Devoted Love, Mr. Hayes’ Darling Wife

Paula Rouco has been bugging Severo Laris to ask if Rufio has seen the little beanstalk sprouts.

When Rufio called, Severo Laris scanned the caller ID and hurriedly picked up.

Severo Laris reached out to reassure Paula Rouco as he asked Rufio on the other end of the phone, “How are you doing, have you seen the little bean sprout?”

Severo, are you sure Paulita has the right address? I just went to that La Villa Rouco you mention, and the people who live in building 12, 601, are not a single mother and daughter. The grandmother who opened the door for me told me they only had one grandchild in the house, and she told me they didn’t have any children named Frijolito in the whole building.”

Severo Laris’ eyes twitched for a moment, his gaze locked on Paula Rouco, and he asked earnestly, “lita, Frijolito’s house is in La Villa Rouco, building 12, 601, are you sure that’s the address?”

Paula Rouco was sure: “I’m sure, the sprout wouldn’t lie to me….. Rufio hasn’t found the sprout, is it possible that the sprout is afraid of the baby and that’s why he’s hiding?”

Severo Laris said, “Call the little bean and ask, I’ll have Rufio search again.”

Paula Rouco hurried to dial the little bean sprout’s number and in a few moments it connected and Paula Rouco said to the little bean sprout as she coughed, “Little bean sprout, where are you?”

“I’m at home, Sister Paulita, are you coming to see me?”

Paula Rouco said, “How are you, they brought me medicine, but I haven’t seen you.”

The little bean sprout smiled and said, “I slipped away to hide a moment ago because I don’t want to meet people I don’t know, Sister Paulita, can you come with me?”

Paula Rouco said, “I can’t get to you right now.”

“Why?”

Paula Rouco unconsciously looked at Severo Laris and said, “Because, since I am also sick, Severo won’t let me come to see you.”

“Who is Severo?”

“He is Sister Paulita’s lover.”

Little Beanstalk said, “I so want to meet the love of Paulita’s sister’s life.”

Severo Laris looked at Paula Rouco and said, “lita, let me talk to the little beanstalk and I will … ask her exactly where she lives.”

Paula Rouco hands the phone to Severo Laris, who looks Paula Rouco in the eyes and takes it.

She heard, on the phone, a string of busy beeps and no one was talking.

Severo Laris swallowed the lump in his throat: “The little beaner … seems to have hung up the phone”.

Paula Rouco picked up the phone and frowned, grumbling under her breath, “She must be shy, you’re scaring her away. I guess I’ll have to go to Imperial after all to get the little beanstalker.”

Severo Laris pulled her shoulders away, looked her straight in the eyes and said, “What do you say, since the little beanstalker is afraid of the baby, if I ask Rufio to deliver her cold medicine at the door and not bother her?”

Paula Rouco thought this would work, “When Beanstalk talked to me on the phone earlier, she seemed to be in a good mood, so she should be fine…”

Severo Laris reassured, “It’s just a cold and cough, it won’t be a big deal, don’t worry.”

As night fell, Paula Rouco fell asleep.

Severo Laris cautiously got out of bed and picked up his cell phone.

Its combination lock, which he knew well, opened and he flipped through his address book and found the little bean’s number.

He dialed it.

On the phone came a mechanical female voice: “Hello, the number you have dialed is an empty number …”.

Severo Laris stood there, holding his phone, for a long, long time.

And then he dialed that number over and over again, even using his own cell phone to dial the number.

The results I got were all empty numbers.

Empty number.

So who was Paula Rouco talking to so many times before?

The corners of Severo Laris’ eyes were scarlet, he was vaguely aware of something but did not dare to think about it deeply.

Severo Laris went out to the balcony and called Rufio.

He took a deep breath and asked, “Well, did La Villa Rouco find a boy named Beanstalk?”

Rufio said, “I sent someone to La Villa Rouco to go door to door and I really didn’t find a boy named Beanstalk, was Paulita tricked?”

“Maybe.”

Without another word, Severo Laris hung up the phone.

The “maybe” was a helpless sound.

How he wished it was the boy who had lied and deceived Paula Rouco.

Soon after, Rufio called back.

Severo Laris picks up.

Rufio said, “Susana told me earlier that when Paulita came to Imperial for our appreciation dinner, she was on her way to the restaurant and she said she saw a boy and halfway to the restaurant she asked her to stop and Paulita ran across the road to get the boy, Susana said she thought it was very strange at the time. ”This content is © NôvelDrama.Org.

