The Lost And Forgotten Memories

      Some time ago, Anna came back home. Every single day, the girl feels that she is becoming different. Not herself. Not the sanguine and positive girl that she was somehow. She is kind of living the life of a person, who has to suffer without a reason. Meeting Peter made her happy, even if she was afraid that she would pay a high price for it. But Anna is glad that Julian did nothing to him in public. She did not want the blond to suffer because of that terrible man, who might beat him too strongly and cripple him. The girl would not like anyone to be Julian’s victim and is ready to sacrifice herself for that. To be honest, Anna is sick of proving to Maximilian that Potter mocks her. The girl decides to let things go and hide the fact that the man, who she is wanted to get married to, beats her cruelly, insults her, and humiliates her. Her strength has faded away. She is sick of fighting and resisting. She wants nothing. Maybe, only to die… To finally stop feeling the pain that poisons her soul and her whole body when Julian hits her with his big, strong fist.       Now Anna is sitting in her room again, looking at herself in the mirror and trying to cover up the tracks of hits with cosmetics. After Julian hit her forehead against the asphalt strongly, she got a bloody abrasion that she is treating and putting a band-aid on. Some time later, the girl finishes hiding the tracks of the beating, puts on a shapeless sweater over her turtleneck that is hiding the bruises on her neck, stomach, chest, back, and arms, and looks at her reflection for a few seconds. Which makes her feel disgusted. Anna starts to hate herself more and more, succumbing to the influence of Julian, who says it very often.       “You’re horrible, Anna Charlotte Seymour…” Anna pronounces quietly, looking at her exhausted, tired, pale, and unhappy face with disgust. “How could you actually be born? Your parents aren’t so lucky to have such a terrible daughter. Ugly, worthless, stupid girl that nobody needs! Someone finally opened your eyes to that…”       Tears are slowly rolling on Anna’s cheeks, her eyes are so puffy and red that looking at them could get anyone scared, and her circles under them say that she does not always sleep at nights because of worrying and even nightmares that she has lately seen.       “I hate myself, I hate myself to death,” Anna whispers and sniffs. “The people, who say you’re beautiful, good, smart, and talented, are lying! With no shame! Or they’re too blind to see some things! They’re afraid to tell you all the truth.”       At some moment, Anna gets so tense that she wants to throw something in the mirror not to see her reflection, which she madly hates. But she barely holds herself down, completely understanding that she would need it to cover her bruises and abrasions. So, the girl makes herself hold on, as she looks at her exhausted face, which is covered up with a thin layer of concealer, and into her eyes that have lost their gloss and shine. And a little later, she inclines her head, leaning on the dressing table with both hands and starting to make sobs constantly.       “Why?” Anna asks quietly. “Why? Why am I suffering so much? I’m so sick of all of that! I no longer have the strength to resist it! I just wanna let it go and let everything happen as it’s supposed to. I wanna prove nothing anymore. Nobody will believe me. Never. I’m unprotected. I’ve got nobody to count on…”       Anna keeps the same pose and cries quietly but bitterly for a few seconds, making sure that she would better accept her fate and be silent. And then someone knocks at the door quietly, and the anxious Maximilian enters her room, being only able to see the nightmare about everything that’s happening to his daughter, who shakes sharply when hearing this sound.       “Oh, honey, are you back home?” Maximilian asks.       “Yup, some time ago,” Anna replies quietly, not even looking at Maximilian. “I thought you weren’t at home.”       “I was in my room. Talked to someone about my work for a long time.”       “I see…”       “How did you walk with Julian?”       “Fine. Fine.”       “You could invite him to stay with us for a cup of tea or coffee.”       “He’s got things to do,” Anna lies in a low voice and wipes the tears off her face. “He drove me home and went to do his business.”       “Oh, so sorry… But it’s okay, next time.”       “Yeah… Sure…”       Anna says nothing for two seconds and sniffs quietly, while Maximilian looks at her with sadness in his eyes.       “Ah, Anna…” Maximilian pronounces quietly. “When will you stop torturing yourself? You just look into your eyes! They got puffy because of your constant tears.”       “I try not to cry, but I can do nothing,” Anna sighs quietly, looking at something that is lying on her dressing table. “My pain is too strong.”       “That’s wrong, sweetie…”       “You don’t understand…”       “Oh, darling…” Maximilian comes to Anna, hugs her around the shoulders from behind, and kisses her temple tenderly. “It’s been so long since you broke up with Daniel. It’s time to forget him and stop torturing yourself.”       “Do you think it’s so easy?” Anna asks in a low, shaking voice, understanding that the mention of Daniel gives her a greater pain that she can barely tolerate. “Do you think it’s easy to forget the one you’re strongly attracted to?”       “I understand, but what’s the point in suffering because of the one, who will hardly come back to you? Yes, you loved. But if it happened, you should accept it and keep moving on.”       “You understand nothing, Dad…” Anna sighs tiredly and steps aside. “You don’t understand how strong my pain is… I’d give a lot to live the times when I was happy next to him again. I’d live them many, many times.”       “Even if Daniel remembers you, you’ll hardly be together. He made a great mistake and cheated on you. Right before your eyes.”       “The case is not whether he’d remember me…” Anna sniffs quietly. “I will never forgive a betrayal… Even if my feelings for that man are still strong…”       “Right! I do tell you the same. Fate gave you a chance to think about everything and decided that it was time to end it. Maybe, Daniel seemed a good man, and you felt comfortable with him. But some relationships would be doomed to end early or late. So, you weren’t destined to spend your life with that man.”       “But I thought it would happen… I thought I’d get married to him someday, and we’d raise our children. I was sure I found the one, who I wanted to see next to me. And I didn’t think he’d do that to me.”       “I understand it, my sweetheart. But you can always get rid of even the strongest feelings. You just need to distract yourself from everything that reminds you of Daniel. Throw all of his gifts, tear any photos, and get rid of anything that reminds you of him.”       “And the memories? What do I do with them? What do I do if I start to think of him? Compare him with someone and think he was much better!”       “Time erases many memories if you don’t call them. For example, you could have been worried about something ten or fifteen years ago, but now you don’t think about it as if nothing happened.”       “Those memories aren’t as strong as those that are connected with Daniel.”       “Everything can be forgotten, Anna, you should just want it too much. Moreover, you have Julian. Such a wonderful man, who is very serious about you.”       “You know that I’ve never loved Julian and will never love.” “Why, daughter?” Maximilian wonders. “He’s got a good job, he ears big money, and he can buy anything. You’d feel snug as a bug in a rug!”       “No, Dad, he can’t give me what I want. Julian is a very cold and rude man, who can’t show tender feelings. But that’s very important to me.”       “Honey, when you have children and are busy with homework, you won’t have time for it. You’ll only care that the home is clean, and your children and husband are fed up and dressed up. You’ll have no time and strength to go on dates with your husband and walk under the moon until sunrise. You want what happens only during the so-called honeymoon period. But trust me, passion gets weaker later.”       “When I lived with Daniel, we had enough time. He always gave me a lot of attention and was very tender to me. We never refused that. He didn’t say he got tired after working with the band, and I didn’t refuse after cleaning, washing, and cooking all day.”       “You just had no children. But after children are born, you have no time for these things. And it becomes a habit later.”       “You say it because you’ve never felt anything like that. And think that’s right. But that’s not the truth!”       “You’re just a little silly girl and don’t understand what a relationship and a family life are. You want it to happen like in fairy tales. Get married to a prince and enjoy your life. But trust me, it can’t be happening. Real life is not what it is on the pages of a tale. It’s much crueler. And Julian completely understands it. It’s not surprising because he’s thirty-five and no longer a little boy. He doesn’t have illusions and has never had them.”       “Daniel is not a child, either. But he’s always been tender and understood that I needed love and care. And Julian doesn’t even know those words and thinks that when he gives a woman money and buys expensive gifts for her, it’s called care.”       “Is it not? A man must provide a woman! And Julian understands it. Would it be worse if a man didn’t work and was dependent on a working girl or lived on his mother's or father’s account?”       “I’d rather be with a guy with no job, who could make a girl feel like a queen, than with the one, who’s never said a nice word and thinks he’d show weaknesses if he did a compliment for a woman.”       “You say stupid things, daughter. But I don’t judge you because you're still a baby. But I’m sure that when you’re an adult woman, you will be grateful to me for insisting on a life with the one, with whom you could be provided.”       “Sometimes a new person can’t replace another,” Anna says in a lower voice, looking at something that she found on the dressing table. “They can only keep the illusion that you feel good next to them.”       “What do you want to say?” Maximilian frowns slightly.       “I want to say, Dad, that Julian will never replace Daniel.” Anna turns slowly to Maximilian. “No matter how hard he tries. I see nothing about him that would make me love that man.”       “You’re doing a very bad thing to him, Anna. Julian wants to help you so badly and does his best, but you don’t even wanna try to look at him as a man.”       “Maybe, I’d accept it later. But I will never be happy and feel what I felt before. Because you can feel it only once. With only one man.”       “You see, you do think you’ll forget Daniel early or late. I’m sure that you will say different things and get used to Julian some time later.”       “Please, Dad…”       “Trust me, he is not worse than Daniel, or maybe even better. I do know him well. And I don’t doubt that he will let you live in luxury until the end of your life.”       “There will be luxury, there will be no love,” Anna says without emotions, looking at her hands. “I will never love Julian. Never.”       “But, Anna…”       “I will never be as happy as you and Mother weren’t when you lived together. You would’ve gotten divorced before, but you didn’t do it for me and my grandparents, who didn’t let you do that. Only after their death, you understood that you didn’t wanna torture each other and did what you should’ve done many years ago. And remembering that you were unhappy, I didn’t want to live the same life. I wanted to choose my man. The one, who loves me and takes care of me. And trust me, I didn’t care about how much money he had. The most important thing is an ability to show tenderness and give me a feeling of safety.”       “Oh, my girl…” Maximilian sighs resignedly, comes to Anna, hugs her tenderly, and presses her against himself, caressing her head and kissing the top of her head. “What do I do to you? What do I do for you to be happy and stop torturing yourself? Stop killing yourself with the memories about the one, who you will never be with.”       Anna says nothing and, pressing herself closely to Maximilian, thinks:       “Save me from the tyrant, Julian. Do everything for Daniel to come back to me. For me to have an opportunity to speak to my friends again. Or at least do something for Potter to disappear…”       Maximilian hugs Anna tightly for a few seconds, caressing her head, before he moves his eyes to her and looks at the bandage on his daughter’s forehead.       “Wait, what is this?” Maximilian frowns slightly, steps back from Anna, moves off some strands of her hair, and looks at the bandage on her forehead, grabbing her face. “Darling, what’s wrong with your forehead? Why do you have a bandage? You didn’t have it this morning.”       “Erm, I…” Anna stutters, while her eyes run from one side to another, but are focused on Maximilian.       “Anna, I asked, what is that?”       “Huh…” Anna swallows up nervously, thinking of Julian’s strong hits and shaking from horror, while she is breathing heavily enough. “Huh… I… I… I j-just h-h-hit my h-head. Yes… I hit it…”       “Hit your head?” Maximilian pronounces with horror in his eyes. “But how could you hit so that you had to put on a band-aid on half of your forehead?”       “Erm…” Anna glances aside, remembering Julian’s words about killing her if she told someone what he did to her. “I j-just st-t-tumbled, f-fell d-d-down, and hi-t-t my head against the bottom of J-julia-n-n’s car… And I h-h-hit my forehead against that.”       “Oh, my baby…” Maximilian hugs Anna again with sadness in his eyes and caresses her back, while she has the pleasure of accepting a caress from someone, who can give it. “How did it actually happen?”       “It h-happened…” Anna replies in a strongly shaking voice, feeling that her cheeks are starting to burn from a wave of heat in her whole body. “I… I w-wasn’t careful… I t-t-thought a lot…”       “I hope Julian helped you?”       “Y-yes…” Anna lies quietly. “He helped me g-get up and t-treat my wound. At first, J-julian wanted to drive me to the hospital, but I refused. I said… I felt good…”       “Oh, thank God that man was with you. Thank God! Though, he must’ve insisted on a visit to a doctor. Hits on the head are very dangerous. What if something bad happened.”       “It’s okay, Daddy,” Anna smiles falsely. “Nothing hurts. It’s okay.”       “Next time, be careful, please. Julian might not be near you and wouldn’t help you if something happened.”       “Okay, I will try.”       Anna moves her eyes down, while silence settles in the air for two seconds, during which Maximilian looks at his daughter with sadness in his eyes and caresses her head tenderly.       “Alright, my sunshine, let’s drink a cup of coffee,” Maximilian suggests confidently and steps back from Anna. “Accompany me, please.”       “Sure,” Anna agrees with reluctance. “With pleasure.”       Maximilian goes to the living room with Anna with a slight smile, hugging her around the shoulders softly. When they go there, the girl sits on the sofa, and the man goes to the kitchen to take two cups of coffee. She watches him, shakes her head, doubles over, and runs her hands through her hair, wondering how her father could be so blind.       “Ah, Daddy…” Anna sighs heavily with sadness in her eyes. “Why don’t you wanna open your eyes and understand that this man deceives you? Why don’t you wanna hear me and realize that I feel too bad when I’m next to him? I was hoping for your protection so badly, but you did nothing when I begged you for help… You don’t wanna hear me and will hardly do it… Because I no longer want to and can try to make you sure that it’s not true. I don’t know how to make you and Mother believe that he might kill me with no regret. Make you understand that you’d doom me to suffering by agreeing to marry me off to him! You’d defeat me!”       Anna closes her face with her hands for two seconds and sighs heavily.       “You lied to me, Dad. You did it when you said you wouldn’t tell me how to live… You’re pushing me into a hole, from which I will never come back. But I don’t want it so badly! I don’t wanna suffer! Though, I understand I can’t solve this problem alone. I need help. But nobody can help me. And I can’t ask for help. Julian is gonna kill me. Kill those, who wish to stand for me. I can’t let it happen. I don’t want my friends to meddle in it. I don’t want Daniel to do it. I’m mad at him, but I don’t want him to die. I wouldn’t bear it…”       Anna would cry bitterly from despair and hopelessness, but she has to hold herself down because Maximilian returns to the living room some time later and gives her one cup of coffee, as he is holding another.       “Thanks,” Anna thanks quietly.       After placing a dish with a cup in her hands, Anna drinks some hot coffee, while Maximilian sits on the sofa and takes some sips, too.       “Anna, sweetie…” Maximilian pronounces with sadness in his eyes. “Say… Is there no hope that you will love Julian as well as Daniel?”       “Nope…” Anna replies in a shaking voice. “No hope.”       “Maybe, Julian needs to do what Daniel did to win your heart?”       Anna, drinking some coffee from her cup, thinks:       “He should leave me, you, and Mother alone and stop turning my life to hell! I’m so sick. Sick of tolerating his insults and humiliations and getting cruelly beaten.”       “Okay, would you pay attention to him if he behaved the way Daniel did?” Maximilian asks.       “I’m afraid, no…” Anna replies hesitantly.       “But why, daughter? That man really wants you to love him, but he doesn’t know a way to your heart. I’ve always seen that Julian isn’t indifferent to you, but you don’t want to notice it.”       “He’s a cold man. I can’t be tender.”       “It’s not the most important thing…”       “Even if you make me be with him, I will only accept it in the best case, not love.”       “Julian? Or another man?”       “Maybe, I could love someone someday. But that someone must be much better than Daniel and give me what I really need.”       “You should look for a trustworthy partner, honey. The one, with whom you would need nothing. With whom you wouldn’t have to be afraid of tomorrow. Who would be able to provide for you and your children. The time of careless love is gone. You must use your mind and look for someone, who won't let you end up outside.”       “You don’t understand me, Dad…” Anna sighs heavily and drinks some coffee from her cup. “And you will never do… You and I speak different languages. For you, love is when someone earns money. But for me, it’s when someone does everything for me to feel good. Who understands me, hears me, makes my wishes come true, and listens to my opinion… Who could give me support, love, and care with just one look.”       “I’ve already said you’re a baby yet. So, I think you need a much older man, who has life experience. Although Julian has never been married and has not become a father yet, he would not do stupid things that a young boy does. He’s mature and wise. His hormones stopped getting wild.”       Anna says nothing for two seconds and just looks at Maximilian with sadness in her eyes, while he drinks some coffee.       “Dad…” Anna pronounces hesitantly. “Say… Didn’t you Mother at all?”       “Huh…” Maximilian bites his lip. “Did I love your mother?”       “You lived together for so many years. And… I think something was supposed to happen between you… Some kind of attraction…”       “You see, my sweetheart, I can’t say I love your mother. But I can’t say I hate her and am madly glad I got divorced from her. Lilian is the mother of my daughter, I love and respect her, but… It’s a different kind of love… Not the one you have for Daniel. You fell in love with him for what he did and for the way he treated you. And I think you found him attractive. But… I didn’t feel anything like that for your mother.”       “But don’t you deny that Mother is beautiful?”       “Yes, your mother is a beautiful woman. But I didn’t feel any kind of passion or attraction… For me, she has always been the one, with whom I feel comfortable. Not good and not bad.”       “But you lived together.”       “We didn’t get closer. And the scandals that we started to have after your escape from home, made us realize that we should’ve gotten divorced.”       “Had you known each other well before you got married?”       “Yes, our parents introduced us to each other a long time before a wedding. They were close friends and agreed to marry us when we’d get old. So… It happened… Lilian and I spoke well and felt no hatred for each other. As well as we did after the wedding. And then you were born, and we started to get used to a life together and truly believed that we’d feel good together. That our parents got us married for the best.”       “And did Mother love you? Just a little!”       “I don’t know, Anna,” Maximilian shrugs. “Honestly, she didn’t like to speak about her feelings and hide them deep inside. And I’ve always been greedy for compliments… Though, we both knew we had nothing against each other.”       “And did you get better after the divorce?”       “Definitely. But no matter what, Lilian and I are connected forever. We aren’t strangers to each other because we have a daughter, who gave me a reason to live.” Maximilian caresses Anna’s cheek with a slight smile. “We are your mother and father and have always wished you the best.”       “I know, Dad,” Anna smiles falsely.       “I think you’ll understand that a child is the meaning of your whole life someday. When you have a daughter or a son, you will live for your baby with the thought that they need your care. Everything changes after the birth of a child: those, who were in the first place, become second or third ones.”       “I lived for Daniel somehow…” Anna sighs heavily. “He was the meaning of my life, and I was madly afraid to lose him… I tried to do something nice to him and was a good girl… Of course, I couldn’t always hold myself down not to give him some claims, but I always apologized and tried to make amends.”       “It happens, sweetie. Sometimes people forget the good things that you do. And if it’s so, so, you should strike them out of your life.”       “Gosh…” Anna puts her cup on the table, doubles over, and makes a quiet sob. “Why did it happen to me? Why? I thought I’d always be happy and wouldn’t experience this betrayal. That I wouldn’t see him cheating before my eyes. That I would never have to ban myself from thinking of a betrayal.”       “Listen, Anna, my sweetheart…” Maximilian also puts his cup on the table, moves closer to Anna, and embraces her. “I know it’s very hard to fall out of love with someone or actually impossible at times. But trust me, if you brace yourself, you can do it. Early or late, you’ll look at Daniel and feel nothing. You’ll fall out of love with him. You’ll see that you’re starting to think of him less and less. It’s a painful process, but you can survive it. And it’s going to be worth it.”       “Everything is so easy for you: forget it, get it out of your head, fall outta love, tolerate it… But you can’t even imagine how hard it is.”       “I’m with you, sweetie, and I’m always ready to help,” Maximilian replies softly and confidently. “I really want you to start to smile again and feel happy. My heart hurts when I watch you grieve.”       “Now I can forget what happiness is forever…” Anna sighs heavily. “Because I will never feel it.”       “No, Anna don’t say it. You just don’t wanna be happy. You want to suffer. You want everybody to feel sorry for you. You don’t listen to what I say.”       “Dad…”       “Trust me, if you distract yourself and do something, you’ll get better. All people in the world can find the courage to forget someone they love and fall in love with others.”       “But it didn’t work with my friends.” Anna sniffs quietly and blinks a couple of times to get rid of the tears. “Their love for those they love is very strong, and they can’t fall outta love with them.”       “Huh… Yeah, it happens. Rarely, but it happens.”       “That’s why I’m sure that even if I’m with Julian or someone else, I’ll never stop thinking of Daniel. I’ll never stop comparing them and… Looking for everything that man gave me.”       “If you give Julian a chance, he’ll be much better than Daniel. You don’t love him now, but you can get love for him later, when some time is gone.”       “I doubt it.”       “Soon, you will say different things and say you were a silly girl when not listening to your father. You will understand that Julian is a wonderful partner, whom I completely trust.”       Anna says nothing and just opens her eyes widely, thinking of Julian’s beating and humiliation and understanding that her situation is absolutely worthless. Maximilian and she sit on the sofa and hug each other for a few seconds before someone suddenly rings at the door. The girl gives a start, steps back from her father sharply, and gets horrified at the thought that Julian came here and would be beating and humiliating her again. The man gets up quietly and goes to the door to find out who decided to visit him so suddenly. He gets a little surprised when he sees a middle-aged woman with brown hair, green eyes, and a skinny body. But unlike the girl, the features of the unfamiliar woman are a little rough, and she looks like a domineering and unshakable woman with a very smart look.       “Lillian?” Maximilian pronounces surprisingly.       “Hello, Max,” Lillian says gently, keeping her hands folded in front of her.       “Hello. I didn’t know you wanted to come.”       “Do you have a few free minutes? I would like to talk to you about something important.”       “Yes, sure. Come in, please.”       Maximilian steps back from the doorstep and lets Lillian come into the apartment. The woman enters it with a light, tender walk, still keeping her hands folded in front of her and her back perfectly straight. The man closes the door and, making an inviting gesture, brings the woman to the living room, where Anna is sitting as quietly as a mouse, inclining her head and looking at her hands. When Maximilian and Lillian enter the living room, the girl moves her scared eyes to them, being terribly afraid to see Julian. But her fear turns into a surprise when she sees the woman.       “M-mother?” Anna pronounces in a shaking voice and gets up slowly from the sofa with a slightly open mouth.       “Anna?” Lillian pronounces surprisingly, looking at Anna with rounded eyes, and smiles slightly two seconds later. “Oh, God, my girl…”       Anna and Lillian hug each other with slight smiles on their faces, as if they have always gotten along well. The girl is terribly glad to see her mother and hug her for the first time in a while, and she understands that she wanted it more than anything, barely hoping that she would get hope for salvation from such a horrible man like Julian.       “I missed you,” Anna pronounces with tears in her eyes and sniffs quietly. “Very much…”       “Me too, darling,” Lillian replies quietly, barely holding down her tears not to destroy her makeup, which is made in neutral shades, perfectly shows her dignity and hides her shortcomings. “My gosh…”       “Mother…” Anna sniffs quietly again and hugs Lilian tighter. “Mother…”       “Why did you leave home and not let us know about you?” Lilian steps back from Anna and takes her hands. “Why did you make us so nervous? I couldn’t calm down! I thought something happened to you!”       “But I’m fine. Here I am again.”       “I can’t believe it… Daughter…”       Lilian hugs Anna tightly again and caresses her head tenderly. But a little later, they step away from each other and smile slightly, and the woman, looking at her daughter closely, gets horrified by how bad she looks.       “Oh, my God, what happened to you?” Lillian wonders with widely open eyes, closing her mouth with a hand. “Honey, what did you do to yourself? How could such a beautiful girl do this to her?”       “I know…” Anna pronounces quietly, looking down. “I look terrible…”       “Daughter…” Lillian looks at the band-aid on Anna’s forehead and opens her eyes much wider. “What’s wrong with your forehead? What happened to you?”       “It’s okay…” Anna replies in a shaking voice and touches her forehead, feeling that it’s slightly burning after pressing on it a little and wincing slightly. “I j-just h-hit my head.”       “Hit your head? But how could you hit it so that you grazed half of your forehead?”       “It happened.”       “What happened to her, Maximilian?” Lillian moves her eyes to Maximilian. “How did she get that?”       “She said she hit her head,” Maximilian throws his hands up.       “Yeah, against Julian’s car,” Anna replies quietly. “I… I stumbled and felt… And he h-helped me…”       “Julian?” Lillian wonders with rounded eyes full of horror. “Are you speaking to him?”       “Well, yeah. You and Father wanted it.”       “Gosh, Anna…” Lillian shakes her head sharply and looks around the living room, saying nothing for a few seconds and getting a little white after the mention of Julian’s name. “Are you speaking to Julian?”       “Yup… I meet him at times…”       “And… How long ago did you begin to speak to him?”       “Honestly, I don’t remember,” Anna shrugs without emotions. “But it’s been a long time. Somehow, he went to Father’s home for a cup of tea, and… Julian suggested we go somewhere… So, I… Agreed…”       “That’s how!” Lillian looks at Maximilian surprisingly. “But why didn’t I know it? Why did you say nothing to me?”       “I wanted to say it when meeting you,” Maximilian throws his hands up. “You left for some time, and I couldn’t contact you.”       “I see…”       Lillian bites her lip slightly and thinks about something for two seconds, as if she is not happy that Anna is speaking to Julian. And the girl herself wonders that her mother seems a little excited and looks at her with some gloss in her eyes, having a little hope that the woman could change Maximilian’s mind somehow.       “Mother, why are you so surprised?” Anna wonders. “What’s w-wrong with my c-communication with Julian?”       “Listen, sweetie…” Lilian pronounces a little excitedly. “I don’t want you to speak to that man. He doesn’t make me trust him.”       “What?” Anna opens her eyes widely immediately, opening her mouth slightly. “Not to speak with Julian?”       “Yes, Anna. I’m begging you — don't mess up with that man. Stop meeting him.”       “But, Mom… Why? Father and you wanted me to speak to the Potters as much as possible. So, I am doing it. Your wish came true! And I’m gonna get married to him soon.”       “Married?” Lilian gets horrified loudly with widely open eyes and glances at Maximilian being confused. “To Julian?”       “Yes…”       “Honey, but why?” Maximilian wonders truly. “Some time ago, you wanted to hear nothing about him and were asking me to defend you against him. You said he was terrible and mean. But now you tell your mother and me that you’re gonna get married to him.”       “I am going,” Anna nods without emotions on her face. “Alright… I shall do what you want… I’ll sacrifice my happiness and accept my fate.”       “But we wanted you to get married to Ryan, not Julian,” Lillian notices confidently. “Ryan is a much more perfect partner.”       “So, I will get married to Julian, not Ryan.”       “No, no, Anna, please, don’t do this,” Lillian shakes her head with dumbfounded eyes. “No! Not Julian!”       “Why? You have something against him?”       “You won’t be happy with Julian, I’m sure about it. Please, don’t make that mistake that you may regret many times.”       “But, Mom…”       “No, Anna, don’t even dare to think about it. I don’t want you to doom yourself to suffering. That’s not what I wish for you.”       “Sorry, but I don’t understand,” Anna shakes her head, being truly happy that Lilian minds her relationship and marriage with Julian. “Somehow, you minded my relationship with the one, who I met, and told me to marry the member of the Potters. But now you say you have something against my marriage with Julian and make me forget about it.”       “It’s a very long story, sweetie,” Lillian replies excitedly with a heavy breath. “I will explain everything later… But now I’m begging you to leave Julian and never meet him before it’s too late.”       “Why?” Anna pretends to be surprised. “Julian wanna help me and forget about the breakup with the one I loved!”       “You don’t know what you say, daughter. That man will destroy you if you don’t stop speaking to him.”       “But, Mother…”       “Excuse me, Lillian, but I don’t understand you, either,” Maximilian says confidently. “Since when have you had a different opinion about Julian? You’ve known him, Norman, and Ryan for ages, but now you decided that he is dangerous! What don’t you like?”       “Anna must not meet that man, Max,” Lillian says confidently. “I wanted to talk to you about it. But since our daughter is here, I must make her stop all of it before it’s too late.”       “Why must she not?” Maximilian throws his hands up. “Our daughter said Julian wanted to distract Anna from sad thoughts related to the breakup with the man, whom she told me and you about. He loves her and wants to be with her.”       “He told you that? Or that’s your assumption?”       “I talked to him. And Julian told me about it.”       “He can say anything, but he thinks of different things.”       “Lilian…”       “Julian is not what he pretends to be!” Lillian says more confidently. “He is pretending to be good!”       “God, here you go, too… First, Anna said it, but now you do it! What’s wrong? Why do you two want to slander Julian, who is guilty of nothing? I don’t understand you! How can you feel no shame in insulting an innocent man?”       “Indeed, Mother,” Anna pronounces quietly, being happy that Lillian has the same opinion as she does but not showing it. “Why?”       “Because he will destroy you!” Lilian exclaims loudly. “But I am not going to lose you because of that stinker!”       “But Julian is very good,” Anna says hesitantly. “Yes, he screamed at me one time, but he apologized to me literally with tears later. I… I know I annoy him with my whining and the fact that… I don’t wanna open myself to him… I… I’m guilty of everything…”       “No, no, Anna, no! Julian is pretending! He is an insolent liar and pretender! Apologizing means nothing to him. He will never regret what he does.”       “No, that’s not the truth. He’s mad at me because I provoke him. If I behaved differently, everything would be okay.”       “Jesus Christ, Anna…”       “Julian is doing everything right. I… I deserve it all… And I think… He shouldn’t apologize for what he’s not guilty of… No…”       “Please, daughter, don’t believe that man and his false tears. He’s got a wish to harm you. I don’t know how, but I can’t let him destroy you. I won’t lose my daughter because of that stinker.”       “God, Lilian…” Maximilian pronounces with horror in his eyes. “What you're talking about…”       “If only he didn’t do something horrible to you.” Lillian looks at Anna with half-wet eyes. “I think it’s true. Look what you brought yourself to! You don’t smile, cry constantly if you’ve got fluffy and red eyes… Your arms got much thicker, and your cheeks got more sunken.”       “Julian is not the one to blame for it,” Anna replies quietly without emotions.       “My girl, stop, please!” Lilian takes Anna’s hands. “I do feel that you’re suffering because of Julian. Stop torturing yourself, I’m begging you. Your mother wouldn’t wish you anything bad and push you to the hole.”       “I’m suffering not because of Julian, but because of the man I loved… The one, who you and Father tried to separate me from.” Anna sniffs quietly. “This is the reason for my condition. I can’t accept the fact that the man, whom I still love to death, betrayed me. I’m hurt. Very hurt. And I don’t know how to live.”       “You won’t get better if you keep spending time with Julian. You will get worse.”       “No… No, that’s not the truth…” Anna throws a short, wet look at Maximilian. “Dad is absolutely right… I need to spend much more time with Julian to forget the one I love.”       “No, Anna, no!”       “This is the only way I can get this love out of my heart. The reason why I’ve been suffering for so long. And start to live a quiet life and love another man.” Anna says nothing for two seconds and makes a quiet sob, slapping herself in the face in her mind because of what she is going to say to save Maximilian and Lillian’s lives. “To love Julian… And get married to him… I want this so much… Too much…”       “I can’t believe it…”       “I want it… I want…”       Feeling that she is about to cry bitterly and gets hysterical and barely holds down the flow of tears, Anna quickly runs to her room, where she locks herself. Maximilian and Lillian watch her with a dumbfounded look and glance at each other. The woman feels that her eyes get wet and understands that something is happening to her daughter. The mother’s heart feels some trouble and lets her know that she must immediately save her daughter from the terrible man. But the man is still sure that they try to slander the allegedly innocent Julian.       “Lilian, what’s wrong?” Maximilian wonders. “Why do you also slander Julian and call him bad?”       “Julian is not what he pretends to be, Max,” Lillian replies excitedly. “We must save Anna from him. Otherwise, we will lose our daughter.”       “How do you dare to say these things about the one, whom we both have known for ages! You are behaving very badly.”       “It’s all a lie. An act. A wish to assure us that the illusion is not an illusion.”       “God, what are you talking about?” Maximilian shakes his head. “What’s wrong with Julian if you and Anna slander him like this? My daughter literally calls him a violator, and he feels bad because he is doing his best to help her come to herself.”       “Anna will surely suffer if she keeps speaking to him,” Lilian says confidently. “Yesterday, I met Ryan and talked to him. So, he hinted that a great danger might treat Anna and asked me and you to do something and ban her from meetings with him.”       “Ryan? He’s doing the same? How does he dare to slander his older brother? That’s mean! Why doesn’t Norman care?”       “Ryan knows his brother better than you and me and lives with him and his father so far. And that guy says that Norman and Julian plan something against her and want to hurt her. It means they want to hurt us, too.”       “It’s drivel, Lillian!” Maximilian shakes his head, refusing to believe the words of Lillian and not wishing to see that she is shaking from excitement and horror. “Drivel! We have both known Julian and Norman for ages. And Norman used to be our business partner. We’ve always had a good relationship.”       “God, did you wash the brains of the poor girl if she's literally ready to get married to him? What did you say to her?”       “What’s wrong? Julian is a perfect partner, whom she will never need anything with.”       “She will need. Love, attention, and care. Julian has never known these words and thinks he can buy love. Buy a servant to serve him. Anna will become one if she marries him. Our daughter will become his slave. A slave without rights.”       “Sorry, Lilian, but you are crazy.”       “No, Maximilian, you are crazy. Brainless and blind. Because you don’t see that your daughter is suffering. Everybody sees it – you’re the only one to think you’re doing everything right.”       “I’ve always wished my daughter the best. And I would never let her talk to someone to be able to hurt her.”       “I don’t see it! You’re strongly pushing her to self-destruction. So, Ryan does confess that Julian could give Anna many problems. That boy has always wished her the best.”       “Ryan slanders his brother because he doesn’t have a good relationship with him and his father. After his mother’s death, it got much worse. When Genevieve was alive, everything was fine at their home, but now that boy chose the wrong way. And he went insane from his studies. He must think of family and work, but he is still studying.”       “Gosh, Max, why don’t you want to hear me?” Lillian asks with pity in her eyes. “Open your eyes and see all things clearly!”       “Anna suffers not because of Julian, but because of the breakup with the one she loved. And she doesn’t hide it. She doesn’t hide that she loves him very much but can’t forgive him for the betrayer.”       “Calm yourself down, calm down.” Lillian puts her hands on her waist, looking at Maximilian gloomily. “You don’t want to notice that your daughter is suffering because of Julian, who has never made me trust him.”       “Don’t dream up, Lilian.”       “Gosh, Max, how stupid you are…” Lilian moans tiredly. “Just a stupid, naive sheep that blindly believes everything he is told.”       “I want to remind you that you wanted Anna to get married to one of the Potters,” Maximilian says confidently.       “I wanted her to be married to Ryan, not Julian! Our parents wanted that. But I made everybody sure that my daughter would better be with the younger son of Norman.”       “That’s how?” Maximilian crosses his arms over his chest. “Since when have you started to go against them? You were so obedient and listening to them so carefully!”       “Don’t make me a heartless woman that didn’t care what would happen to her daughter.”       “Come on!” Maximilian exclaims loudly. “Actually, you wanted your daughter to be the same!”       “I have always wished her the best!”       “Oh, yeah! The best!”       “Don’t pretend to be a good father,” Lilian says loudly. “You have done nothing good that would make her a normal person! Because you let her do anything! She was doing what she wanted because you closed your eyes and covered her for me and our parents.”       “I didn’t want her to stay home all day long!” Maximilian says confidently. “Anna should’ve spoken to people of her age and her friends. Not to read boring books and learn what she wouldn’t need in modern life.”       “That’s why she became a rebel girl! If you hadn’t unleashed her, Anna would’ve become the one and wouldn’t have wished to go against the will of our parents and us!”       “I said you wanted to make her your image! You wanted her to be obedient and do what you and our parents wanted immediately.”       “She is a girl! And she must behave as she should do. I imagine what she’d become if she had only such a brainless father like you.”       “I see you are too smart!”       “Much smarter!”       “Oh, yeah!” Maximilian exclaims loudly, rolling his eyes. “Something came into the head of this smarty, and she suddenly said that our daughter must not speak to Julian. Who you had nothing against before.”       “I have never liked him! I just didn’t show it! As I should’ve done it! I’ve always been able to behave like a real lady, hide my emotions, and show what those people need.”       “Ah, you didn’t show it!” Maximilian puts his hands on his hips.       “Yes, I did not!”       “But why didn’t you like the man, who Anna dated? Is he worse than Julian? Ryan? Someone else?”       “We don’t know him! What if he is the same as Julian? Or much worse? How could I trust the one, who none of my familiars knows?”       “But people do trust others somehow! Not everybody gets married by an acquaintance!”       “Now it doesn’t make sense because Anna broke up with him. I don’t care about that guy. I care only about Julian. The fact that your daughter is suffering. She is suffering because of him!”       “And how would you prove it? To blame a person, you need proof. But you don’t have it! So, I make the conclusion that you and Anna are slandering him. Even if I don’t know why.”       “There are many reasons. First, I see that my daughter is afraid of Julian and wants to get rid of him. Second, I completely trust Ryan and know he will never lie. And third, the mother’s heart never fails.”       “Oh, I see your mother instinct woke up. You should’ve only heard about the escape of your daughter from home.”       “But you’ve never had a father’s instinct! You don’t care about Anna, and you force her to suffer because of your irresponsibility and reluctance to see that she is suffering.”       “Ah, I’m the one to blame?” Maximilian wonders loudly, pointing at himself with a finger. “Aren’t you the one to blame for your daughter’s escape from home? Anna left because of your lectures and wish to get her married to someone she didn’t love! You wanted to control her life, just like our parents did until their death! But she understood that she didn’t want it and chose her way.”       “I wanted to make her life better!” Lillian says irritably. “Just like any mother!”       “And what you got? Nothing good! You made your daughter run away with that man and hide from us for a few months.”       “But she came back home. She understood that he washed her brains, played with her, and left her when he got sick of her. But if Anna hadn’t done it, she would’ve found peace next to Ryan.”       “So, do you still want to marry her off to Ryan? Is that why you are begging her not to speak to Julian so hard?”       “Now I don’t care who she will get married to. The most important thing is that the man is good and able to provide for her.”       “Why is Julian bad? He can give our daughter everything she needs.”       “Julian will destroy her, Maximilian! Hear me, at last! That man will make her his servant, and she will be pleasing him and hearing his insults and humiliations if something is not right.”       “Stop talking nonsense! Julian is as good as Ryan. Anna and you should stop saying bad things about him!”       “God, are you so blinded that you can’t understand that someone has you wrapped around his fingers?” Lilian wonders. “Wake up, Maximilian! Look what Anna brought herself to because of your indifference! I didn’t recognize my daughter when I saw her! There was such a happy girl with a wide smile and gloss in her eyes, but now she’s become terrified and insecure. Anna kind of forgot everything she was taught and remains indifferent. She slouches, inclines her head, doesn’t take care of herself, doesn’t dress up… And she says Julian is guilty of nothing. She kind of provokes him!”       “It’s nonsense, Lillian, nonsense!”       “I am her mother, and I do feel that something horrible is happening to her! And I know that she must not be next to that man, with whom my daughter will not be happy. Who she will never love! And if Anna is married to Julian, she will just tolerate him. As well as I tolerated you. But I doubt that she would get divorced as easily as you and I did.”       “Oh, are you now for marriages for love, not for marriages of convenience?” Maximilian rolls his eyes and crosses his arms over his chest. “When your parents died and stopped controlling your life!”       “I am for the happiness of my daughter.”       “Your charges sound so funny,” Maximilian says irritably. “You’re begging Anna not to meet Julian, saying that Ryan slandered his brother, and blaming me for the suffering of my daughter. Even if you did not let her live as she wanted.”       “Because she was a child. A child cannot decide anything.”       “But now Anna is not a child! She can be responsible for her actions. And she proved it by running away from home with that guy.”       “Still finding excuses for your irresponsibility? The fact that you easily let her walk with Julian, who has always had his own demons!”       “That’s what you want to think!” Maximilian throws coldly. “And Ryan, who is going crazy after his mother’s death. Because of his unstoppable studies that he will probably never leave.”       “Ryan is not crazy!” Lillian yells irritably. “You have no brains! And you have always been a terrible father to your daughter!”       “I do love and will always love my only daughter, Lillian Roxana Dickman!” Maximilian gets enraged, threatening Lilian with a finger. “Do not dare to say these things!”       “Huh, is it unpleasant to hear the truth? The truth about the fact that you aren’t allowed to watch children because you could defeat them with your stupidity and irresponsibility!”       “Yeah, as if you are a good mother! You have never loved your daughter and have always been dismissive of her.”       “Close your mouth, Seymour!” Lilian hisses through her teeth.       “When Anna left home, you were only worried about what the Potters would think and did not care about the daughter. But now you come here, literally crying, and say, ‘Sweet daughter, I missed you and was worried about you so much!’ You’re pretending to be a loving mother and dare to blame me for giving a damn about my daughter!”       “How do you dare?” Lillian burns, opening her mouth widely. “How do you dare to blame me for giving a damn about my daughter? I have always wanted her to have all the best! And when Anna left home, I almost got crazy from worrying!”       “Yeah, I did believe it!” Maximilian throws a little rudely. “You were crying all day long and praying that your daughter was found and returned home!”       “I sacrificed everything for her! For example, my health! Didn’t you forget how I suffered because my pregnancy was hard? What a strong illness I had! How I could do nothing and was lying in bed all day! And what about the fact that I had a premature birth? In the eighth month! Do I tell you how many hours I suffered from pain and moaned every time I had contractions before doctors decided to have a C-section? How much time I had to spend to come to myself after the surgery? How much time I was in the hospital because my daughter was born earlier! And how much time I spent losing weight! I gained a lot! More than women usually gain during pregnancy.”       “And why do you say it? You decided to remember the rounds of hell that we had overcome before Anna was born?”       “To let you know that you have never cared about me the way you should have done. With you, I never felt like a woman. And I forgot about it after I got busy taking care of the child. No nice words! No compliment! No thanks for at least giving birth to a daughter for you! I was always nothing for you!”       “We both never hid that we did not love each other,” Maximilian says rudely. “I don’t understand your claims! If not for my daughter and our parents, I would have pissed you off a long time ago. And now I am madly glad I finally got divorced from you.”       “You know, I am also glad I got rid of this burden.” Lilian looks at Maximilian with contempt from head to foot. “You were absolutely worthless!”       “Yeah?” Maximilian pronounces surprisingly. “Didn’t you forget that I was working day and night for a few years, while you were babysitting the child? Did you forget that I insisted that you didn’t work? I was working too hard and getting terribly exhausted! But even despite it, I always found the strength to help you raise our daughter.”       “Aha, you only caressed her head and kissed her on the forehead! That’s what you call help? You never changed your daughter’s diapers and fed her with a bottle! His Highness could only ride the girl in a baby carriage at a park. For ten minutes! You got kind of tired!”       “Not truth! I always did what you asked me about and babysat my child. I am sorry that you forgot everything.”       “I forgot nothing!” Lilian throws rudely. “I will not forget that you were never a good father, and you just tried to pretend to be the one.”       “Do not insult me and say it as if I left my daughter and gave a damn about her.”       “You literally did it! Otherwise, you would know who Anna would better speak or not! You are an adult man with a baby’s brain! He can’t understand when someone smiles at him falsely!”       “If Julian were really bad, I would ban Anna from coming to him.”       “But he is terrible and dangerous! And you keep treating your child without care! You let her kill herself and push her into the hole, which my daughter will never leave. You said such terrible things to my poor girl that she agreed to marry that stinker!”       “Julian is not a stinker!”       Maximilian and Lillian keep fighting and blaming each other for being bad parents to their daughter, who is suffering much more than they can imagine. The ex-spouses are too obsessed with their wish to blame each other for everything they want and do not care that Anna may hear their talk. However, the girl does hear what they say, sitting on the bed, leaning on its headboard with her back, bending her legs at her knees, which she is pressing to herself, and crying bitterly. It’s like she is going crazy slowly and thinks that it’s all happening in her mind, not in real life. It’s very hurtful for Anna to hear her parents screaming at each other and blaming each other for everything. Moreover, Maximilian and Lillian tried not to confront each other if they knew their daughter was near, and they held themselves down.       Anna really wants to tell her parents all the truth about what Julian is doing to her. But the girl cannot do it. Because Potter may do something terrible to her again. The poor girl is crying bitterly and feeling unprotected in this cruel world. She thinks there is no solution to this problem, nobody can save or protect her, and any resistance may be bad for her. But despite the sufferings and the pain, Anna is ready to sacrifice herself and her life for Maximilian and Lillian’s lives and let Julian do what he wants to her, completely understanding that she would not get any kind of love and good things from him. And when she needs love and protection, the girl thinks of Daniel, who was literally praising her and was ready to do anything for her to be happy. How much she lacks that… And the fact that she will never manage to experience all those unforgettable feelings again gives her a strong pain… The girl will never be happy, smiling, and feeling peace.       “Mom, Dad, I’m sorry…” Anna pronounces in a shaking voice with pity and tears, with which she is literally choking. “Sorry… I must be silent… I’m sacrificing myself for you… For your lives… I have to be at Julian’s mercy to save you from him and his father… If I tell you the truth, I will lose you… But I don’t want it… You’re the only close people I have. I have no choice but to take all the hellish pain… Sorry…”       Anna buries her nose in her knees for a second, lies on her stomach slowly, and grabs the sheet, still crying bitterly and shaking with fear and the thought that nobody could help her.       “Nobody can help me and save me from this hell…” Anna says with tears. “I have nobody… And even if I do, they’re all powerless… I’m unprotected and lonely… Alone with my fear and wish to save my parents… Even if Mother believes me, she can do nothing… I’ll have to accept my fate… I’m at Julian’s mercy… Sadly…”       Anna hides her head with both arms and keeps crying bitterly and suffering from the forced loneliness, not knowing how long this torture will last, and whether she has a chance to be saved from everything that seems a horrible nightmare. Whether there is a chance to wake up and understand that what’s happening is her dream.       

