Anger…rage…fury; Adriano couldn’t exactly place his bet on which word reflected his current state of mind.

“Mi hijo (my son),” she choked out, instantly recognizing him despite all the years she hadn’t seen him. She tried reaching over to him, but he inched back and that made her retract her hand.

Even though his heart was on the verge of combusting with how livid he was, he schooled his features and morphed his face into a stoic expression. “You have no right to call me your son, after all these years…after what you did,” he sliced coldly, making her flinch because of his icy tone.

Estefania sighed. She really hadn’t changed much, save for this graying coffee colored hair. That was the only feature he shared with her; their matching hair colors. But other than that, he was nothing like her, nothing like his father, nothing like anyone for that matter. Being surrounded by such inhumane people, he had to convince his inner being that he could not turn out like either of the two.

“I know, Adri. But that does not mean I stopped loving you-,”

He laughed humorlessly. “Don’t talk about love like you know what that is. If you loved me so much then why didn’t you look me in the past 20 years?” he inquired, tilting his head in derision. It took all his might not to vomit right there and then due to how nauseating her presence made him feel.

She looked away in embarrassment. “I couldn’t.”

“Couldn’t or wouldn’t?” he asked once again but she remained silent. He took a step forward and leaned on the counter top, looking her square in the eyes. “You know, the last memory I have of you is you arguing with dad over how your freedom from him mattered more than me. You said it yourself, ‘you can keep you goddamn son’…ring any bells?” he remarked, with a sinister smile and she gulped visibly.

“Adriano, you don’t understand-,”

He held his hand up to silence her. “Understand what? That you abandoned me? That you left me without looking back and literally ruined my childhood? What do I not understand about that, Estefania? Do you know how many days and nights I cried, wondering when you’d come back for me? Every birthday I had I’d make a wish for you to come back to me, so you could hold me in your arms once again? Growing up without you was absolute hell for me, even more so because you left me with that bastard Humberto. Don’t fucking tell me that I don’t understand!” he screamed so loudly that he was sure passer-bys must have heard him.

Unshed tears began to brim in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Adriano. What I did was wrong and-,”

He cut her off again. “Save your apologies and your crocodile tears. And do me a favor; go to hell,” he seethed and then stormed off. Just then, he heard somebody calling his name but his hearing was so obscured by the rushing blood that he couldn’t decipher whose voice it was. Soon enough, he steps became quicker until he was eventually sprinting.

He wasn’t sure how he ended up back at the villa but he did. Bursting through the front door, he marched all the way up the stairs to his bedroom and slammed the door behind him. He felt like punching or smashing something, as his hands shook so badly. His chest was heaving up and down like charged bull; damn, when was the last time he had felt so angry. His legs felt like they were going to fall off from the distance he had just run, but he didn’t care.

What he wanted to do was smash something.

Before thinking about it over, he walked over to one of the mirrors on the adjacent wall and rammed his fist right through it. A shattering sound echoed all through the room and glass shards littered the floor a second later. Pain pulsated through his whole arm and his knuckles began to bleed profusely, blood dripping on the floor. He stared at his reflection in the broken mirror, feeling so hollow inside.

He didn’t, however, hear the door open a couple of minutes later and someone grabbed his bleeding hand.

***

Ibiza was certainly a tropical bliss. So far, Ximena’s honeymoon was going great and she was enjoying spending more time with Adriano and getting to know him better. Speaking of which, he should have been back by then from the tiki bar, but he had been gone almost fifteen minutes. Grabbing her belongings and his in the carry on she’d brought with them, she put on her sundress and slipped into her sandals and made her way over to the tiki bar. Before she even made it that far, she heard screaming. It shouldn’t have surprised her much but the fact that it was Adriano screaming did.

Quickening her pace, she approached the scene and saw him having a face off with a woman, who looked to be in her late forties, early fifties maybe. Just as she got closer to them, Adriano rushed off. “Adriano!” she called loudly but he ignored her and kept on walking in a hurried pace. She tried calling him again but he didn’t reply; he just kept on pacing until he eventually broke off into a sprint.

Left completely in the dust, she looked on in shock. What had transpired? And why they hell did he take off like that, like a bat out of hell? And where on earth was he off to? Shooting a quick glance at the woman, she found her sobbing with her head down. Who was she, and why had she said to Adriano to make him run away like that? For some odd reason, she felt an instant disliking towards her.

Dismissing her thoughts, she made her way over to the parking lot. Their chauffeur was not around so she decided to call in, and in the mean time she would look for Adriano. She was beginning to feel worried. For starters, she had never ever heard him scream, much less swear. He must have been really upset and now she had no idea where he was. To make things worse, he had left his cell phone with her so she had no way of contacting him.

The driver soon arrived and Ximena jumped into the BMW SUV. She told him to drive around the periphery, in the hopes that she would find Adriano but it was to no avail. After not finding him anywhere close bye, she decided to head back to the villa, in the hopes that he had just gone back there. Her worry was steadily increasing with each passing second. When they got back to the villa, she rushed out off the car and went into the house, whose door was already wide open.