Severo Laris opened his lips and asked in a mute voice, “What did the child look like…?”

“Susana saw no one.”

Severo Laris closed his eyes, with a complicated and painful look.

On the phone, Susana was beside herself and said, “Oh, yes, I remember, it turns out it was very close to the traffic lights, there were cameras on that stretch of road, we can go and pull up surveillance, the boy can definitely be found on surveillance.”

Rufio said, “That’s a good idea Severo, why don’t I contact someone now to check the surveillance. I’ll let you know when I have something.”

“Okay.”

Severo Laris hangs up the phone and sits withered on the living room couch, waiting for Rufio’s call.

In his mind, he recalls a few details.

Paula Rouco says a child was saved on the set of The Guardian.

Severo Laris immediately called Salvino and asked him to ask the people working on the Guardian set at the time if that was the case.

Ten minutes later, Salvino told him, “Boss, the set crew said they only saw the wife injured by the falling equipment, but they didn’t see any children, and there were no young actors that day, and unrelated children are not allowed on the set. As for the wife’s claim that she saved a child, the people on the set said they didn’t see one.”

After hearing Salvino’s call, Severo Laris hung up without saying a word and with an expressionless face.

Half an hour later, Rufio sent him a surveillance video.

In the surveillance, Paula Rouco first gets out of Susana’s red BMW, and then, without even looking at the traffic light, crosses the road, and not long after, she walks down the boulevard, as if she sees something, smiles, and then, in the emptiness of the air, she is talking.

The surveillance is silent.

But Severo Laris saw that Paula Rouco had taken a chocolate bar out of her pocket and handed it to him.

The chocolate fell to the floor, but she smiled warmly and cheerfully.

Then she smiled and waved goodbye a short distance away.

…

Severo Laris put his phone back on the couch and stood up, covering his face.

The corner of his eye, turning scarlet.

Ribs jumps off the back of the couch and rubs against Severo Laris’ leg.

Severo Laris wipes the corners of his eyes, takes a deep breath, picks up the phone again and calls Albarran Bail.

Albarran Bail, on the other end of the phone, was about to fall asleep.

Receiving the call from Severo Laris came as a surprise to her.

“What, you found out?”

Severo Laris squeezed the acidity in the back of his throat and asked, word for word, “Can depression be severe enough to cause hallucinations?”

Albarran Bail froze and frowned, “Is Paulita hallucinating?”

Severo Laris’ tone was fierce and cold, “Answer me, yes or no.”

“Maybe. People with varying degrees of depression can experience varying degrees of hallucinations and delusions, which can result in thought disorder, also known as attunement disorder.”

Severo Laris got a lump in his throat, “What is attunement disorder?”

Albarran Bail sighed and said, “Attunement disorder, according to the colloquial explanation, is a form of psychosis.”

Albarran Bail is reminding Severo Laris, now Paula Rouco, that she is a complete psychopath, that she is not normal.

Severo Laris’ eyes were red: “Is there a cure?”

“Yes, but it requires hospitalization and mandatory quarantine.”

Severo Laris raised his hand, squeezed his brow bone and closed his eyes, “May I tag along?”.

Albarran Bail: “No one should accompany anyone, especially family members, and even more so a lover who empathizes as much with the patient as you do, should not get involved in the treatment; if you empathize too much, leaving aside everything that affects the progress of the treatment, perhaps you will even be assimilated by the patient.”

Severo Laris’ jaw tensed, “This is the only way to do it, isn’t it?”

“This is the only way to cure a terminal mental illness, and I can’t guarantee that even with strict treatment, Paula Rouco will be cured at all, but Severo Laris, be clear, if you don’t do it, Paula Rouco will become a lunatic in everyone’s eyes. ”

Severo Laris gritted his teeth, his gaze complex and heavy.

Albarran Bail, knowing that Severo Laris was a soft man, rambled, “Paula Rouco is so brilliant that she should not be destroyed by depression, Severo Laris, send her to therapy, although I am not ten percent sure, we can work together to make her as healthy as possible. Paula Rouco, who is so good, would not be good for you if she became what people call psychotic and crazy.”

Severo Laris swallowed the lump in his throat, his brow furrowed deeply, his face cold and pained, “Give me a moment to process.”

“As soon as possible. The sooner this disease is treated, the better.”