Page 131 of Stronger Than Fate
“I agree with you, this is weird,” I said, examining the tires, surprised and looking for any clue that might help me understand what had happened.
“Let’s go in mine as soon as possible and then we’ll figure out how to solve this,” she stated, taking my hand and pulling me along. From the expression on her face, I could tell she was very upset.
“Why the rush?” said a very familiar female voice, and we both turned quickly.
Just a few feet away, looking at us seriously, was Sol. She was mainly looking at me, and on her face I could only see reflected a feeling of hatred that paralyzed me.
“Sol, how nice to see you. I’ve been going by your house and couldn’t find you,” I said, making a great effort to appear calm, though I must admit a strange premonition came over me.
Niky was holding my hand and I noticed she was squeezing it tightly, besides having frozen in place and gone speechless.
“Don’t pretend, let’s take off our masks once and for all. I never liked you or cared about you in the slightest. I only used your influence and your money to be close to other people who interested me,” she said with an ironic smile.
“Why are you saying that? We’ve been friends since we were little, I do care about you and...”
“Stop lying, you stupid bitch! All you’ve done your whole life is make everyone I wanted fall in love with you. If the beautiful and good Dalina was around, nobody else had a chance at anything. But no one was ever good enough for you, they were all beneath you, even poor Sean who goes around crying in corners because you weren’t capable of returning his feelings.”
“Sol, you know what you’re saying isn’t true. You’re my friend and I’ve always trusted you with everything. You know things aren’t like that.”
“Shut up, it makes me sick when you try to act all innocent.”
“Why are you behaving this way?” I asked, trying to speak slowly and calmly.
“This is how I am. But let’s cut the chatter and get to what interests me. I won’t let you take Henry from me. I met him first and he’s mine. I did everything I could to separate you two without having to resort to this, but you always managed to trap him again. You’re a fucking nuisance,” she said, shaking her head. “You leave me no alternative.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. I didn’t know what she was planning, but I imagined it wasn’t anything good. I had to keep the conversation going until someone came to help us. There were supposed to be cameras, right?
Keep talking, Dalina. Keep talking, I told myself.
Hearing what she was saying and seeing her in that state not only frightened me, it also caused me enormous distress and made me want to cry, but this wasn’t the time. I knew I had to stay alert. Niky was beside me and looked horrified.
“Henry is the love of my life. I fell in love with him the moment I saw him. And he was going to love me, I know it. Several times I took the elevator with him, and he would greet me looking into my eyes with a big smile. I’m sure that if you hadn’t interfered, I would be the one planning the wedding with him right now. But you had to come along and ruin everything, you damn whore! I hate you, I hate you with all my being,” she exclaimed with a deranged expression.
“Sol, don’t say that, you know I care about you very much.”
“You’re lying!” she shouted, and shifted her gaze to Niky. “You understand me, don’t you?”
“Play along with her,” I whispered, but Niky was completely petrified and didn’t respond.
“Do you understand me, Niky?” she insisted.
“Tell her yes,” I whispered again.
“Yyyess,” she finally responded.
“Do you like the idea of me being your sister-in-law?”
“Yess”
“I’m sure that when she’s out of our lives, we’ll get along very well,” she affirmed with a Machiavellian smile.
“You’re right, if it’s as you say, the best thing is for me to go far away and let you both be happy,” I stated, because it was clear that Sol was completely out of her mind.
She looked at me again, but at that moment she did what I never thought she would do—she pulled out a gun from one of her pockets and pointed it at me. Niky screamed so loudly that it startled Sol, and I was paralyzed as my heart accelerated to the point where I could feel it pumping blood at high speed. For the first time since I had seen her, I felt real fear and began thinking about Henry and my brothers, and the possibility of never seeing them again.
“I don’t trust you. I know you’ll come back to ensnare Henry. You leave me no other choice,” she declared.
“Sol, don’t do something crazy. If you kill me, you’ll go to prison and won’t be able to marry him,” I argued, summoning a courage I didn’t even know I had.
