minced pork and pickled beans.

Paula Rouco refuses: “I don’t eat that.”

This came as a bit of a surprise to Severo Laris, who clearly remembered that seven years ago he loved rice with minced pork and pickled beans.

“What’s wrong?”

Paula Rouco threw out words, “Diaphragm.”

Severo Laris was momentarily perplexed, but did not think deeply on the matter, thinking she was resisting because rice with minced pork and pickled beans would remind her of her old days.

It was her birthday, she was the birthday girl, and Severo Laris did not want to bring back unpleasant memories of her.

So he said, “Then don’t eat this, eat something else.”

Tonight’s dishes, though simple, were homemade and appetizing.

Shredded potatoes with green peppers, scrambled eggs with tomato, jump broccoli, Steamed ribs with noodles, braised shrimp and a small green vegetable soup.

Severo Laris took a plate of prawns and peeled them himself, quickly taking out a plate full of prawn meat and putting it in front of her.

Paula Rouco said, “I’m not hungry.”

“You have to eat something even if you’re not hungry.”

“I’m not going to eat.”

“The kitchen has made a seaweed soup Yam ribs, I’ll bring it.”

Severo Laris got up and went to the kitchen.

Paula Rouco looked at the plate of prawns in front of her and bit her lip, the prawns looked fresh and soft with a spicy sauce.

She popped one in her mouth.

And after that, he ate another.

When Severo Laris approached with the soup, his chopsticks arrived just in time to catch the last prawn meat on his plate.

She had a vague feeling of having been caught cheating on a test.

But pretending to be justified, she picked up the last prawn meat and popped it into her mouth as if nothing had happened.

Eat it all, eat it all.

Severo Laris looked at her, smiling fondly, with a playful look.

And later, Severo Laris peeled another plate of shrimp meat.

Paula Rouco ate it all.

A plate of stewed prawns, which she ate almost all of it.

After dinner, Severo Laris cleared the table.

And then he indicated to her: “Sit here and wait for me next, I have a present for you”.

Paula Rouco watched his erect figure walk up the stairs.

She looked down at the unfinished strawberry shortcake on the table, picked up a fork and popped a few more bites into her mouth.

I ate too fast and choked.

He took a quick sip of water.

When Severo Laris came downstairs, she immediately withdrew the hand with which she was stealing the food and placed it on the table, resting her chin on one hand as if she had no intention of doing so.

When Severo Laris turned back, she glanced at the strawberry tart, which was a little less, and the smile on her thin lips deepened.

At the corners of her mouth there was still a froth of cream that had stuck to her when she stole it, without realizing it.

Severo Laris handed her a wrapped, square gift box.

He took it and slid it aside, not thinking there was surprise.

Severo Laris sat down next to her and looked at her with a smile, “Aren’t you going to open it? There might be a surprise.”

“Isn’t it just jewelry or something?”

“No.”

Paula Rouco gave him a haughty look and took the gift box from him, opening the wrapping paper with a wide smile, inside was a square gift box, nothing out of the ordinary.

She opened it with her usual heart, but when she did, she saw no jewelry, no clothes, no purse.

Inside was a stack of concert tickets.

There was also a stack of photographs.

Paula Rouco’s fingers pause and she subconsciously reaches out to pick up the photographs, noticing that she is in all of them, although in many she is not in the center of the picture, and is far apart in the crowd of people.

The photographer’s angle in these photos looks like a stolen shot.

And the dates below each photo made your heart flutter even more.

Time interval, spanning seven years.

And those entries are all for his concerts.

Paula Rouco held the photos and tickets for a moment, unable to say anything.

She merely ducked her head as Lita looked at the photos and concert tickets.

Severo Laris said quietly, “I took time out of my schedule to fly to Philadelphia to see you every month for the last seven years, you said I didn’t listen to you, I just didn’t know how to show up, it’s not that I didn’t want to come see you, I thought about coming to see you every day for those seven years I was apart.”

“I go on every concert tour you do, I sit in the audience and if you look closely you might find me.”

