Chapter 43

Demetrio's hands were sweating. His heart was pounding so hard he could hear it right now. He was so nervous that his breathing was ragged. He was about to fulfill his dream of being properly married to the woman he loved. He remembered the time when he was going to marry Alina and smiled ironically, thankful that life did not allow him to marry her at that moment, because today he was definitely the happiest man in the world.

The church was full of workers from the company, including Massimo's friends and Demetrio's friends from the university. The decorations were exquisite, between white and a pale pink that looked phenomenal, so neat and glamorous, worthy of a Laureti.

Many looked at Demetrio with curiosity about his face, others with admiration for being so brave and not caring about the criticism of others.

There were a number of paparazzi waiting to record the masterful entrance of the most awaited bride of the moment.

Everyone was so happy that they couldn't help but be anxious about Eva's arrival. Especially Guillermo, who paced back and forth at the entrance of the church, anxious to give his daughter to her future husband and the man he knew she loved; he had always dreamed of walking his little and only daughter down the aisle.

Demetrio imagined his three treasures, beautifully dressed in white, each holding a bouquet of white flowers.

The hours on the clock began to advance, and Demetrio's impatience began to wane. A lump formed in his throat when he saw that Eva was more than an hour late. 

"What about Eva, Demetrio? It's late and the priest has another wedding," Massimo asked anxiously in his ear.

"I don't know father, you know how Eva is, she's sure to want to show up masterfully," Demetrio explained, sure that the mother of his children would appear through the door at any moment.

But the Italian lost hope when he looked at the time on his collector's watch and realized that Eva was nowhere to be seen.

He left the church with trembling hands; was there any way Eva could have stood him up? He had three children with her, and she was pregnant with twins. It was a mathematical formula, and Eva would not be able to abandon her relative.

"Guillermo, call Eva and ask her what happened, why are they late? The guests are impatient and the father has another wedding," he explained, speaking so fast that it felt like he wasn't breathing.

Guillermo looked at him nervously.

"I called my daughter but she doesn't answer Demetrio, something happened because Eva never turns off her cell phone and right now it's off," Guillermo mumbled nervously.

"Dial again, fuck Guillermo!  Eva can't do this to me, there are too many guests, press and TV here." The Italian clenched his teeth.

"Calm down Demetrio, I'm sure there's a very big power behind Eva not arriving earlier, don't think anything without finding out first," Guillermo explained doubtfully. He did not understand why Eva had not arrived. 

He called Luisa's number, but it was still off.

Suddenly, Demetrio's cell phone rang, revealing an obvious text message that completely broke his soul

I'm sorry Demetrio, I can't marry you, you're a monster and I couldn't tie my life to you.

Rage overcame him at that moment. He felt an immense urge to cry. His heart was paralyzed.

"Your daughter is not coming!" he shouted in the direction of Guillermo, who was desperately trying to call Luisa and Eva.

"What are you saying?" Guillermo looked at him doubtfully, not understanding the words of his grandson's father.

"That she won't come! Your daughter will not marry a monster! She left me alone again and went away!" he shouted in despair as he threw the phone in Guillermo's face, who took it in amazement.

"Everybody out of the church! No wedding! Get out!" he shouted in desperation, smashing everything in his path. 

Massimo took the children to get them out, along with the nannies, and tried to control Demetrio, who was so angry that he was throwing everything in his path.

He grabbed his arms and hugged him tightly.

"Calm down, Demetrio! Calm down, please, think with a cool head, that's what they want, that's what he wants!" shouted Massimo trying to calm Demetrio down without any success.

Antonio, who was there, hugged him tightly and held him still. His mind was clouded with pain, not realizing that this was exactly what Santino wanted, to see him suffer like this.

"She left me brother, she left me and went away, Eva left me again, I won't be able to live without her! Tell me how to live without my wife, I love her so much!" Demetrio sulked as he cried and tried to breathe at that moment.

Antonio tried to wipe the tears from his eyes. It was very powerful to see a man like Demetrio Laureti as broken as he was at that moment.

"Can you listen to me, Demetrio?" asked Massimo.

"I don't want to hear anything!" he said, his face red with anger, and he walked out of the church.

"Daddy, Daddy!" the children shouted from the car.

Demetrio climbed into one of the vans to head home in the opposite direction. He was lost, the pain completely clouding his mind. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't believe what was happening was true. He still had Eva's words in his head. She had told him that she would be with him even in his worst moments. 

"Fuck, Eva! Until yesterday we were together, we made love like crazy and you told me that today would be the most important fucking day of your life," he cried out painfully. "You left your children, your three children, not to be with me!" he slammed the steering wheel.

Her eyes were so blurred with tears that she felt like she couldn't see at that moment. 

She drove on, oblivious to the time, until she reached a bar far out of town.

