Natalia Peréz, the daughter in a family drowning in lies, and lost love. She craves justice and truth, despite everything around her. Natalia finally decides to put an end to everything.
Aya and I are getting ready together. I'm so anxious about what will happen next. Aya sits at the vanity putting on her makeup. I'm on the balcony of my room staring out onto the horizon. The Lopez ball is at 9:00 PM, I must start getting ready. I walk to the closet, and look at the dresses.
I chose this one:
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For my make up, I choose to go pretty natural looking. Time flies bye, I look at my phone, it's 8 o'clock. Aya and I walk down stairs, the boys are in tuxes. We walk outside and hop in the limo.
Roman and I sit in the very back, Aya and Tomas in the middle row. I close my eyes. Take a deep breath in, and focus on my breathing and mine only. It's something I can control. Mama taught me that, of course. After a few minutes, I feel Roman's hand grazing over my fingertips. I go ahead and hold his hand. What did I do to deserve him?
We arrive at the huge ass mansion. There's luxury cars parked out front, women in dresses, men in tuxes. There's security detail all over the place. So, the thing is I know that there is something that Diego Lopez is not telling me. I know that he shot my uncle. That is what my father told me. But my father has been know to spin a few webs of lies hasn't he? The extraordinary thing is that Lopez doesn't want to kill me. I must get Diego to help me dethrone papa.
I take a deep breathe and step out of the vehicle. Roman offers his hand, I take it. We walk in. I smell something like lamb. I should've eaten before we left. I'm greeted by a butler, that offers drinks. We all decline, it's stupid to consume alcohol when you're on a mission. So many things can go wrong. Someone calls attention to a huge staircases that leads up to a balcony looking thing that overlooks the whole ballroom.
The man looks about Antonio's age, give or take. He says, "On this night, we honor a tradition. We honor the reunion of our family. mori quam foedar."
It's Latin, death before dishonor. We cannot go see Diego right now, people are talking to them, we've got an hour to spare. The only one he trusts is me, no clue why. We start mingling around.
Roman and I are dancing until one of the brothers tells me to follow him upstairs. He said Roman cannot go with him. Roman get's mad of course and tells me not to go up there alone. I close my eyes and touch my forehead to his. I whisper, "Mi amor, debo hacer esto. Yo puedo apañarmelas solo. Frente al amor y la muerte no sirve de nada ser fuerte."
He nods, I leave. We walk up in the hallway. I hear girls and men laughing and smoke coming out of rooms. I smell weed. Ew. We walk down to the last door of the hallway.
I sit down in a chair in front of Diego's desk, the brother leaves.
He says, "So, Natalia what can I do for you?"
"Tell me what really happened that day when you shot my uncle." I say.
Diego looks down to the ground, he has the 1000 yard stare look on his face.
"Natalia, your father, your uncle and I were best friends. We grew up together. I should not be the one telling you this." he says.
He says, "Natalia, that day your uncle was shot, it wasn't me. It was Armando."
I say, "I knew it, that man is a monster."
Diego says, "Armando Perez is not your father."
"Excuse me?" I say.
"Natalia, your father is your deceased uncle, Alejandro. Your mother was pregnant with you, Alejandro died. Your mother and Armando got married."
"But why? I ask.
He replies, "Natalia, You are the first born of Alejandro. Armando and Isla fell in love. All of your brother's are born from another mother. Your brothers are your first cousins, Natalia."
"Where is that mother?" I ask.
"Dead. Armando killed her."
I am shocked to say the least.
I say, "So on a recap of all that. First, Armando, my father Alejandro, and you were best friends. Armando shot Alejandro, the blame go put on you. My mother is Isla. Alejandro and Isla were together, Armando shot Alejandro out of lust? I'm guessing."
"Ahh, yes." he says.
"I was your godfather, you should've seen the pictures. Armando probably burned them. Isla, Armando, Alejandro, and I were something else. We grew up together you know. We all had an eye for Isla. She was so beautiful, and brave. She was a badass. We all loved her, but she chose Alejandro. I moved on, your uncle did not." Diego says.
"Diego, Armando Perez is more dangerous that you could ever assume. I am a government consultant. I need you to help me kill my uncle. The country thinks I want to simply put him in jail. Diego, that man has had too many chances at redemption. I know you are old friends, however, I think we both need him dead. If you help me, I offer aid in transportation for whatever vile things you do, and the government has agreed to turn the other cheek for awhile. And once, this is over, I offer you my friendship. It takes a monster to kill a monster. What do you say?"
"You've a deal Natalia Perez. You look like Isla and sound like Alejandro."
"Thank you sir." I say.
"Um Diego? After this whole deal with my uncle, would you tell me more about my father?"
He replies, "Of course, goddaughter."
He says, "mori quam foedar."
"mori quam foedar" I reply.
I walk out of the room and back down stairs.
A feeling of relief rushes through my body. I wonder what Alejandro was like. What his beliefs were. I can feel mama, I could never feel Armando. Now, I know why. If my father was anything like my mother, then perhaps my blood isn't plagued with injustices.