“Adriano?” she called but yet again, no response. She was about to search the downstairs area for him when she heard a loud sound from upstairs. Dropping everything onto the floor, she dashed up the stairs, down the hall and into their bedroom…where she found him, along with a shattered mirror and blood dripping onto the floor from his hand.

Rushing over to him, she grabbed his injured hand and began to examine it. “Why did you do that? Look what you did to your hand!” she admonished him but he did not respond. He continued to stare blankly at his reflection in the remnants of the mirror. Cupping his face with a single hand, she directed his face towards her. For the first time since she met him, he really resembled Humberto Dos Santos, especially his hollow eyes. He looked devoid of any emotion, so much so that it frightened her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked him, stroking his cheek. She wasn’t liking this one bit.

“She abandoned me.” He replied, his tone monotonous.

“Who?” she prodded further. He shook his head and closed his eyes. When he opened them a few seconds later, they were brimmed with unshed tears. He looked so broken, so lost and it just made her heart ache to see him like that. Grabbing his uninjured hand, she directed him to the bed where she sat him down and proceeded to grab the first aid kit from the bathroom. Once she returned, she took out antiseptic, cotton balls, tweezers and a bandage. She began by removing pieces of glass from his kunckles with the tweezers, and then cleaned his cuts with the antiseptic. Afterwards, she wrapped his hand up.

“It hurts,” he whispered lowly, looking down at his hand.

She rubbed his knee, still kneeling before him. “I’m sorry, but I had to clean it. It would’ve gotten infected.”

He shook his head. When he finally looked up at her, the first tear slipped out of his eye. “I’m not talking about that,” he then pointed at his chest, where his heart was. “I’m talking about this. It hurts in here. I thought I’d never see her again, but I did…today. I hate her, she ruined my life. She didn’t want me, so she left me all alone…all these years. What kind of a mother does that?” he said, voice cracking. “Is there something wrong with me?”

Everything started to make sense. The reason why he wasn’t comfortable talking about his mother was not because she was dead; it was because she had abandoned him. And he had seen her again today, which is why he ran off without looking back. The woman at the beach was his mother.

She immediately cupped his face and wiped his tears with her thumbs. She also felt like crying due to seeing him in so much pain but she held herself together. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with you, Adriano. Nothing at all,” she told him softly.

“Then why did she leave me? Am I unlovable?” he sobbed and wrapped her arms around him. He leaned into her touch as he broke down completely. Right then and there she wanted to tell him that he wasn’t unlovable at all; that she was wholly and hopelessly in love with him, that she loved everything about him but it didn’t feel like the right time. He was currently vulnerable and confessing her feelings right now wouldn’t be the right time.

“That’s not true, Adriano. You are not unlovable, you hear me?” she said and pulled away from him so she could cup his face once again. “If that woman abandoned you it’s because she’s foolish and heartless, and that has nothing to do with you. I hate her for making you feel this way…and I hate seeing you like this. Now, I want you to listen to me carefully. You are Adriano Dos Santos, the greatest, most intelligent, funniest, coolest, hottest…most admirable guy out there. Dude, you’ve made it this far without her and look how amazing you turned out? It just goes on to show that you did not need her then and you don’t need her now. She may have abandoned you, but I’ll never abandon you. I care so much about you, and I’m damn sure that I’m not the only person who does. I never want to hear you think or speak lowly of yourself; you get that? You are freaking perfect just the way you are, perfecto!” she told him confidently and amidst the tears, he smiled. She smiled at him too. “That’s what I like to see, a smile on your face…not tears. Don’t doubt yourself ever again, okay?”

He nodded. “That has to be the coolest pep talk I have ever heard,” he said with a small laugh. She wiped the remnants of his tears, relieved that he had at least stopped crying although his demeanor was still a bit gloomy. “Wait, did you just call me dude?”

She shrugged. “I might have, I might have not,” she teased, whilst rising in order to seat beside him. “I know this is probably going to sound dumb, but are you okay? Like, do you still want to be here?” she asked him.

“To be honest with you, being here pains me a lot but if you want us to stay, we can, as long as I don’t have to see her again. I wouldn’t want to ruin our trip just because of a minor inconvenience-,”

“It is not minor; not to you or me. If you want us to go back to Miami, then let’s go back. I don’t want to be here a second longer if it makes you uncomfortable,” she reprimanded him. He took her hand in his and gave it a kiss on the back.

“I’ve never met someone quite as understanding as you.”

She winked at him. “And you never will.”

_________________________

So now we finally know who Estefania is...and I can bet we already don't like her. There were some good guesses about her though, y'all are creative.

I had fun writing the emotional side of Adriano...so much fun. I don't know about you guys but when a guy can get vulnerable with a girl, I think that's sweet.

Enjoy guys 💚💚💚

~Deetronite