Marriage Merger

Chapter 34

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.