Chapter 164: Dark Night
Arthur was not feeling well. He was having some trouble concentrating. He was confused about everything Mayara was saying. And how could he get out of this, and in what way? Some things were real and still pending, and she dared to leave like this? He lifted his chin, looking at the young woman in front of him with intense suspicion...
Mayara looked at him and swallowed hard. Arthur crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, saying:
\- Santiago is crazy. - he asserted - he doesn't just want this race; he wants chaos.
Her structure trembled. Was she going to tell him or not? The doubts and anxieties were etched on her face. Arthur demanded answers.
\- I want the truth, Mayara. Just the truth, and don't hide anything from me.
\- Arthur... I don't know... if I should tell you.
\- Why not? - He was getting irritated - Mayara... everything needs to be clear between us.
Things were not easy for the poor girl, and everything that had happened so far was making her sink deeper into herself, making it difficult to cope; wanting more answers, he looked at her seriously... all of this was hard to swallow.
Mayara needed to reveal to him more than she knew. In a silent war of wills, the young prince demanded answers from the girl. But she refused to give in.
She looked at him once more. An enigmatic SMS from Santiago arrived on the girl's phone.
"There are more things capable of frightening us than defeating us. Thus, we suffer more in imagination than in reality." - Seneca.
She quickly read it and deleted the notification before Arthur could see. He was incredibly nervous, pondering what he should do with her. Rubbing his hand nervously through his hair, he looked at her with more intensity, skeptical. In his bewildered mind, she was dodging his questions so blatantly, and that was making him extremely irritated. It was not what he expected from her, at least not what he had hoped for. The impasse was difficult to break.
\- Answer me, Mayara. Tell me the truth. Or get out - he hissed, gripping her arm tightly - What secrets of Santiago are you covering for? Tell me, Mayara Angelina!
\- Let me go!
\- Tell me: you didn't just come to see me - he said with a resolute, sarcastic tone in his voice, acidic. - I just want the damn honest and sincere answer from your mouth just once, Mayara!
\- How dare you...
\- Answer me. Or leave my apartment. Don't come looking for me until you're ready to speak the truth. My father is missing, your grandfather, several people are disappearing.
\- You wouldn't understand, Arthur.
\- I would understand if you were honest with me.
She couldn't look him in the eyes. Feeling tears begin to roll down her cheeks, she didn't want to put everything on the line for Arthur. At least not yet.
\- I'm so sorry... - she said, practically in tears - I won't bother you again.
That gray morning, Annah had gotten to him, she knew.
\- I have a terrible headache, Mayara, worried about my father, needing to know what to do in the face of all this. I don't have the time or energy to waste on nonsense.
Arthur stood up and put on a shirt.
\- Please, go away. Don't come looking for me; I need to think.
She looked at him pleadingly, but the indifference in his gaze extinguished any plausible explanation.
\- Understood. See you later, when all this is less confusing.
She left crying from the apartment. Arthur turned his back, running his hands through his hair and collapsing back onto his bed. The headache intensified. He decided he would spend most of the day locked in his room.
Mayara sighed and grabbed her bag, giving him one last look before leaving.
As she walked back to the mansion in tears, her father Guilherme's phone rang again.
From Arthur's point of view, it was extremely disappointing that Mayara left that way, especially since he had other ideas to uncover what she was truly hiding and to unravel the secrets. Mayara, on the other hand, was running in tears as she reached the mansion, but to her surprise, another bomb seemed to await her. Guilherme was at the main room door, grabbing his daughter's arm to question her. The tone of the conversation was very serious.
Guilherme was tired and decided to ask about something.
\- How have you been communicating with him?
She swallowed hard, confused before answering:
\- What do you mean?
Before Guilherme could respond, the phone rang, with shareholders from Halley Enterprises asking for a meeting.
She was left alone trying to process everything in her already confused mind. Leaning against the brownish Greek column in the living room, she sighed with pain. Her heart, throughout the process since the discovery of her lost identity in Spain, was costing her much more than the fortunes she could inherit.
Those fortunes were surrounded by improper, illicit, and inappropriate things, just like human existence itself. And she was sure of this: Arthur or her father would come to question her quickly.
She watched as Guilherme answered the phone. After it rang, he knew it was them. They wanted a Zoom conference.
In previous years, Santiago had communicated with him, and Guilherme had discovered horrible things about his own family, about his father, about Cassandra, his mother, about his godfather Paul, among others. And rumors involved other powerful individuals; reports were flooding into his personal email without stopping, leaving his phone ringing nonstop, coming in frantically. Containing revelations about Paul, Richard, Cassandra... everyone was at risk. Even he, with his secret inventions; he didn't know what to do.
Sabrina met with Celina, meanwhile, trying to keep a more friendly conversation.
Suddenly Richard, his father, appeared in front of him, closing the laptop. Guilherme went pale. Richard was a mess but determined. He had managed to escape Santiago's clutches. Richard had obtained Paul's help in the process and explained what had happened.
The moment he opened his mouth, Guilherme collapsed into a chair.