Episode 3

Safira.

I wake up and feel I'm in a soft bed. I sit up and bring my hand to my head; it's exploding. I realize my hand has a bandage on it. I look at it, and when I look ahead, there's a gentleman sitting in the chair in the corner. I cover myself and lean against the corner of the bed, scared, looking around me for the door.

Pablo: Finally, you're awake, Samira.

He calls me by my sister's name, and I look at him.

Pablo: Do you know why you're here?

He asks me a question, and I shake my head no.

Pablo: Well, a long time ago, your father was drowning in debt, and since I was an acquaintance of his, he asked me for a loan. As he had no collateral to give me, he gave me your life in exchange for the sum. We made a contract: he would pay me back the money, and I would tear up the contract.

My father wouldn't have had the courage. How could he do such a thing?

Pablo: But it didn't happen as he wanted. He couldn't pay me and, unfortunately, passed away. So you must be wondering why you're in this bed? Don't worry, I'll tell you.

My hands are already sweaty, my heart is racing, and I'm breaking out in a cold sweat just from being locked in this room with this man. Those images from when I was a child start to come like flashes in my head.

Pablo: You belong to me. Your life is mine. I can do whatever I want with you.

He pushes back from the chair, and I go into total panic. He's going to do that to me, like that man forced me to do when I was a child.

Pablo.

When he starts to, I don't know, try to take off his tie, I get desperate. I jump over the bed and open the door, bumping into a man in the hallway and falling on my butt on the floor.

James: Miss, are you alright?

He extends his hand to me. Another man. There are two of them, and at the end of the hallway, I see another one coming towards me.

Alejandro: Hey, girl.

I have no doubt. I get up, stumbling a few times, and start running. The man who shouted at me speaks.

Alejandro: Stop.

I look at him, and when I turn to see where I'm going, it's a staircase. I just feel the impact of the steps on my body as I tumble down the stairs.

When I stop rolling, I feel like someone has hammered my entire body. The same man who told me to stop kneels beside me. My breathing starts to fail.

Alejandro: Hey, are you okay?

I can't breathe. I want to get out of here, I want to scream, I don't want them to touch me. A tear rolls from my eyes. God, why do I have to suffer so much? End this once and for all. I just can't take it anymore.

My vision is getting dark, my head hurts, everything hurts. Then I end up losing consciousness, and a black hole consumes me.

Alejandro.

It's already early morning. I get up and go to my bathroom to take a shower. I get ready and go out into the bedroom hallway. The bedroom hallway here at home is large because there are 5 rooms in total: mine, my father's, my younger brother Bernardo's, who is studying at a boarding school and only comes home on Fridays, and the others are for guests.

As I go out into the hallway, I see James and the girl fallen on the floor, so I speak.

Alejandro: Hey, girl.

She gets scared and tries to get up and run simultaneously. With difficulty, she manages and bolts off. When I realize she's heading for the stairs, I shout.

Alejandro: Stop.

But it's too late. She looks at me, and when she turns forward, I only hear the sound of her body hitting the ground. My father is already out of his room with James.

Alejandro: She fell down the stairs.

I run out and go down the stairs and see her lying on the floor, her eyebrow bleeding.

Alejandro: Hey, are you okay?

I look at her face and see a tear roll from her eyes. That squeezes my chest, and she faints.

My father comes down the stairs with James, who is already on the phone asking for help.

Alejandro: Dad, what did you do?

Pablo: Nothing. I said a few words, I just wanted to scare her.

Alejandro: Look what happened, Dad. Regardless of everything, she's a human being. And if she dies, where does that leave us?

James: Sir, I've already called Dr. Leonardo; he's on his way. What should we do? Move her from here?

Alejandro: Don't touch her. Who knows if she broke something; that could make it worse. Let Leonardo arrive.

James: Yes, sir.

Leonardo enters through the living room door and spots her on the floor.

Leonardo: What happened?

Alejandro: She fell down the stairs.

He kneels beside her and checks if she has any broken bones.

Leonardo: I'm going to call an ambulance. We'll have to take her to the hospital. If she hit her head, we have to check. Apparently, she hasn't broken anything. We'll take her to the hospital for tests.

Leonardo lifts her sleeve to check her pulse, and I see a mark on her wrist. He looks at us, not understanding.

Leonardo: Who is she?

Pablo: Alejandro's wife.

I look at my father.

Leonardo: Did she fall down the stairs accidentally or intentionally?

Alejandro: What kind of question is that, Leo?

Leonardo: It seems you don't know your wife very well. I hope to God I'm wrong, but this mark is from someone who has attempted suicide.

Alejandro: What?

Pablo: It can't be!

Leonardo: I hope not.

The ambulance arrives, and she is taken to the hospital, and we go by car.

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