It was a seedy bar, but Demetrio's wounded heart didn't care where he was at that moment.

He ordered a bottle of whiskey, and as he began to drink, he remembered Eva.

People looked at him sadly; the news had spread quickly throughout Florida. The most quoted millionaire in the country had been left at the altar by the woman who had been his secretary a few years ago and with whom he had had three children, the reason being that I couldn't stand being with a man who was marked by life.

"The doctor told you they were going to operate on me, I don't understand why you left me," he snorted every time he drank from his bottle.

...

It was the early hours of the morning, the guests had begun to leave, and Demetrio was still drinking, trying to forget the pain, when he felt hands on his shoulders.

...

Everyone was confused, they could not understand what had happened.

"I don't think I can leave Demetrio, drive quickly, sir, I need to see what happened to my daughter," Guillermo asked the driver anxiously.

"Isn't that one of Mr. Demetrio's cars?" pointed out Ramona, a car surrounded by ambulances and police.

The middle-aged man's heart raced.

He got out of the car at the same moment Mássimo and Antonio got out of theirs.

He ran frantically when he saw his wife lying on a stretcher.

"I'm her husband, please let me through!" he shouted nervously.

As he approached, he could see his wife with her head covered in blood and a little unconscious.

"Luisa, my love, what happened? Where is Eva?" he asked nervously.

"Santino," the woman stammered before she lost consciousness.

"Damn it! I knew he was crazy, I retraced his steps, but I couldn't reach him, fuck!"

"Where's my daughter?" shouted Guillermo as he desperately got into the car, but Evangelina was nowhere to be found.

"Antonio, look for Demetrio before he does something crazy, I'm going to file a complaint, Santino has Eva and wanted Demetrio to believe that she left him because of the burn on his face. Now everything is clear, this man was the culprit of all this shit," Guillermo asked desperately.

....

"Demetrio, brother, you are very drunk, it was hard for me to find you, we have to go back," Antonio begged as he tried to lift him up.

"No, let me, I want to die, Antonio, let the alcohol kill me," he stammered, completely drunk.

"If you must live, Demetrio. Don't you realize that Santino is making fun of you, do you really think Eva is capable of leaving you and going away with two of your children in her womb and three at home? Eva loves you, Demetrio," Antonio explained.

"Santino? What does that shitty dog have to do with it?" he asked confused.

Antonio sighed. He didn't know if what he was about to tell Laureti was better or worse than he thought.

"We found the car that Evangelina and Luisa were in with the driver in an alley in Yaskowiak, they crashed into one of the parking fences, what they said is that he lost control because a car was following them," he said. 

The amount of alcohol Demetrio had been drinking began to leave his system. Suddenly he felt his blood freeze.

"Eva, where is she?" he asked worriedly.

"Eva, he wasn't a brother, Luisa, the only thing he managed to say was Santino."

Demetrio felt a tightness in his chest. Suddenly it seemed as if he couldn't breathe.

Antonio held him as best he could to get him up into the air after paying the huge amount of money at the bar.

"Damn Santino, I'll kill you with my own hands, I swear I'll find you and I'll kill you!" he shouted loudly in the middle of the street in the early hours of the morning.

When Luisa woke up. She had a terrible headache.

Demetrio was waiting in her room to find out what she knew about Evangelina.

"She's opening her eyes," Guillermo said as he watched his wife regain consciousness.

A lump formed in Luisa's throat as she remembered what had happened.

"My Eva!" she cried out in pain.

"Luisa, listen to me, it is important that you tell me what happened with Evangelina, what did you see?" Demetrio approached with concern.

Words did not come out of Luisa's mouth. She could not articulate a single word; she still could not believe what had happened at that moment.

"Santino took... Eva," she barely managed to say.

"Damn it! But how?" he shouted, grabbing Luisa's arms in desperation.

"Calm down Demetrio, Luisa is fragile." Massimo stopped him....

Demetrio's eyes burned with the helplessness he felt at that moment. Santino had not only taken Eva; he had taken her children with him; he had also left her triplets without their mother. 

"I don't know how it happened, it all happened so fast. A black van followed us and hit us from behind. We asked the driver and he said he had followed us from the villa. Eva and I got scared, the driver started to drive faster to try to distract them, but in one of these attempts we crashed. In the middle of the crash, I lost consciousness and when I opened my eyes, I saw Santino pulling Eva out of the car in his arms. Luisa cried loudly as she said all this.

"I couldn't save my daughter, I couldn't," she sobbed. "Who is Santino, for God's sake! How could we not see his obsession?"

Santino San Roman smiled a triumphant smile as he watched through the cameras as Demetrio despaired as he blew up everything in the church.

He looked at Eva, sleeping beside him, and stroked her hair gently.

"Don't worry, my love, everything will be all right and Demetrius won't be able to hurt you anymore, now," she whispered.