“I had thought we were never supposed to see each other again in this life, and I tried so hard to try to forget you, but I found, ridiculously, that the more I tried to forget you, the more I remembered our time together.”

“When I see fast food trucks selling hot and spicy soup and lattes on the streets of New York, I will remember you; when I come home and see Ribs waiting for me on the couch, I will remember you; when I make rice with minced pork and pickled beans, I will remember that it is your favorite food; when I see couples in wedding dresses having their wedding pictures taken on the streets of New York, I will think that if we hadn’t broken up, you would have married me by now. ”

“You must look more beautiful in your wedding dress than any bride I’ve ever seen.”

“Every day for those seven years I imagined you jumping into my arms with open arms and wrapping yourself around me like you used to.”

“Lita, I love you as much as I want to forget you, and I once narrowly thought that being apart would be good for both of us, but I never thought about how much better two people would be together.”

“This thing I love about you has never ceased to exist, and in these nearly three thousand nights of separation, I have realized that being able to love you has turned out to be the happiest thing I have ever done.”

“After I went to America, I realized that this loving you was the only thing that kept me going.”

“I will die if I don’t love you.”

Paula Rouco lets her face fall, the tears, one by one, onto the photo in her hand.

She was all over it.

Severo Laris’ long, slender fingers lift her face.

He looked into her wet, teary eyes and said softly, “lita, for these seven years, I have been watching you and loving you as much as you do, and I have never stopped, do you hear me?”

Paula Rouco looked at him with reddened eyes, “Why didn’t you come to me, aren’t you afraid that I’m with someone else and won’t love you again?”

At that moment, she missed him very much.

Severo Laris swallowed the lump in his throat and looked at her deeply, “Afraid.”

“But then again, I hope you’ve had boyfriends in those seven years, so you won’t feel so alone. Because every day and night I’ve lost you in those seven years, I know how hard it is.”

“But again, I selfishly hope that I’m the only one in your heart.”

Paula Rouco glared at him and said, word for word, “I hate you.”

The tears, again, could not stop flowing.

Her large hands, encircling his neck, her fingertips pressing against his face, touching his hot tears that felt so overwhelmingly hot they were about to burn a hole in his skin.

Severo Laris’ forehead, resting against hers, looked at her with a warm, loving gaze and said, “I didn’t let you know this, let you know that I love you, just to make you cry.”

And then, he kissed her.

The kiss was concentrated and tender.

He kissed the salty tears off her face, brushed the cream from the corners of her mouth, and lingered on the girl’s soft, obsessed lips.

Paula Rouco choked back tears, but Severo Laris did not stop kissing her.

…

Imperial, late in the evening.Property © of NôvelDrama.Org.

Buena was in an extremely depressed and upset mood and was heading outside the bar after leaving it to vent her bad mood.

Her car is parked in an alley not far away and there is no parking nearby.

She walked to the car door and was about to open it when a large, rough hand cupped her mouth and nose and dragged her into the alley.

“Well…”

Several young men, big and strong, blocked Buena deep into the dark alley.

This is a bar street and there are a lot of people walking around at night, so there might be some kind of hooligans and perverts. That’s a lot of people walking around at night.

Buena looked at them in horror, “What are you people?”.

“You have the nerve to ask us what we are and who we are, you’ve been someone’s mistress and you’ve destroyed someone’s family and someone has asked us to teach you a lesson.”

With panic in her eyes, Buena knew it was Mrs. I’m pregnant by Vidal Carda! If anything happens to the heir of The Carda family, you will all be punished!”

“Hey, do you think this wild child the Carda family has in their womb is weird? To tell you the truth, Mrs. Carda is asking us to fix the child in her womb!”

Sensing something was wrong, Buena lifted her legs to run, but one of the big men grabbed her and pinned her against the hard, rough wall of the alley.

The big man slapped her across the face and ripped off her clothes.

“Bitch! Not bad for hitting on a married posh guy, hey! Just looking at you like that makes you a bitch!”

“Brothers, go!”