My Vengeful CEO
28

[ Aya Millenis' Vision]

It is a very strange feeling, to see a movie of your entire life playing out right before your eyes, not to say despairing.

I don't have many fond memories, the best part of my life started when I started working at Stevens Construction Company. I made good friends, gained a daughter with a heart of my own and had the chance to get Iuri's forgiveness, and even better, got to be loved the way I always wanted to be, by the man who never gave up on me.

I feel like crying, but the tears don't want to come out. My parents' faces appear, I wish I could have gotten along with them before I died. I should have tried harder, after all, it's only in the end that we understand that the error of one doesn't justify the other.

My poor girl, my dear little Heloysie, what relieves me is to know that now, besides me, she also has Iuri and I am sure that he will take good care of her.

The scenes fade and the darkness consumes me, I feel anesthetized, I hear nothing and even that voice in my head is fading. What will become of me? [Vision of Iuri Stevens]

- Why are you here? - I sit next to Francisco, Aya's father.

- And why are you still here? - he answers me with another question.

- Answer me first - I insist on an answer.

- I am still her father," he answers succinctly.

- How is it? Did you really say that? - I ask in disbelief of what I hear.

- I am still her father," he repeats without looking at me.

- And where were you when she suffered an attempted rape while leaving the prom practically naked seven years ago? - He finally looks at me, looks at me in surprise; I lose my patience, get up and start talking loudly inside the hospital. - I didn't know... - he justifies himself.

I interrupt him, I don't accept to hear this kind of excuse, what did he think was going to happen? Did he by any chance think that the world was a place full of flowers and rainbows? I lose my self-control once and for all:

- Where were you when she tried to take her own life because she felt dirty and rejected by you? Where was this father who loves his daughter so much when he believed a lie made up by immature teenagers? Where were you when your daughter was left on the street with nowhere to go? Where were you when she cried feeling helpless and alone in such a big and violent world? Where were you when she had to struggle to see tomorrow? Where were you when she gave her all to get a full scholarship at a public university without your help? Where were you when your wife told her that she regretted giving birth to her and that the world would be a better place if she were dead? How dare you call yourself her father! Have you no shame in your face?

I try to control my breathing, I've had it stuck in my throat for so many years.

- I'm sorry, okay? - stands up and stares at me.

- Aah, really? I couldn't even tell," I say, debauched at his face.

- I know what I did was wrong, I missed her every single day!

- This is a hospital! Keep your voices down, you're not children! - complains a middle-aged nurse with an angry face.

- Sorry - we ask together.

The nurse scolds us once more with a look, then goes into a room.

- And why didn't you look for her? - Cris returns to the subject.

- Because of my unspoken pride, because of my ego, because I felt upset and betrayed in a certain way, because the day before it happened I had talked to her about Leandro, she assured me that she had done nothing and when that video was shown with her face I couldn't think of anything else, besides the fact that she lied to me and exposed that she was no longer a straight girl, showing herself to the world in such a promiscuous way? - tears shine in her eyes. - And what really made you come here? - I repeat the question.

The silence lasts for long seconds.

-When I saw her in the report so wounded, I felt that the world, for a few moments, had stopped. A gigantic fear of loss surged in my chest, suffocating me, and without thinking my body just moved and came here - the tear trickles from her eyes, but soon wipes away - I know that now it is too late to ask for her forgiveness and that I don't even have the right...

- She is not dead! - I more than anyone know how it feels to feel guilt and remorse, more than anyone I know how much it hurts and how hard it is to admit and change. The look on her face was too painful, after all, seven years ago I was part of that ridiculous frame-up against her daughter?

- Framing? - asks Aya's father, his face starts to turn red - If you knew it was a frame-up, why did you keep quiet while watching me do all that cruel stuff to her!

- I am sorry - Leandro asks with his head down - I did not know that what they were going to do was that video, I was caught by surprise and ended up getting static without being able to react, I was a coward in the midst of that confusion. - And continued without reaction for all these seven years?

- After I gave Aya to Iuri, I began to face other problems... My stepfather was out of control, I had no money to free either myself or my mother from his clutches.

- And how did this stop you from taking five minutes to tell me the truth? It wouldn't cost you anything to come to me to defend your honor...

- Who are you to demand anything from him! - Cristine interrupts her father's speech, visibly upset - You're her father! - points her finger in Francisco's face - It was your obligation to take care of her honor! To believe when she said that that video was not real, was yours! The responsibility for everything is yours! You have no right to demand anything from anyone! Be a man and assume the things you have done!

Tears bathe Cristine's face.

- I know - Francis answers, bowing his head.

- Every time I tried to apologize to Aya, she told me that I should leave the past where it is, in the past," Leandro says, drawing everyone's attention, "She forgave me and became an amazing friend, both for me and for my wife, just the two of us who failed her so much," she pauses, letting out two tired sighs, "Anyway, what I want to say is: It's not too late, and for the amazing girl that Aya is, I am absolutely sure that she will welcome you with open arms and tell you that she loves you and never held a grudge against you.

Francisco falls to his knees on the floor and begins to cry, he must be feeling the weight of everything he has put his daughter through.

I look at Leandro and thank him with a nod of my head for his words. After an hour and a half, the silence is broken.

- Honey, what is it? - Juliana, Aya's mother, runs to her husband.

He answers nothing, just hugs his wife, and she also starts to cry, so they really love each other, she understood what was happening just by hugging her husband.

- Mr. Leandro Silva? - Dr. Angelica Cooper takes our attention away from the couple on the floor.

- How are my wife and son? - Leandro runs to her.

- I have good news, we managed to stop the bleeding and managed to save both of their lives.

- Oh my goodness! Thank you sir, thank you so much my good God!

Cristine hugs Leandro and they both cry with joy. I just don't get into this embrace because I am not intimate with Leandro, but I am very relieved and happy about this news.

- Soon she will be able to receive visitors, now I will help Dr. Cooper.

- Please keep us informed - I ask, now all that is missing is the news that everything is going to be alright with Aya too.

I sit down again, in my mind passes all the moments that I had with her, I remember her shivering skin and her naughty smile in the morning. I can't lose her, I am completely hers. ***** One hour later ****

- So, doctor? - Cris asks as he sees Dr. Vicente Cooper approaching.

Leandro has already been released to go see his wife.

-The surgery was a success, she is now in the observation room sleeping - the doctor answers.

The relief I feel is impossible to describe in words.

- Can I go see her? - my sister-in-law and I ask together.

- Yes, in two days she will be discharged, come.

Aya's parents, Cristine and I followed the doctor.