***

      Daniel’s sudden appearance made Terrence, Peter, Edward, Raquelle, Natalia, and Helene a little surprised. They feel terribly embarrassed because the man looks at them with contempt, being happy to have a chance to tell them everything he keeps inside. The awkward silence settles in the air for a few seconds, during which everybody looks at each other hesitantly, while their friend comes to them slowly with his head proudly raised, and Sammy still tries to get his attention by barking quietly. And later, Terrence becomes the first one to decide to break the silence and says a little hesitantly:       “Daniel… What are you doing here?”       “Erm…” Daniel stutters, scratching the back of his head, and glances aside hesitantly. “I… I was passing by…”       “Were you at the shopping center?” Edward frowns slightly.       “Huh… Yeah… I was there.”       “Okay, join then, if you decided to come,” Peter shrugs.       “Undoubtedly,” Daniel pronounces a little coldly and crosses his arms over his chest. “Moreover, I need to talk to you.”       “Talk?” Terrence frowns slightly.       “We haven’t ended our talk since the last time. And now, I am going to end it once and forever.”       Edward, Peter, and Terrence, frowning slightly, look at each other, as if they feel that Daniel is going to blame them for the lie again. Natalia, Helene, and Raquelle decide not to be silent and join the talk, hoping to make the unpleasant situation better.       “Don’t be shy, Daniel,” Raquelle pronounces with a slight smile. “Let’s talk a little.”       “Yes, Daniel, tell us whether something has changed in a while,” Natalia suggests. “Maybe, you have recalled or found out something?”       “Erm…” Daniel stutters and bites his lip slightly. “No, nothing… No changes yet…”       “The men said you quickly ran away from the café during your talk,” Helene says thoughtfully.       “Yeah, I had a headache…” Daniel lies, while his eyes run from one side to another. “So, I… Went home…”       “The lads and I also got out quickly because we couldn’t tolerate that little bloodsucker, who ate our brains,” Peter says gloomily.       “The boy, who came to us?”       “Yup,” Terrence nods. “Blake Connor, the assistant of our band. He hates us from the beginning, even if we did nothing bad to him.”       “And as I understand, you don’t love him, either…”       “Kidding?” Peter wonders. “He must get a strong hit on the head with something heavy! That kid became too insolent and let himself do too much.”       “And what did he do?” Daniel slowly comes to one of the stones, on which the others are sitting, and sits down, too.       “He does love to insult the lads, remind them of their past mistakes, and blame them for many things,” Helene says quietly. “The men say he’s like something that sucks happiness out of a person.”       “It’s true,” Edward nods confidently. “After meeting him, we always feel empty. And the last time, he made us lose our temple, and we hit him a couple of times.”       “Yeah, and we didn’t care that we did it before everybody’s eyes,” Terrence adds. “We aren’t ashamed. And we said that he got fired and could find another job.”       “Maybe, he is not as bad as you think?” Daniel frowns slightly.       “Perkins, don’t be such a naive idiot!” Peter throws gloomily. “That parasite has hated us since the first day we met. He’s jealous that he has reached nothing in his life and just fucked lots of girls.”       “The girls and I have become witnesses to Blake insulting them many times,” Raquelle says confidently. “But he treats us well.”       “Yeah, at least, he doesn’t insult and humiliate us,” Natalia adds.       “He just knows we’d cut his throat if he dared to insult at least one of you,” Terrence replies confidently.       “If it’s so, you definitely hurt him somehow,” Daniel assumes. “The guy is kinda good and harmless.”       “Huh, fucking harmless!” Edward scoffs loudly. “Did you forget how he made you ashamed of the whole café and tried to assure you that what people said about you was the real truth?”       “Maybe, it’s true? Maybe, that guy was right that you are lying to me?”       “No, Daniel, it’s a lie,” Raquelle says confidently. “The things they’re blaming you for are the real lies! The guys don’t lie to you, and the girls and I confirm it.”       “Yeah, but people say different things and want me to get out of the band. Someone does actually want me to die.”       “Please, stop reading everything they publish,” Natalia begs with pity in her eyes. “One idiot just spread those false rumors that made everyone go against you. But we know the truth about that story.”       “We suspect that Connor did it, but he says he didn’t,” Edward confesses. “We tried to press him to the wall, but the kid said he didn’t do that.”       “But there is enough proof of the fact that it’s true,” Daniel replies confidently.       “What kind of proof?” Peter wonders. “Just because I confirmed that you and I had a conflict doesn’t mean I tried to kill myself because of that.”       “Your managers did wash your brains very well! Excellent! I am admired by the way you lick their asses. With a wish to ruin my life!”       “Daniel, stop saying some bullshit!” Terrence demands confidently. “And believing the lie written on the Internet!”       “Why are you hiding the truth from me so hard?” Daniel asks, shaking his head. “I am sick of it! Sick of your lie! Sick of being insolently used! The fact that you know about my condition and use it for your benefit.”       “It’s not true!” Peter protests. “We are telling the truth!”       “I don’t believe you! I don’t! You are all liars! Using me and my condition!”       “But why, Daniel?” Helene rounds her eyes. “Why don’t you believe us?”       “Because you are lying! You think that I will believe you and never find out the truth that you decided to hide from me.”       “I swear we are telling you the truth. And you are not the one to blame for what happened to Peter. Everybody can confirm it! And Terrence, my friend Jessica, and I tried to help this man. We three did even make a test for blood compatibility with his blood. But only mine was positive. I was the only one to be able to become a donor for the one to have the rarest blood group in the world.”       “And why do you say it to me? Do you think I will believe it? I no longer believe any of your words after I finally made sure that you were using my condition.”       “We have no reason to lie to you,” Raquelle replies confidently. “The only goal of ours is to help you remember everything and bring back the Daniel, who we’ve always known.”       “But you are lying!” Daniel protests. “Insolently lying!”       “Nobody lies to you!” Edward protests a little louder. “We say what really happened! We understand that you can’t remember us and can’t believe it. But we do know we don’t lie to you and wish you only the best.”       “You want to drive me insane!” Daniel says loudly. “Make me suffer!”       “Gosh, Daniel, do you really believe strangers more than us, the people, who know you as well as five fingers?” Natalia wonders with sadness in her eyes.       “But you cannot prove it! You just work your tongues and want to give me no proof.”       “Does the fact that we all confirm it mean nothing to you?” Helene wonders.       “You are just doing what the band’s managers tell you. I heard enough of what was said by that young girl, who blamed me for what happened to the blond, and the boy, who does know the truth that you are hiding from me so hard.”       “Damn, it’s not the one you can believe!” Peter scoffs loudly. “Connor does use the fact that someone spreads those rumors and showers you with mud with pleasure! Or maybe, he did that, and everybody hates you because of him.”       “He just told me the truth. The truth that you do not want to tell.”       “Listen, Perkins, if you think that little parasite really tells you the truth, you are, excuse me, out of your mind,” Terrence replies confidently. “How could you believe the one to be happy to insult us for the reason and without?”       “Yeah?” Daniel gets up sharply and looks at everybody, clenching his hands into fists tightly. “Maybe, you all are out of your mind? Conspired against me and thought I’D KNOW NOTHING!”       Terrence, Raquelle, Edward, Natalia, Peter, and Helene look at each other, being shocked by how Daniel started to behave, while Sammy watches them and kind of tries to understand what is going on.       “Daniel, c’mon?” Raquelle wonders quietly. “It’s okay, calm down. Don’t be so nervous.”       “I am quiet!” Daniel throws rudely. “Absolutely quiet! Not saying that I am very mad!”       “Dude, we understand it all, but don’t get so excited,” Edward says confidently.       “So, did you think you would have me wrapped around your fingers until the end of my life? No, scumbags! You were very wrong!”       “Daniel, what are you talking about?” Peter wonders. “Where did you hear that?”       “I thought you really wanted to help me. I trusted you like a naive idiot… I thought you wished me the best. But you were just using me.”       “You are acting like a naive idiot if you think we’re lying to you.”       “Stop denying everything!” Daniel raises his voice. “I do know everything! Stop! Enough! I am sick of the lie! I finally want to hear the truth and know what you need from me.”       “We want to help you,” Natalia says with sadness in her eyes.       “How? Make me feel like some shit? Blindly believe those I do not know!”       “You said you might know us,” Peter recalls. “You always say we are familiar to you!”       “You made me think so! You told me some shit and made me believe it!”       “So, do you want to say I wasn’t trying to die? That you and Terrence didn’t see me lying in the bathroom with open veins! That you didn’t faint when you saw blood!”       “Maybe, I recalled another person? Alike you! I could remember anyone but you! You are not the only blond in the world!”       “What?” Peter scoffs loudly. “Not me?”       “Or maybe, that’s not actually true! Maybe, I briefly went out of my mind, and you made me believe that it was the truth?”       “Yeah, but how could another person end up in my apartment?”       “I do not know!” Daniel throws rudely. “If it is so, anyone could be that blond. The one I do know.”       “Not, guys, you hear it!” Peter shakes his head, looking at everybody. “Did he go insane? Now he says there was another man in my apartment!”       Sammy barks quietly with sadness in his eyes, as if he confirms that everybody tells Daniel the truth.       “Those, who went insane, are you,” Daniel says loudly and rudely.       “Perkins, what are you the fuck talking about?” Terrence wonders louder, throwing his hands up. “What bit you if you were back out and started to deny that you knew us and saw Peter with open veins?”       “I do not believe that was him!” Daniel says, pointing at Peter. “I don’t! That was my imagination! You made me think that it was the truth.”       “It’s the truth, Daniel,” Helene confirms confidently. “Nobody tries to make you think about what’s never happened.”       “Yeah, but how could I end up in this guy’s apartment if everybody says we hate each other? That I insult and humiliate him and even threaten to kill him!”       “Are you sure that’s the truth?” Raquelle wonders. “Do your feelings say it?”       “I don’t know what to think! You washed my brain, and I got absolutely confused! Maybe, my name is not even Daniel! Who the fuck knows!”       “You’re contradicting yourself, Daniel,” Natalia says confidently. “At first, you said you knew Peter was trying to die, but later you asked us how you could know him and said either you saw another blond, or that was your imagination.”       “Yeah, man, decide it!” Terrence exclaims.       “Maybe, I knew the other man called Peter?” Daniel assumes. “What if that man is just alike him? Or that’s the lie!”       “Listen, do you understand what you’re saying?” Edward asks. “You blame us for the lie and say Peter didn’t try to kill himself. You should also blame us for provoking the bullying against you to drive you crazy!”       “I would not be surprised!” Daniel throws rudely. “I would not be surprised if you started all of that! Agreed with the band’s managers and spread those fake rumors about me.”       “You know, Perkins, it’s too much,” Helene says confidently. “You confuse your words. You want to blame us for something, but you don’t know what. So, you’re coming up with some shit.”       “You cannot agree on what to tell me. You should better think about it if you decide to pretend to be my friends.”       “God, Daniel, what’s happening to you?” Raquelle wonders. “Why don’t you believe those, who tell you the truth? We know that you’re afraid of being deceived by other people, but we wanna do nothing bad to you.”       “And would there be any point in helping you recall everything if we didn’t know you?” Peter wonders. “Why we would the fuck care about someone we don’t know!”       “But I do not know you at all!” Daniel throws loudly and looks at everybody quickly. “Who the fuck are you? What do you need? How do you know me? How did you know what happened to me? What kind of benefit do you want to get? What do you want to prove?”       Terrence, Edward, Peter, Raquelle, Natalia, and Helene shake their heads and round their eyes, looking at each other tensely.       “We are your friends, Daniel,” Raquelle says hesitantly. “We want to help you. Real friends always help each other and…”       “Stop saying you are my friends!” Daniel explodes, raising his hand in front of himself. “Stop! Do not irritate me! I am dumbfounded by your endless lie!”       “Perkins, you really went insane!” Terrence exclaims. “Wake up! Stop saying some bullshit!”       “It’s not bullshit, it’s the truth!”       “Listen, Daniel…”       “Stop it, your game is over! I know everything about you! I know you are lying to me! And as you are all here, I am thrilled to tell you everything I think of every one of you.”       “Damn, stop acting like a stupid donkey,” Natalia moans tiredly. “How do we prove that you’re attacking us for nothing? We can’t be blamed for anything! You have no right to do it!”       “Yeah, do YOU have a right to use me? Why are you the fuck not ashamed? Girls, why do you the fuck participate in the tricks of the men? It’s okay that they agreed and decided to get me ashamed for the whole world and kick me out of the band, but you…”       “You better decide if you know us or not!” Peter exclaims. “You say you don’t know us and then say everybody wants to kick you outta the band! Which means you are sure we know you!”       “Yes, Perkins, you don’t know what to believe,” Raquelle assumes confidently. “You should choose what to blame us for before coming here to start a scandal.”       “I give a fuck!” Daniel throws irritably. “Just confess honestly that you all are obeying the orders of your managers, who make you lie to everybody and say that everything written on the Internet and in newspapers is a lie. Could you at least do this? Or did I terrify you and threaten to kill you, too? One of you is already scared and is pretending that everything is okay!”       “Our managers’ orders?” Edward wonders loudly. “Our managers are covering your ass! Playing time not to tell people that you lost your fucking memory!”       “I give a fuck about you! And I do not want to be a part of your tricks. If there is a band, the part of which I am, I am getting out. If you wanted to kick me out, you got it. CONGRATULATIONS!”       “Damn, Daniel, wake the fuck up!” Peter demands irritably and loudly. “Who is that stinker that washed your brains and turned you against us? Made you believe this lie!”       “Ha, as if you don’t know!” Daniel sneers contemptuously. “You do know who did it, but you pretend you know nothing so hard!”       “Yeah, guys… Hard case… We tell him the truth, but he doesn’t believe it…”       “Truth?” Daniel smirks evilly and crosses his arms over his chest. “What kind of truth? About you insulting and humiliating my fiancée, while your pals are supporting you?”       While the others look at each other questioningly, the overwhelmed Peter opens his mouth and shakes his head sharply, looking at Daniel like a crazy man.       “What?” Peter frowns strongly. “Me? Insulting and humiliating your fiancée?”       “You are not deaf and have heard everything clearly!” Daniel exclaims coldly.       “Are you nuts?” Peter asks rudely, making a circular motion with his finger near his head. “Did you think a lot before saying it?”       “Do not pretend that you know nothing, blond,” Daniel throws irritably, pointing at Peter sharply. “I know how you terribly behaved with my fiancée!”       “Listen, men, am I…” Peter scoffs quietly, glancing at Edward and Terrence. “Am I going crazy? Do I really hear this bullshit?”       “Now I know the reason why this story started. I know who turned people against me. I know who must actually get his face beaten.”       “Perkins, do you the fuck know what you are saying?” Peter wonders. “What bastard told you this bullshit? Show me the one!”       “My fiancée was right. You did conspire against me. You used the moment and decided to take revenge on me for hurting your dignity.”       “Me?” Peter points at himself with his fingers. “Are you blaming me for being blamed for my wish to die?”       “A good way to make people pity you. I see they started to praise you! Ah, poor blondie! How that bastard Daniel dare to do that to him! We almost lost him because of Perkins!”       “So, do you think I spread those rumors?”       “You!” Daniel throws rudely, gesticulating actively, and points at Terrence and Edward. “And these two helped you! They decided to support the conspiracy against me!”       “Did you lose your brain as well as your memory? Are you not the fuck able to think?”       “How did you care? How did you dare to do it to my fiancée, who tried to be good for you? What did the poor girl do to you that you hate her? WHAT?”       “Perkins, did you hit your head against the ground?” Terrence resents loudly. “Why do you the fuck attack Peter and blame him for nobody the fuck knows what?”       “Deny nothing!” Daniel cuts off sharply. “My fiancée told me everything! She told me how your dearest pal behaved toward her!”       “You’re out of your mind! You hit your head again, huh?”       “Now everything is finally clear,” Daniel hisses through his teeth, clenching his hands into fists with a heavy breath. “You used my condition so skillfully! You pretended to be my friends and provoked that scandal. Bravo, idiots, bravo!”       “Yeah…” Edward shakes his head, crossing his arms over his chest, and looking at Daniel gloomily. “The doctor didn’t warn us that someone with amnesia might become a different version of themselves. A much sicker, more hysterical, and more psycho one.”       “You thought I would know nothing and blindly believe your lie. No. I finally know the truth and know who I must keep myself far from. Who I will not let ruin my life!”       “Gosh, Daniel, what are you talking about?” Helene shakes her head. “Who told you that? Who wants to turn you against us so hard?”       “No, Elena, you all want to turn me against my fiancée. You wanted to separate me from her. You couldn’t accept the fact that I met another girl.”       “First, her name is Helene, and second, you don’t have a fiancée,” Natalia says confidently.       “Yes, you have a girlfriend, but you haven’t planned the wedding yet,” Raquelle adds quietly. “Why do you think you announced your engagement?”       “Because we are already engaged!” Daniel says rudely. “And our wedding is going to happen soon!”       “Huh, wedding…” Peter scoffs, rolling his eyes. “He wasn’t gonna marry, but now he decided to do…”       “You all want me to feel crazy. You want to make me go insane. But I am not sick and not crazy. I just have amnesia. Though, I cannot wait for the day when it’s finally gone.”       “Listen, Perkins, we don’t know what fiancée you mean, but you don’t have her,” Edward says confidently. “You’ve just got a girlfriend. The girlfriend, who disappeared and doesn’t want to speak to us.”       “But we recently found out that she has big problems,” Helene adds. “And we don’t help her, it might be bad for the girl.”       “Yeah, what’s my problem?” Daniel asks loudly and rudely. “I have a fiancée and don’t care about other girls.”       “Do you really believe yourself?” Natalia scoffs quietly, crossing her arms over her chest. “Hear yourself?”       “My fiancée is okay! She is absolutely healthy, and I am going to marry her soon! And you can babysit that girl yourself!”       “Daniel, please…”       “Yeah, isn’t that the girl, who your blond pal wanted me to be with so much? Who he praised so hard. Because of who he refused to accept my fiancée.”       “What the fuck fiancée?” Peter explodes, gesticulating actively. “You don’t have a fiancée and never had! There is only a girlfriend! The girlfriend, hear me!”       “Stop lying to me, Pedro!” Daniel shouts, clenching his hands into fists tightly. “I am SICK of this!”       “I am Peter!”       “Who the fuck cares!”       “Listen, stop the fuck waving your hands and screaming like a hysterical girl.” Peter glances at Sammy putting his tail between his legs and watching everybody with sad eyes, as he is next to Natalia. “You scared the dog!”       “And you stop lying! You irritate me with your lies, ugly blond! IRRITATE!”       “Do not make me enraged, Perkins,” Peter threatens Daniel with a finger, barely holding himself down. “Or you will regret it. I will not remember that you’re sick and will beat you so that you will get in trouble.”       “No, bastard, YOU will regret daring to insult my fiancée in THAT way. For calling her fat and ugly!”       “I insulted nobody!” Peter shouts irritably and loudly enough. “I DID NOT! And I don’t know what fiancée you are talking about!”       “YOU KNOW EVERYTHING, BASTARD! EVERYTHING!”       “Perkins, you are insane!” Terrence resents loudly. “How do you dare to talk to us in this way? And how do you the fuck dare to talk to Peter like this?”       “Are you going to think any fake information is the truth?” Edward asks gloomily.       “My fiancée confirmed that the article was true,” Daniel says rudely. “And listening to all of you, I do not doubt that you conspired against me. This ugly blond bastard did it! I would not be surprised if he hired someone to try to kill me. And you, two twins, agreed to be a part of his tricks because you did not also approve of my relationship with my fiancée.”       “Shut up, freak…” Peter hisses through his teeth. “I swear, bastard, if you do not shut up now, I will beat your face. And I shall give a fuck about your lost brains! I WILL NOT THE FUCK CARE!”       “Damn, we did want to help this deadbeat, who is thanking us for everything like this,” Terrence shakes his head. “He blames us for nobody the fuck knows what and says that the attempt and the article are the things we did. And a certain fiancée showed up!”       “Should I bring the fuck Blanca to you, so she explains everything?” Daniel asks irritably. “So, you finally shut up and stop bullying her!”       “My gosh, who is Blanca?” Natalia wonders.       “We don’t know Blanca!” Raquelle says confidently.       “You know!” Daniel explodes. “You all know her! And you, girls, lied to me insolently when you said you knew nothing about her.”       “Jesus, what are you talking about?” Helene wonders.       “Who is Blanca?” Peter frowns strongly. “I hear this name for the first time!”       “STOP LYING!” Daniel screams at the top of his lungs. “STOP! YOU DO KNOW HER BECAUSE YOU CALLED HER FAT AND UGLY!”       “Fuck, you did go insane! YOU DID!”       “So, will you deny everything? Will you say that Blanca lied to me?”       “Maybe, you have a child? But we don’t know! Come on, Perkins, tell us! When? Where? And with whom? Who did you manage to fuck?”       “It’s alright, I shall bring Blanca, and she will personally confirm everything. AND DON’T DARE TO DENY ANYTHING, LOOKING INTO HER EYES!” Daniel glances at Terrence and Edward. “And you have to do with that, fucking morons. Same worthless pieces of shit as this blond scumbag is.”       “Please, Daniel, wake up,” Raquelle begs with pity in her eyes. “Don’t do it to the men. They didn’t deserve it.”       “Didn’t deserve it? Ha? Are you serious, Rachel? Are you defending them?” Daniel puts his hands on his hips. “No, it’s okay that you are defending your fiancé. But these two assholes! You, Elena, and Valeria are defending them too hard!”       “Stop saying it about the men!” Natalia demands coldly. “The girls and I don’t like to know that you're behaving in this way towards them! And I am not Valeria! I am Natalia! And she is not Rachel but Raquelle!”       “And it’s hurtful that you don’t recognize your girlfriend,” Helene adds. “Whose name is Anna, not Blanca.”       “I do give a fuck about your Anna!” Daniel throws rudely. “I do need Blanca, not her! She would be much better than your friend, who started hysterics for the reason or without. And who was not able to please me! I’m not surprised that I easily exchanged her with the one, who is perfect in everything.”       “Anna is your girlfriend, brainless jackass!” Edward says loudly. “Your. Girlfriend. Is. Anna. Not Blanca.”       “Anna always took care of you and never gave you claims,” Natalia adds a little rudely. “And she was very quiet and shy! She even never complained that you did not propose to her, even if she lived at your house and served you. And you never complained to the lads about how she pleased you. Vice versa, you were delighted!”       “Yeah, she could’ve gotten sick of living in your house like a servant and left you,” Raquelle says confidently. “But Anna tolerated everything and was ready to live at your house, being unmarried. Because she loved you with all her heart. And she didn’t care that her parents minded a life of unmarried people.”       “But it’s clear that the limit has been reached because she took her stuff and left you,” Helene adds confidently. “And you had probably done something bad to make Seymour feel no sorry for you before you lost your memory. She didn’t care about what people would think of her.”       “Endless lie…” Daniel shakes his head, looking at everybody with contempt. “Endless lie… You’d better tell me the truth at least once… No! No, the hell!”       “Oh, my gosh…” Peter runs his hands over his hair with a quiet moan.       “But it’s alright, false stinkers… Now I know everything and will no longer believe you.”       “Listen, Perkins, go home and put your mind in order,” Edward replies coldly. “And then we’ll try to get into your head the fact that you are wrapped around someone’s finger again. Or you better don’t come to us until you remember everything and understand that you look like a bastard to us.”       “You do have me wrapped around your finger! ONLY YOU, TWO-FACED IDIOTS!”       “You are going nuts, idiot!” Terrence shouts irritably. “If you invented a Blanca and believed that she was your fiancée, go to a doctor. Otherwise, we will personally put you in a mental hospital. And you will be released only when you are healthy.”       “I AM NOT CRAZY!” Daniel screams at the top of his lungs, waving his hands actively. “I AM NOT SICK! BLANCA DOES EXIST! SHE IS NOT A FANTASY!”       “Okay, okay, Perkins,” Raquelle tries to take a word quietly. “Let’s assume that she really exists. But that’s not your girlfriend or fiancée. You’ve never known a girl with this name. As well as we’ve never known her. We don’t know where she came from, but you must not believe everything she says. She is lying to you, not us. She does pretend to be your fiancée. I don’t know if she pretends to be Anna, but you’ve never been connected with Blanca.”       “She has you wrapped around her finger like a naive boy and uses your condition,” Natalia adds. “But you believe her! And for her, you’re ready to fight with the men and break a friendship with them. You blame them for a conspiracy and are sure that they organized the attempt on you.”       “We’re begging you, Daniel, don’t do this,” Helene adds with sadness in her eyes. “The men and the girls are wishing you only the best. We want the former Daniel to come back to us. The one we’ve always known. Not the one, who changed for the worse because of amnesia and a belief in the lie.”       Sammy barks quietly as if he agrees with the girls, being definitely worried about them and the men, who are disappointed in Daniel and thinking of refusing to help him and letting him live as he wants.       “Wrapped around the finger?” Daniel smirks with evil, puts his hand in the pocket of his jeans with a heavy breath, takes his wallet, finds a small photo, and throws it to everyone. “What can you say about it? And don’t dare to say Blanca does not exist! THAT’S HER! LOOK THE FUCK!”       Since the photo falls on the ground closer to Peter, he takes it, views it closely, and lets his shocked friends have a look by one. They see Daniel and the unfamiliar girl, whom they have never met, suspecting that this shoot is a fake immediately.       “I don’t know her,” Peter says confidently.       “I see her for the first time,” Terrence says quietly.       “I don’t know who this madam is,” Edward throws.       “I don’t have a friend, who is similar to her,” Raquelle says confidently.       “Me too,” Natalia and Helene say when they get the photo.       “So, you don’t know her?” Daniel asks, crossing his arms over his chest and making much more sure his friends are really lying to him. “Will you keep denying that it’s all a lie?”       “None of us knows this girl,” Edward replies confidently.       “This photo is a fake!” Raquelle adds. “A setup that makes you believe the lie!”       “YOU want to make me think so!” Daniel throws loudly and rudely. “YOU THINK I WOULD THE FUCK BELIEVE YOU!”       “She’s playing with you, bonehead!” Peter says confidently. “Like a toy! That girl makes you believe what she wants and uses your condition! And you, moron, don’t get it.”       “You cannot deny that you don’t know her. Because Blanca was too worried about the way you, scumbag, treated her.”       “Damn, shut up now!” Peter grabs his hair. “My head is tearing because of you!”       “No, MINE is tearing! MINE!”       “Anyone to work in Photoshop can replace the face for a few minutes,” Terrence says confidently. “It might look, so that nobody understands it’s a fake.”       “Ha, so, are you going to say this photo is fake?” Daniel resents loudly. “That Blanca made it on a computer!”       “We don’t know how your Blanca got this photo, but it’s obviously fake,” Helene says confidently.       “STOP LYING TO ME! STOP! I SAID I WOULD NO LONGER BELIEVE YOU! NEVER!”       “Gosh, wake the hell up and understand that you’re made an idiot,” Natalia demands a little louder. “What happened to you? What did that girl tell you to make you suddenly mad at us? Your close friends, who want to help you!”       “YOU ARE NOT MY FRIENDS! I DO NOT KNOW YOU!”       “You will remember, Daniel,” Raquelle replies confidently. “And you will know who is really lying to you.”       “And while that Blanca is deceiving you and washing your brains, your real girlfriend is suffering,” Helene adds. “Suffering from a horrible man, from who she must be saved immediately.”       “Stop lying to me and saying that the one, whom I have seen only one or two times, and to whom I never spoke, is my girlfriend,” Daniel demands rudely. “I cannot remember her! I CANNOT! DO NOT KNOW HER! AND IF I KNOW, I WILL NEVER BE WITH HER! I have a fiancée! FI-AN-CEE! GET IT, IDIOTS!”       “It’s alright, Perkins, it’s alright,” Peter crosses his arms over his chest. “When you come to us, say you remember everything, and start to beg us to forgive you, we will remind you of everything. We will tell you what a brainless idiot you were before our eyes. So, you feel ashamed. And you will be very ashamed, I don’t doubt it. Because the Daniel that we know would never behave like this. Despite lots of weaknesses.”       “Stop!” Daniel sharply throws, raising his hand with the palm of his hand turned on everybody. “STOP! SHUT UP! JUST CLOSE YOUR MOUTHS! I AM SICK OF HEARING YOUR BULLSHIT! STOP! ENOUGH! ENOUGH!”       “You don’t understand what you say!” Edward shouts.       “We will really look at you when you finally remember everything,” Helene says confidently. “We will be happy to listen to how you will be excusing yourself.”       Daniel clenches his hands into fists, as he rolls his eyes with an irritated growl. And then he glances at two or three bottles of water that belong to his friends and lie on one of the stones. They are opened because someone has already drunk from them, and the caps are barely closed. Not thinking a lot, the enraged man sharply knocks them from the stones with one hit, so that the bottles open and almost splash the water on everybody, who is sitting on the stones but manages to step aside. While the scared Sammy jumps aside sharply with a quiet whine and bark.       “Fuck all of you!” Daniel says irritably, breathing heavily enough and getting literally green from anger. “LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE! ONCE AND FOREVER! AND DO NOT MEDDLE IN MY FUCKING LIFE! I WANT TO LIVE MY LIFE! STOP CHASING ME! STOP ATTEMPTING MY LIFE! STOP INSULTING BLANCA! ENO-UGH!”       “Do you think someone will want to care about you after this?” Terrence scoffs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Ha! Go to hell, asshole! We’ve got many other problems!”       “EXCELLENT! Take care of your beloved Anna, solve her problems, and get off me. I will be thinking of my future with Blanca. About getting married and living together soon! And you keep drowning in your pool of lies and dancing attendance upon your managers.”       “Go, go, brainless donkey, get out of here,” Edward throws rudely.       “Never dare to come to us!” Peter adds irritably. “Never! We don’t want to know you!”       “And remember, bastards,” Daniel pronounces coldly, threatening the people, whom he is looking at with great contempt, with a finger, and breathing like an animal being ready to tear its victims apart. “If you keep chasing me and organize another attempt, I swear I will immediately go to the police. It has to do with you, ugly blond. And if someone hurts Blanca, you will have to deal with me. YOU GOT IT?”       “Get out before someone beats your face,” Terrence says coldly. “Or you will, scumbag, get us mad. The men and I will not remember that there are the girls with us.”       “Goodbye, assholes! I hope this is our last meeting! DO NOT DARE TO GET CLOSER TO ME! DO NOT DARE! I AM REJECTING ANY OF YOUR HELP AND DO NOT WISH TO SEE YOU AT MY HOUSE. I SAID EVERYTHING!”       Daniel turns around sharply and quickly goes nobody knows where, being excited after fighting with his friends and making them hate himself. While Raquelle, Edward, Helene, Peter, Natalia, and Terrence are shocked by the fact that Perkins ruined his friendship with them and did not believe those, who told him the truth. Nobody tries to stop him. Everybody stays in their place. And Sammy, whining with pity and barking quietly, tries to run after him, as he wants to stop the man.       “No, Sammy, don’t do it,” Raquelle says quietly, petting Sammy’s head. “Don’t stop him. Let him go.”       “Yes, fluffy, piss him off,” Edward adds in a low voice and runs his hand over Sammy’s hair. “We won’t change his mind.”       “Oh, fuck…” Peter moans tiredly and slowly runs his hands over his face. “I barely held myself down not to hit him and let him know that he is a brainless moron. But the fact that he’s got amnesia stopped me. If not for the one, I would’ve slapped that man in the face.”       “I also barely held myself down,” Edward says gloomily, slightly doubling over. “I really wanted to grab one of these bottles with cold water and throw it in his face.”       “That’s what we were afraid of…” Natalia pronounces with sadness in her eyes. “Daniel rejected our help and ruined our friendship…”       “Yeah, guys, it seems like someone washed his brains too well,” Terrence says tiredly, shaking his head and running his hands over his face. “Recently. He used to believe us and everything we said.”       “He definitely went insane…” Raquelle shakes her head.       “Honestly, I also held myself down not to kill him right here. Stupidity and naivety of that idiot made me angry.”       “He did make all of us angry…” Peter throws gloomily.       “Yeah, guys, as it turned out, we do really obey the band’s managers’ orders,” Natalia says ironically. “George doesn’t cover him up for fans and doesn’t try to solve everything.”       “No, Smith controls the mission of defeating Daniel Perkins,” Edward replies with sarcasm. “He did organize the attempt on that idiot and gave the order to publish the article.”       “Aha, he paid the chef of a magazine to post an article that got Perkins ashamed and made Rose someone like God,” Raquelle adds confidently.       “So, Perkins leaves the band at his wish, not being able to take this pressure,” Helene sneers ironically. “Everything was done to make it happen sooner.”       Sammy barks quietly as if he wants to say something, and then Natalia pets the head of the dog and yanks his ears softly.       “Okay, guys, the joke is a joke, but the case is serious,” Terrence says quietly.       “Agree, that guy went nuts,” Peter agrees thoughtfully. “The moment when Perkins said he saw someone not me at my home killed me. Even if he had said he exactly knew that was me.”       “Yeah, he went to the apartment of a stranger and turned it upside down to find him.”       “And the moment when that idiot said the conflict, which newspapers are talking about, started because of that girl, is the greatest stupidity and naivety!”       “No, the greatest stupidity is the moment when that guy blamed you for starting the bullying against him,” Raquelle replies confidently.       “No, the moment when Perkins blamed Pete for organizing the attempt to get rid of him,” Natalia adds.       “Yeah, you imagine how crazy that guy went!” Terrence exclaims. “And he also made Edward and me involved in it. We were allegedly also a part of the conspiracy and were Peter’s accomplices.”       “I wonder how long he was thinking before saying something? Or did he just want to hurt us somehow?”       “I guess he actually turned off his brains and went absolutely wild when he said it,” Peter smirks evilly. “Or his ‘fiancée’ told him something. That guy wouldn’t have thought of saying it. That girl made him do it.”       “Yeah, friends, it seems like we got one more problem,” Raquelle says thoughtfully. “We have Daniel’s amnesia, Wainwright’s escape from prison, the blame for bringing Peter to the suicide attempt, and a danger to Anna’s life. But now we found out that Mr. Perkins is probably cheating on Anna, and someone has him wrapped around his finger.”       “Right, congratulations, guys,” Helene says without emotions. “We got one more problem that we can’t solve. At least until Perkins gets his memories back.”       “Agree,” Edward agrees. “As we thought, if Perkins believed that shit, we’d be able to do nothing. Just sit and wait.”       “We’ve got no choice,” Peter shrugs. “If that man believes a strange girl more than those, who know him as well as five fingers.”       “Yeah…” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully, glances at the photo near himself, and takes it, starting to view it and frowning slightly. “It seems like Perkins is cheating on Anna. With this girl.”       “I’ve gotta confess that she washed his brains well…” Raquelle replies confidently. “If he’s sure that they’re gonna get married soon.”       “They’re probably kissing and hugging a lot.”       “Wait, Perkins is gonna get everybody overwhelmed by the news that he’s got a child,” Peter assumes. “That Blanca would give birth soon.”       “But where did Daniel meet that girl?” Edward wonders. “Who is she? How did she come up?”       “I think I know…” Natalia frowns slightly. “I think that’s the Blanca, who Daniel told the girls and me about after we mentioned Anna.”       “Right!” Raquelle clicks her fingers. “Daniel said he met her in the hospital and has been speaking to her since that time.”       “Wait, so, does it mean that’s really Blanca?” Edward wonders and glances at Natalia. “Natalia, you somehow asked me if I knew the girl with this name, but I said I didn’t.”       “Yes, yes, right!” Natalia nods confidently. “And it happens that Blanca does exist. Perkins didn’t dream up and does really meet her on the days we aren’t near him.”       “Hey, but if that idiot is really cheating on Anna, did Seymour know it?” Peter asks, putting his finger on his lip. “What if they fought because of her if we assume that Perkins had known that girl before amnesia?”       “So, had Perkins been cheating on Anna before that incident, but she found it out somehow and fought with him?” Edward specifies. “She wanted to end the relationship?”       “We could explain the reason why Anna left Daniel and refused to help him.”       “Listen, what if it’s the truth?” Helene opens her mouth slightly. “What if Daniel has been dating Blanca and deceiving Anna for a long time?”       “But they always seemed so happy!” Raquelle throws her hands up. “I mean, Perkins pretended to be a good boyfriend and cheated on Anna. And she knew nothing. Before a certain moment…”       “But what’s the meaning of having Anna and us wrapped around his finger?” Natalia wonders. “If Perkins wanted to leave her, why didn’t he do that before? Why did he torture the poor girl? Why was he the hell cheating on Seymour and dating her as if nothing happened?”       “I’m more interested in why he did that,” Terrence replies confidently. “Anna is such a good girl. Educated, careful, caring, and economic… Remember how she kept his house in order and clean. And how she cooked!”       “Right!” Peter exclaims. “Daniel would never be able to watch his house and cook so well. He’s never cared about something thrown in the corners. And we all know well about his cooking skills. He can’t even cook eggs well.”       “Yeah, I don’t understand him…” Edward exhales sharply. “Don’t understand… Why is Blanca better than Anna? Why? She is not beautiful! Look at her photo! I wouldn't even look at her!”       “But now we can understand Anna,” Terrence says thoughtfully. “Understand why she did that. But nobody denies that leaving a person with amnesia is not the best idea. And actually, a person, who is having hard times…”       “But why was she worried about him when we were in the hospital so much?” Peter asks. “If Anna knew that Daniel was cheating on her, she was supposed not to care about him.”       “Don’t forget that Anna might have still loved him,” Raquelle says confidently. “You can break up any relationship and become a single person for a few seconds. But love can’t be gone for one day, and the memories of it will stay in your mind forever. Moreover, she could get so scared that any offenses were put in second place.”       “And then she calmed down and decided to use the moment?” Edward frowns slightly.       “Maybe.”       “Still, this is the only explanation so far,” Helene sighs heavily. “At first, we were judging Anna for leaving Daniel, but now everything is otherwise. As it turned out, she’s in danger, and he’s cheating on her with a certain girl and says he’s gonna marry her soon. And in both cases, we can do nothing.”       “Ha, marry!” Terrence scoffs quietly. “Perkins didn’t rush to propose to Anna to marry, even if they have been dating for a very long time. And then he met a non-attractive girl and decided to become a husband.”       “Yeah…” Peter moans tiredly. “Although I’ve known him for ages and know what he could do, I can’t understand him now.”       “I must confess that the girl is really non-attractive,” Natalia confesses confidently. “And I don’t mean her weight or the fact that she has big cheeks and a snub nose. Blanca can’t just make anyone admire her. If I were a man, I wouldn’t pay attention to her.”       “It sounds rude, but she could hardly be changed,” Raquelle adds. “No matter how hard she dresses up and does makeup, she’ll never be a beauty.”       “But as I understand, that girl is not stupid,” Terrence notices. “Or she’s slier than a rat. How easily she made everything better for her. She planned everything. And she made Perkins believe that the story of Peter’s suicide attempt because of him was true. She charged him, Edward, and me for disrespect. And she said we conspired against him. She even got this photo.”       “Because of amnesia, Perkins became different,” Peter notices. “I don’t recognize the guy I’ve always known. The guy, who is a little weird and insolent idiot, but not so crazy. That’s not my friend. Not my brother.”       “Alas, the former Daniel won’t be back to us soon,” Helene sighs heavily. “Now we’ll have to tolerate insults and humiliations from the one, with whom we have to deal. I wouldn’t be surprised if he really attacked any of the men with fists. If Blanca told him something again, and he’d believe it like an idiot.”       “He will not dare,” Terrence throws gloomily. “Otherwise, we’ll show him where he belongs if he lost his brains.”       “Still, let’s not forget about the current situation,” Raquelle says quietly. “To remember that Daniel has amnesia. Try to be more forgiving. I know it’s very hard, but we have to. When he remembers everything, he will come to us on his knees and beg us for forgiveness.”       “You know, Raquelle, when that crazy human insulted me, I didn’t think of forgiving,” Peter sighs tiredly. “A little bit before I could slap him in the face. And I’d hardly regret it. Because I was insulted for nothing. Blamed for what I would never do.”       “Yeah, Blanca told him many bad things about us…” Natalia says thoughtfully. “I mean you, men. And as far as I understand, she knew about Anna and decided to introduce her as Daniel’s ex, who always had hysterics.”       “I did say she planned everything well,” Terrence says confidently.       And while everybody talks about the situation with Daniel, Edward takes this photo from Terrence at some moment and starts to view it closely. And he understands more and more that the girl in the shoot seems very similar to him.       “Listen, guys…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully, not stopping to look at the photo. “I think I met that girl! Her face is familiar to me.”       “Familiar?” Raquelle wonders. “But how? Do you know her?”       “No, no… I don’t know… But I exactly met her somewhere… But I can’t remember where…”       “Maybe, you are wrong?” Terrence assumes. “Maybe, you just saw a similar girl, who was not our Blanca?”       “No, no, I am sure that was her!”       “Okay, but where did you see her?” Natalia wonders, taking the photo from Edward and looking at Blanca better.       “I’m trying to remember…” Edward replies thoughtfully. “But I do know that it happened recently…”       “Recently?” Peter asks.       “Yup… Damn, where could I see her? Where?”       “Maybe, Terrence is right that you are wrong?” Helene assumes. “There are a million girls like Blanca! She doesn’t stand out against ordinary people. She’s not a model, an actress, a singer, or a socialite… Nobody!”       “Listen, guys, don’t ya think someone put the face of that girl in this photo?” Natalia frowns slightly. “Something is not right… It’s kinda okay, but I can’t get rid of the thought that it’s a fake.”       “We all understood it immediately!” Terrence exclaims.       “Hey…” Raquelle pronounces thoughtfully when she looks at the photo in Natalia’s hands. “I’ve seen this photo before… Recently…”       “Right!” Helene exclaims. “But there was not that girl…”       “What if that was Anna?” Natalia assumes. “What if Blanca replaced Anna’s face with her face and pretends that this photo was taken with her?”       “Right!” Raquelle clicks her fingers. “Anna is supposed to be in this photo.”       “What if we check out Daniel and Anna’s Instagram accounts?” Helene suggests. “I am sure that one of these two posted a similar photo.”       After Sammy barks quietly while sitting next to Peter, Raquelle frowns slightly and takes her phone to check out the theory of Helene, who does the same two seconds later. Meanwhile, Edward, opening his mouth, moves his eyes to the others.       “Listen…” Edward pronounces excitedly. “I’ve remembered where I saw her! It happened in the hospital! When Perkins was there!”       “The hospital?” Peter frowns slightly. “Are you sure?”       “Absolutely. Somehow, I needed to find out something, but I didn’t know where to go, So, I came to the cleaning woman, who was washing the floor not far from me. I started a talk gently, but she said nothing. She was very rude and even fucked me up… In Spanish.”       “Spanish?” Terrence asks.       “Yeah, she said, ‘¿Que carajo quieres? ¡Vete tomar por culo!’ Speaking softly, that girl asked me what I needed and pissed me off.”       “Wait, is that girl a foreigner?” Peter asks thoughtfully.       “Yup. I paid attention to her broken English and terrible accent, which got me a little irritated. And her voice is really disgusting. She understood me, but she could barely speak. And when she spoke Spanish, I understood that she was a stranger. But it’s hard to say who she is ‘cause people from many countries speak Spanish. Mexico, Spain, Columbia, Costa Rica… The whole of Latin America!”       “But how long has she been in the USA?” Terrence asks.       “I think, not for too long. If she lived in the USA for a long time, she’d speak English with no problems. But her talk is terrible. And she has problems with grammar. She never heard of declensions, and masculine and feminine forms don’t exist for her.”       “Hey, what if Blanca decided to use Perkins to get a residence permit to live in the USA?” Peter assumes.       “What?” Edward frowns slightly.       “One of the ways to get a green card that gives a person the right to live and work here without American citizenship is getting married to an American.”       “Right!” Terrence clicks his fingers. “And if it’s so, she got a perfect chance to get a green card by marrying Perkins.”       “So, that’s why she got so obsessed with him,” Edward concludes.       “Yeah, but how did she get a job? Nobody would give her a job if that girl is living here without documents!”       “She could probably come to the USA on a visa that has expired,” Peter assumes. “She does understand that it’s getting closer to illegal immigration and deportation from the USA, and she tried to find an easy way to solve this problem. So, as that girl met Perkins, she decided to try to marry him.”       “But you can always renew your visa,” Edward notices.       “Right. But it seems like she doesn’t wanna do it. But she could conclude a marriage with an American citizen, get a green card, live here for five years, and apply for citizenship. Yes, it’s a long process, but it’s worth it.”       “Anyway, she did know what to do not to get deported.”       And while the men talk about the reasons for Blanca and Daniel’s marriage, the girls manage to find something on their phones.       “Hey, lads, look!” Natalia exclaims. “We’ve found the photo!”       “Really?” Edward wonders.       Edward, Terrence, and Peter come to Raquelle, Natalia, and Helene sitting on the stones and look at their phones.       “It’s true,” Natalia says confidently. “The photo that Perkins gave us is fake. Here’s the real one.”       “I guess the girl took this photo from Daniel’s Instagram and replaced Anna’s face with hers,” Raquelle concludes.       “Daniel and Anna are in the real photo,” Helene adds.       The men look at the picture better, seeing the same shot that Daniel gave them and forgot to take. But there is no Blanca on it. There is Anna. Who looks very happy.       “So, I actually thought so…” Terrence says thoughtfully. “I was right when I thought I had seen that Perkins’ happy face before.”       “Yeah, everything is clear: that girl found Daniel’s account, downloaded the photo, put her face in it, and showed it to him to prove that he dated her and wanted to marry her,” Peter concludes thoughtfully. “And that idiot believed it and calls her his beloved girl.”       “Interesting, does he feel something for her?” Edward asks. “Or does he hope that he’ll remember Blanca if he gets his memories back?”       “I imagine his face when he realizes that the foreigner fooled Perkins,” Raquelle says confidently.       “She really planned everything well. She washed his brains and made him believe that they wanted to marry…”       “And Blanca knew about that article,” Helene adds. “And she used it.”       “Here’s why Perkins believes in the scandal that the media provoked,” Peter concludes. “If not for that girl, it would be easier for us to make him sure that it’s slander.”       “I don’t think so,” Natalia shakes her head. “If he hadn’t gotten mad because of her alleged lie, he would’ve believed the article and started to ignore us from shame. He would’ve hidden from everybody not to hear insults and wishes of death.”       “No, guys, although the foreigner came up with an incredible plan, it won’t come true,” Terrence notices confidently and stands in front of the girls. “Our dearest Mr. Perkins would understand that he’s an idiot after he calls the memories about everything early or late. And Blanca definitely forgot it.”       “But she will probably have a green card by that time,” Edward assumes.       “Oh, if she wanna stay here so badly, we can agree on everything. So, she just leaves Daniel alone.”       “Hey, wait, wait,” Raquelle frowns slightly. “Why do you say Blanca is a foreigner and is gonna get a green card soon?”       “Because I’ve met that girl,” Edward says confidently and stands in front of the girls. “She is working in the hospital where Daniel was. I asked her about something, and she pissed me off in Spanish. So, I understood that Blanca was a foreigner.”       “Are you sure that’s Blanca?” Helene specifies.       “I am. That’s the girl. Her face is in the photo.”       “Okay, and what does she need here?” Raquelle asks. “Not saying about a wish to seduce Daniel and marry him.”       “All of it,” Peter replies confidently and starts to walk slowly in front of the girls. “We think that the foreigner wanna use Daniel to get a green card, become a citizen a few years later, and live here constantly.”       “Do you think she came here illegally?” Natalia frowns slightly.       “At first, she could come here legally. But now the fact that she is here may be called illegal. So, Blanca might be deported if someone wanted to check her documents. If someone reports her.”       “And how long has she lived here?”       “Not very long,” Edward puts his hands on his hips. “If she lived here for ages, she’d learn English and speak it well. But she could barely form complete sentences. So, she’s got big problems with English. Even if Blanca understands everything.”       “Okay, but what about a job?” Helene asks. “Nobody would talk to the immigrant without documents!”       “She could get a job before her visa expired.”       “So, is she gonna lose her job at the hospital soon? When they know it, she’ll get fired!”       “It will happen!”       “So, sweet girls, make conclusions,” Peter says confidently. “In order not to be deported from the country, she must work on her documents and get a green card, or marry an American man. But Perkins came into her life at a very good time, and she decided to wash his brains.”       “And how did she know about him?” Natalia wonders. “How did Blanca know that Daniel ended up in the hospital with brain damage and amnesia?”       “I can assume only one thing: she follows the works of ‘Against The System’,” Raquelle assumes. “And she liked Daniel. But when Blanca found out that he was in the hospital where she was working, she found his room and went to work on him.”       “I think she naively believes that Perkins would help her…” Edward says thoughtfully. “He kinda has money that, as you understand, could decide many things.”       “Anyway, she’ll have to take an exhausting way to get documents,” Peter replies confidently. “And do her best to hide from those, who might send her where she came from. Anyone could call a special organization and tell them about her.”       “Hm, so, illegal life…” Natalia says thoughtfully, scratching the front of her wrist energetically. “If it’s so, she is nobody in America. Without a citizen, without documents, without anything else… If the migration services know it, she’ll be in trouble.”       “Yeah, that guy is unlucky!” Terrence shakes his head, putting his hands on his hips. “He cheated on his girlfriend, lost his memory, and fought with us because of her! Excellent! I have nothing to say!”       “I agree, he’s done too much…” Raquelle replies thoughtfully.       “You know, I’d try to find out more about that foreigner,” Helene confesses. “Who knows, maybe, we can find out something interesting that would make the police or other organizations interested.”       “It would be great,” Peter agrees. “But how? We wouldn’t better bother Daniel and try to ask him about something!”       “No, no, I won’t come to that psycho anymore,” Terrence raises his hands. “If he wants us to leave him alone, it’s okay. From now, he can live as he wants! And we’ll see it when he remembers everything.”       “The only way to find out something about Blanca is to go to the hospital,” Peter notices. “Maybe, we could even find her and question her. Make her confess everything.”       “Or we’d better pretend to be patients and ask someone about that girl carefully,” Natalia says thoughtfully. “Go to get examined and start a talk.”       “It’s an idea,” Raquelle nods.       “Maybe, we’re lucky, and someone says something…”       At first, nobody notices that Natalia is scratching her hand too strongly and has scratched it so that she got bright red tracks on it. But now Peter pays attention to it.       “Hey, Natalia…” Peter frowns slightly. “Excuse me for my curiosity, but why are you scratching so hard? You’ve scratched it to blood!”       “Yes, friend, what’s wrong?” Terrence frowns slightly. “You’ve been scratching your hand since we started to talk about Anna.”       “Oh, I don’t know…” Natalia moans tiredly, still scratching her hand. “I’ve been scratching like a flea-bitten dog since this morning…”       Sammy sitting next to Natalia barks confidently two times.       “Sorry, Sammy, I didn’t mean you,” Natalia says quietly and pets Sammy’s head softly.       “Lemme look,” Edward says, takes Natalia’s scratched hand, looks at this closely, and frowns slightly. “It looks like an allergic reaction… The hand is covered with rashes… Some red tracks…”       “Gosh, Natalia…” Helene gets horrified. “What kind of rashes? How’d you get them?”       “You said only about your allergic reaction to cats,” Raquelle recalls.       “I don’t know, I don’t…” Natalia shrugs. “But I can’t stop scratching it.”       “You say you’ve been scratching it since the morning?” Peter frowns slightly.       “Yup… I woke up in the morning and suddenly started to scratch my hand… More and more… I literally had to bite a bullet not to scratch it to blood.”       “Hey, aren’t you really allergic to dogs?” Helene gets suspicious. “Maybe, I shouldn’t take Sammy with me when we come together?”       “No, no, I’m not allergic to dogs,” Natalia replies confidently. “Only cats… And it’s something different… If I had an allergic reaction to dogs, I’d scratch myself and get covered with rashes shortly after ending up next to Sammy. But I’ve been scratching since the morning…”       “Maybe, you saw a kitten on the way and decided to pet it?” Terrence assumes.       “No, I never touch street animals even if that’s a terribly cute kitten. Who knows what they’re sick with… Maybe, they’ve got something worse than ticks and fleas… I pet only those pets that live in houses and apartments.”       “So, you should go to a hospital and find out why you have this rash.”       “Right!” Helene exclaims. “And you could try to ask someone about the foreigner.”       “You know…” Natalia pronounces thoughtfully, thinks for a few seconds, and smiles slightly. “Good idea… I will try to visit an allergist. And make my own investigation.”       “Great, I will go with you,” Edward replies confidently. “You’ll talk to a doctor, and I will stay outside. Maybe, I will also find out something.”       “No, thanks, sweetie. I will go alone. What if you have to wait for too long.”       “It’s okay, I don’t rush. I’ll wait as long as you need.”       “Don’t do, Edward, I will go alone. Go to the bus stop near that shopping center and catch a bus or a taxi.”       “Are you sure you wanna go alone?”       “Yup.”       “Oh…” Edward shrugs with sadness in his eyes. “So, as you wish. But please, be careful. Remember that Wainwright is now free.”       “Don’t worry, he won’t be where there are many people.”       “Okay…”       “Okay, I’m leaving.” Natalia takes her purse, checks out something quickly, gets up, and glances at everybody. “If I find out something, I’ll call you or text you on WhatsApp. Bye, guys. Bye, Sammy.”       Natalia softly kisses Edward on the cheek, hugs Raquelle and Helene, claps Terrence and Peter on the shoulder, and pets Sammy’s head while the dog barks quietly, wagging his tail. Then she puts on the belt of her purse on her shoulder and goes to the side of the shopping center, while the others watch her, frowning slightly, and look at each other.       “She’s a little nervous…” Raquelle notices thoughtfully.       “Hey, Edward, why’d you let her go alone?” Terrence frowns slightly. “You should’ve insisted that you go with her! You know that Wainwright is free now.”       “I know, but I think nothing will happen,” Edward replies a little hesitantly. “And if Natalia wants to go alone, let her do it.”       “Hey, is everything okay?” Helene frowns slightly. “I thought you were kinda weird. Natalia barely looked at you and didn’t almost stand next to you.”       “Erm…” Edward exhales sharply and sits on one of the stones. “I would… Not say everything is okay…”       “Did you fight?” Peter asks.       “Not quite. When we were coming here, Natalia suddenly decided to talk about the wedding. And I said it was not the best time to talk about it. So, she blunted something and was silent almost all the time. She only said short phrases. And she was mad…”       “Sorry…” Raquelle pronounces with sadness in her eyes.       “Yay, man, I think you won’t think about the wedding in the nearest time,” Peter says thoughtfully, scratching the back of his head and stroking his hair.       “I did tell her about it, but she got mad,” Edward replies quietly and rubs his hands. “I feel that the preparations for the wedding are gonna be very nervous.”       “We don’t expect it at all,” Raquelle confirms.       “By the way, we somehow talked about getting ready for the wedding. Well… To know our wishes for the celebration. And we ran into some disagreements. Natalia wants one thing, and I want another one… And we don’t know who should give in.”       “Hey, guys, don’t start arguing ‘cause it might lead to the cancellation of the wedding,” Terrence advises. “You might bring everything to the moment when one of you gets excited and gives up on this plan. And only Raquelle and I will have a wedding.”       “I’m ready to talk about all the wishes and look for compromises, but not now. Honestly, I don’t care about the wedding now. It bothers me much less. We’ve got too many problems… The situation got even worse, as you see…”       “Maybe, we should share our responsibilities?” Raquelle suggests. “One does one thing, and another does another.”       “But our opinions might be different…”       “We will discuss it, of course.”       “I don’t know, Raquelle. Now I don’t wanna talk about it. And I’ve got nothing to say.”       “That’s right, buddy, don’t think about it now,” Peter agrees quietly. “Don’t rush. You got engaged literally two or three months ago, even if people may be engaged for ages.”       “You’re right… But if nobody makes Natalia sure that it’s not time for this type of talk, anything might happen. I understand it all, but Rochester must understand that nobody cares about the wedding.”       “It’s okay, Edward,” Helene smiles slightly. “If everything is more or less good, you’ll think about it. I’m sure that Natalia, Terrence, Raquelle, and you will organize a truly gorgeous wedding that we’ll remember for ages.”       “I wish it happened…” Edward massages his neck and turns it on all sides. “A wedding is an event that you should celebrate well.”       “C’mon, bro, don’t think about it now,” Terrence says quietly. “The best thing I can advise you is to talk about everything when you’re absolutely quiet.”       “Yeah, we’ll think about the wedding when all the problems are solved,” Raquelle adds.       “I do think so,” Edward replies quietly. “But it doesn’t mean I want to cancel everything…”       “Just listen to our pieces of advice,” Helene says with a slight smile. “We wouldn’t advise bad things.”       “And now, you should say all the same to my beloved stubborn blonde, who got mad for nothing.”       Terrence, Raquelle, and Peter smile slightly, and Sammy barks quietly, comes to Edward, and puts his face on his laps, looking at him with pity in his eyes. The man pets the dog’s head and neck with a shy smile, feeling a little better after stroking the soft, fluffy hair of the pet that always tries to be next to those, who feel sad and suffer.       

***

      Daniel decided to walk into the city after the fight with his friends, who did not make him think that they were right. And even if he said many things that could not always be the truth in anger, the man regrets nothing and thinks he did the right thing by rejecting those, who he never wants to meet and talk to. Daniel walks in the city without a goal for some time, passing by people, who may be alone or with someone else and enjoying the warm and comfortable weather. And a little later, Perkins takes his phone, types Blanca’s number, and asks her to meet him somewhere. The girl promises to come as soon as possible, saying that she is not far from him. Being happy with it, the man says goodbye to her with a slight smile and goes to the meeting place in a slow, quiet step, enjoying the warm, nice wind that is blowing his face.       After he let his aggression out on his friends, Daniel felt great peace and relief. He gets kind of better and no longer feels as sad and yearning as he did some time ago. The man decides to give a damn about his amnesia, just to enjoy his relationship with Blanca, and try to love her and accept her jealousy, which still drives him crazy. He knows that he will remember the foreigner early or later and do his best to make the girl happy. Even if he remembers nothing, the man tells himself that he will not get upset and just start his life again. The life, in which there would be him, Blanca, and their future children.       Being fallen into his thoughts, Daniel does not notice that he comes to a small, unpopular park where there are many green trees and bushes, flowers, birds, and paths that lead to different sides. Also, there are benches, on which people could sit and think of something nice. The man does it. Daniel just looks at what surrounds him for a few minutes, breathes in the fresh air, and watches people, who rarely go by him. A quiet atmosphere helps him relax, think of something good, and forget about his fight with his friends, the mention of whom can already make him furious. But then, Daniel has to come back to reality because the cheerful Blanca comes to him in a quick, heavy step with a wide smile.       “¡Hola, mi gatito!” Blanca greets cheerfully with a slight smile.       “Hey, Blanca,” Daniel pronounces amicably and gets up from the bench. “Thanks for coming quickly.”       Blanca does not even have to hang out on Daniel’s neck because he hugs her touchingly and kisses her on the cheek.       “It to be so good that I to be free and walk near,” Blanca says with a slight smile. “I come to you after you call me.”       “If I had known where you were, I would’ve taken you out,” Daniel replies confidently.”       “Oh, mi amor… It to be so touching… You not to be like this so some time ago. What to impact you?”       “Well, we’re dating and gonna get married,” Daniel replies softly with a shy smile.       “Ah, Daniel… I to miss your smile…” Blanca fixes Daniel’s disheveled hair. “It to be so beautiful…”       “If you like it so much, I will smile much more frequently.”       “And I want to hear compliments. To hear how much you love me. Call me what I love to be.”       “With pleasure, my sweetheart.” Daniel caresses Blanca’s cheek tenderly, making her smile widely and close her eyes like a happy cat. “I do it not only for the wish to do something nice for you and also for the wish to make amends for you.”       “Amends? What amends, mi gatito? ¿De qué eastás hablando?”       “I didn’t appreciate you all this time, Blanca. And I even thought you lied to me.”       “Daniel, querida…” Blanca shakes her head with a slight smile. “You…”       “Now everything will be otherwise, sweetie. I promise. You will no longer suffer because of me.”       “I to blame you for nothing, mi bebe.” Blanca caresses Daniel’s cheeks with both hands. “You know that I completely understand your situation.”       “I’ve finally made sure that you tell me the truth,” Daniel replies confidently. “I know you’re the only one, who I can trust.”       “¿Si?” Blanca rounds her eyes. “You to remember me? You to know that I to be your fiancée?”       “No yet, I haven’t done it. But…” Daniel takes Blanca’s hands, comes to the bench with her, and sits on it. “But I found out that those, who surrounded me, are betrayers and liars. You were absolutely right about those, who pretended to be my friends. I brought them to clean water and know they’re mean stinkers.”       “Wait, wait, Daniel,” Blanca jabs, shaking her head. “I not to understand you. Speak quietly. I listen to you closely.”       “I said everything to those liars. The liars, who were with me all this time and pretended to be my friends.”       “Really?”       “Yes. I heard about their meeting in the country and went there. I was very lucky that there was everybody, to whom I finally told everything I wanted.”       “Oh, querida…” Blanca caresses Daniel’s cheek softly. “You to go there without me? But why you not to take me with you? I to say everything to those, who to use you and to hurt me!”       “I’m sorry, Blanca,” Daniel replies with sadness in his eyes. “But I think you shouldn’t have gone with me. Otherwise, those people would’ve done something bad to you.”       “But I to confirm everything!”       “No need. I found out and understood everything. I told them everything I think of them, pissed them off, and told them to leave me and you alone. And I hope that they are not stupid and will stop chasing us.”       “Mi amor…” Blanca takes Daniel’s hand. “What they to tell you?”       “What I should’ve expected,” Daniel replies confidently. “They all started to say they wished me only the best. When I blamed Pedro for treating you terribly, he started to deny everything categorically and shouted at me like crazy. And his pals supported him and said that I went insane.”       “Cad!” Blanca resents. “How he to dare? How someone like that asshole to live in the world so quietly?”       “He didn’t just want to hear the truth. That bastard wanted to hit me in the face, but I think he understood that fighting with me would be bad for him.”       “Daniel, mi príncipe…”       “I swear, Blanca, if he had hit me, that blond would not have lived until tomorrow. He would’ve died immediately!”       “I to be happy it not to happen,” Blanca replies with sadness in her eyes. “I not to love when someone to solve something with a fight. And people like Peter Rose and his gang understand nothing.”       “After this talk, I made absolutely sure that Peter provoked the bullying. And I don’t doubt that he organized the attempt on me. Either he hit me with a car, or he hired someone.”       “I not to know it, querida, but I to be agree and sure that the scumbag to want to kill you. And if we prove his fault, he to be put in prison.”       “I will put all of them in prison if they dare to get close to me and you and do at least one bad thing,” Daniel says coldly. “I told them about it. One more threat and one more insult before I go to the police. Before I blame that bastard for the attempt. I wish that bastard went to prison!”       “Right!” Blanca smiles widely. “Very right! I to be always ready to confirm any of your words.”       “They lied to me insolently, Blanca… They used my condition and made me believe that I could trust them. The blond, the brothers, and their girls… They all conspired… They wanted to do their best for me to go crazy and dance attendance upon them.”       “I to tell you that they to be bad.”       “Moreover, they pretended that they didn’t know you. Everybody! Even that blond freak! Even when I threw the photo of you and me to them, they kept saying they didn’t know the girl named Blanca Moreno.”       “My gosh…” Blanca sniffs with sadness in her eyes. “I not to believe it…”       “And their girls tried to tell me some bullshit. That I allegedly loved another girl. Who I saw two times when I was in the hospital.”       “The one, who Peter to adore so much?”       “A certain Anna.”       “Yes, yes, it to be your former girlfriend. Who to have hysterics for you.”       “They all tried to make sure that she was my girlfriend, and you were allegedly nobody to me.”       “How they dare?” Blanca makes a quiet sob. “I to be your fiancée… Me! Not that hysterical gal!”       “I told them about it and ordered to stop lying to me, looking into my eyes.”       “You tell them everything? You say that they to be stinkers?”       “Sure, my sweetie.” Daniel caresses Blanca’s cheek tenderly with both hands, looking into her eyes confidently with a slight smile. “Now nobody will bother us. Nobody will insult and hurt my fiancée.”       “And you swear that you never to speak to those scumbags?”       “I swear, Blanca, I have broken up my relationships with those people. There is only you in my life. I told those people to leave me alone and said that I was leaving their band.”       “Oh, mi amor, I to be so happy for you…” Blanca smiles shyly. “You make an absolutely right choice.”       “Maybe, I don’t remember you yet. But I promise that I will do my best to recall you. But even if I don’t get my memories back, I will surely fall in love with you and make you the happiest girl.”       “And you feel very good with me,” Blanca promises confidently, taking Daniel’s hand and caressing it. “I do my best to make you feel happy. We to be together until death. No amnesia to separate us.”       “No, sunshine, it won’t be,” Daniel replies with a slight smile. “With amnesia or without – I will be with you and do my best for your well-being.”       “I believe, querida.” Blanca looks down for a second. “And I hope that any other girl not to dare to steal you from me.”       “No, Blanca, I will not leave you and will always be with you. I need nobody but you.”       Blanca smiles much wider and kisses Daniel on the cheek tenderly, while he tries to make himself think that he loves her, and that she does not make him feel disgusting. They say nothing for two seconds, and the foreigner presses herself cutely to the man, who hugs her around the shoulders and caresses her head tenderly.       “By the way, you still remember that I want to get a ring for our engagement?” Blanca asks coquettishly with a slight smile and shows her left hand. “I want it to be on my finger. I want to show it to everybody and let them know that I to be married soon.”       “Sure, sweetheart,” Daniel nods with a shy smile. “I promise that the most beautiful ring will be on your hand very soon. If you said you chose it, I will be happy to buy it and propose to you.”       “Oh, yes, yes, I wait for this moment so much!” Blanca claps her hands with delight. “Gosh! Gosh!”       “Me too… And I can’t wait to start to get ready for the wedding.”       “We want to get ready for the wedding much earlier, but you to end up in the hospital because of that ugly blond and forget everything.”       “Let’s not make amnesia a barrier to that. We’ll get married, even if I remember nothing. May it be the beginning of a new life. The old forgotten one will remain in the past, and a new one will start in the nearest time.”       “When you buy a ring and get down on your knee, we to start to get ready.”       “Okay, Blanca, it will happen.”       With these words, Daniel kisses Blanca on the temple and cheek cutely, while she presses herself to the man as closely as possible.       “Okay, let’s forget about those liars,” Daniel suggests confidently, puts his arm on the bench, and leans on his head with a hand, looking at Blanca with a slight smile. “Let’s talk about us… Your family… Something else… It would cheer me up and help me relax.”       “Let’s talk about us,” Blanca replies. “I love to talk about it.”       “And… Since you’ve already told me how we met, I’d like to know something about what happened next. How did we start to date? Or… How did we confess our love? Tell me something.”       “Oh, querida, it to be so sweet…” Blanca pronounces with gloss in her eyes. “I still remember that we to walk at a very beautiful place in the evening time. We to see the beautiful stars and the moon. We come to the curved bridge, step on it, and watch the moon to light up the rival. It to be so beautiful…”       “Sounds good…” Daniel smiles slightly.       “I actually love the night.” Blanca falls into silence for two seconds. “It to be such a beautiful time.”       “And what’s next?”       “Next, we talk about everything in the world.” Blanca smiles widely. “And at some moment, you say you find me very beautiful, cute, and attractive. I to be ready to die of happiness when you say it… That you feel tender feelings for me and want to be with me all the time. And add that you want to date me…”       “I said that?”       “Si, mi amor.” Blanca looks down shyly for a second. “And then you become so shy and scared… Try to say you not to mean it and to try to deny everything. I try to find out all the truth and get it in the end. You to stop to be so nervous when I confess that I to feel sympathy for you.”       “So, didn’t I plan to confess my love?”       “You say you want to do it later because you to think it to be a bad time. I remember that you to be nervous when you hear my words that we not to be friends after we confess our love.”       “Wow…”       “And on that day, we to give each other our first kiss. On that bridge, bajo las estrellas y la luna. Ah!” Blanca rolls her eyes dreamily. “That to be so romantic! But I to push you because you to be very excited and suggest you kiss me. And it to be the best kiss in my life.”       This story seems very familiar to Daniel, even if he is not quite sure that it happened between him and Blanca. Still, the man prefers believing that the foreigner told him the truth again, smiling so widely and looking at the man with true admiration.       “You know, Blanca…” Daniel pronounces thoughtfully. “It… It all seems familiar to me… I feel like I really experienced those things…”       “And it to be the truth,” Blanca replies confidently, caressing Daniel’s hand softly. “You ask me to tell you how we start to date, and I do it.”       “Here’s another proof of the fact that you tell me the truth. Since I know that all of that is familiar to me, I really experienced those moments. Of course, I can’t remember how I kissed you… But I know that everything happened to me in real life.”       “I not to have a reason to lie to you, Daniel. And I want you to remember everything as soon as possible. You to remember how much you love me. And to look at your fiancée as tenderly as before.”       “I repeat, if I don’t remember you, I will get a love for you anyway.”       “I know everything about you. You to be able to ask anything, and I to answer honestly.”       “Sure, my sweetheart,” Daniel fixes Blanca’s hair carefully and presses her closely to himself.       “Ah, mi amor…” Blanca smiles widely, putting her head on Daniel’s shoulder. “Te quiero mucho, mucho…”       Although Daniel understands nothing, he smiles shyly and caresses Blanca’s cheek with a free hand, trying to show his love for her and make himself sure that it does really exist.       “Hey, how much time had passed before we kissed for the first time?” Daniel asks. “Erm… Well… When did we start to date?”       “Erm, I think two weeks…” Blanca replies thoughtfully. “I not to remember clearly… But you to fight for me for a little more than one month before you to confess your love.”       “And has your family always approved of our relationship?”       “At first, they think it not to be serious. But later they realize that everything to go too far.”       “I see…” Daniel says nothing for two seconds and bites his lip slightly. “Do you have any relatives except your parents and sister?”       “I to have grandmothers and grandfathers. But they to be very old and live in Spain.”       “Have you and I even been to Spain?”       “No, I never go there with you.”       “Sorry… I’d be happy to go there… Meet your family…”       “Don’t worry, Daniel, we surely go to Spain before our wedding, and I introduce you to my relatives. But they not to speak English, and it to be hard for you…”       “I think it’s not a problem. Your parents would help me. Or Mia… She speaks English very well, almost without an accent.”       “Mia…” Blanca gets nervous, pursing her lips. “Mia… She just to be a… Nerd and smarty… So, my sister to understand it well.”       “Hey, didn’t you like that I mentioned Mia?”       “No, why you think so?”       “Stop it, Blanca, please,” Daniel says quietly and slowly and running his hands over Blanca’s cheek tenderly. “Don’t be jealous of me and anyone else. Especially, your sister.”       “I not to like that you speak to her.”       “Why? Mia is a good girl! She’s absolutely harmless and not able to harm me.”       “I know… But… I not to be happy that you speak to her.”       “Listen, I completely understand you. But Mia is a part of your family. You should love and respect her.”       “But I love my sister,” Blanca replies quietly, looking aside. “Really. Mia to always help me and even… Cover me up for my mother and my father.”       “But you treat her like you hate her and your parents for giving birth to her.”       “No, no, mi gatito, it not to be true!” Blanca jabs excitedly. “Mia to be my close person, and I love her. I… I just to be afraid that you to find her better than me and choose my sister.”       “If I didn’t want to be with you, I’d leave you and wouldn’t even propose to you. But we’re gonna get married soon. No matter if I get my memories back.”       “I know, but I to be afraid…”       “Don’t be,” Daniel hugs Blanca tenderly, presses her to himself, caresses her shoulder, her hair, and her head, and cutely kisses her on the temple. “I completely understand that you’re afraid to lose me. But excuse me, that’s not good to be jealous for any reason. I don’t want you to always torture me with your jealousy.”       “But I want that you always to belong only to me.”       “Nobody’s gonna steal me from you. And I’m not gonna choose someone else.”       “I to be so afraid. You to be so handsome and provided… How many people to be jealous of you. And you to see it. Because of that ugly blond and his fucking band.”       “I know, Blanca, but that’s not okay.” Daniel grabs Blanca’s face softly, looking into her eyes confidently. “You see, your jealousy is groundless. It would be okay if you had a reason, but you’re jealous of me for a reason or without. You make yourself nervous because of your jealousy and make me feel terrible.”       “Perdone, mi vida, but I to be able to do nothing…” Blanca says with pity in her eyes. “You to be only mine! I to be the only one to have a right to talk to you, and you must spend all your time with me. But I to be it to happen because you not to have friends, who want to turn you against me. And girls not to want to steal you from me.”       “Nobody will steal you from me, and vice versa!” Daniel kisses Blanca on the cheek and the corner of her mouth, while her blood is blowing, and her heart is beating much faster. “Nobody will hurt my Blanca and dare to say that she’s ugly and bad.”       “You to protect me when someone to hurt me?”       “Your doubts hurt me,” Daniel replies confidently and caresses Blanca’s head tenderly. “Remember, anyone, who dares to slander you or to do something bad, will get what they deserved. If Pedro or one from his gang does something, they will immediately go to prison.”       “It to be so nice to hear it, mi gatito,” Blanca purrs with a wide smile.       While Daniel presses Blanca to himself, feeling nothing special and exciting but not wishing to confess it, the girl smiles slyly, as if she is very happy her plan is working so well.       “Now you to be in my hands, Daniel,” Blanca thinks. “You become my husband and make me happy… I do my best to never let you remember your past life and to always be mine. If I have, I take you far from here. Far from the men from your band… And make you change your name. You never know that they to be your close people and always think that every one of them to deceive you. The article about the charges to be out at a very good time. I blame Peter for treating me terribly and even attempting you, and you believe it. Even if I actually never know him.”       Her own thoughts make Blanca smile much wider and think about how to make Daniel distance himself from his friends and not to let him bring his memories back.       “Hey, have I told you that I recently discovered a new hobby?” Daniel asks with a slight smile.       “Really?” Blanca rounds her eyes. “What?”       “I recently found out that I can play guitar very well. I found a guitar in my room and tried to play a little. And… I did it. I felt madly good after playing and singing something.”       “Well…” Blanca shrugs. “You to play in the band that you leave. So, that’s why you can play guitar…”       “Yeah, but I thought I couldn’t play. But as it turned out, I do it very well. And I sing excellently.”       “No, mi amor, it not to be true. You play badly, and I think you must forget about it.”       “But why? I feel like I’m in my element and don’t feel bad when striking strings!”       “Querida, why you do what you do as well as the people, who hate you? Find another hobby.”       “But I really like music so much, even if I left the band. I… I feel something very warm and nice when playing guitar and singing. And… I think I’ve always played very well.”       “You think so, Daniel. But you actually to be bad at it.”       “But, Blanca…”       “I swear I not to want to hurt you or your pride. I just tell you the truth and want to protect you from shame. Peter Rose and his band already make everybody hate you and get you ashamed. I not to want everything to get worse.”       “I will be playing for myself, not for people. For fun and salvation from boredom.”       “Now I become your salvation from bothering.” Blanca caresses Daniel’s cheek softly, not moving her eyes off his eyes. “Guitar and music not to be able to replace the love for your fiancée.”       “But, Blanca, how can I refuse what I like?” Daniel wonders with widely open eyes. “I love to play and sing.”       “No, Daniel, why you do it? Not to do it! I to mind that you do it.”       “But…”       “May your past life to be the past. Now you to be different. A new version of you. You to have a new life. You not to have a place for old hobbies and habits. I even advise that you change your name. Not to let anything remind you of your past.”       “You’re kinda right… But I’m not sure if I can stop playing guitar. I started and could hardly stop.”       “You can, mi amor,” Blanca replies confidently. “You must forget everything about your past life.”       “If you want, I’ll be happy to play something for you. And sing some songs in honor of you. Try to learn the most beautiful one and dedicate it to you.”       “No, gracias, amor,” Blanca shakes her head and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “I not to like music and singing. Since childhood. When someone to play an instrument and sing, I get very nervous and want someone to save me from it.”       “Oh…” Daniel gets upset, moving his eyes down for a second. “So, what do you like?”       “Well, needlework, knitting, sewing…”       “It sounds kinda boring, honestly…”       “No, querida, it to be very good. It to always relax me and help me get energy after a long day at work. You know how it to be good to turn on a TV, find your favorite TV show, take some food and needles, and sit on a sofa. I knit and sew very well and can make good clothes for you.”       “But you don’t work every day.”       “Right, I work one day and have a rest for two or three days,” Blanca replies a little hesitantly. “But I to get so sick anyway. I walk in the whole hospital all day and clean the floor a million times. But I not to be a sports person… I not to go to a workout and not to keep a diet…”       “Yeah, I get it…” Daniel nods with sadness in his eyes.       “It’s okay, mi amor, when I get married to you, I leave my job. Because I not to have to work when you have money, a wonderful house, and find a job to give me a chance to buy what I love.”       “Maybe, I could earn something by playing music.”       “No, amor, I not to want you to try to find money by doing it. You to get nothing because you to be too bad at singing. You need to find something that really to let you earn. A lot of money.”       It should be noted that Daniel gets a little upset that Blanca does not like his love for music and wants to ban him from doing it. Again, he gets a feeling that the girl literally starts to strangle him with her claims and control, trying to limit his freedom and making him sure that doing only what she wants is right.       “But, Blanca, why don’t you like the fact that I love music?” Daniel throws his hands up. “Maybe, being a part of that band gave me many problems, but I earned enough to live in such a gorgeous house and need nothing.”       “Actually, I say your parents to buy your house for you,” Blanca replies thoughtfully. “You just earn some money to make it better.”       “Well, being a part of the band gave me some benefits.”       “Maybe…” Blanca bites her lip slightly. “But hear me, you to always be bad at that. To be very weak and invisible in the band. Your guitar play and singing to be bad.”       “You think so?”       “It to be the opinion of the band’s fans. They admire only those three, who hurt you and me. Someone to go crazy from that ugly blond and scream when he to sing and play. Someone to be delighted when they are the lead vocalist… The older of the two brothers… And someone to love the younger one… But nobody to like you. You to be a shadow. You not to exist.”       “Really?” Daniel pronounces in a low, quiet voice, looking at Blanca with sadness in his eyes.       “By the way, I say that those people not to be perfect? They… Not to be a good example for young people…”       “What do you mean?”       “Well… You and I know that Peter to want to kill himself… And it to be a terrible sin… And those brothers not to be holy… They not to be role models.”       “They did something bad?”       “I hear that Terrence to always have mental issues. He… To be a psycho… To attack everybody for nothing… And he to be a terrible egoist… He to tell everybody to love him and praise… That man not to hear when someone says he not to be special. Terrence to hear only those, who to praise him and say he to be irresistible.”       “Wow…” Daniel wonders truly. “You say, a psycho…”       “Yup. And I to be surprised that he not to be taken to a clinic. The show business to know about his mental issues, but everybody to cover him and pretend that nothing happens. I hear that he to even beat his fiancée…”       “He beat his fiancée?”       “Yes, a certain second-rate model… Raquelle Cameron, I think… I not to understand why she to get so many men attracted because that girl to have nothing special.”       “And did that girl stay with him after he had beaten her?”       “Yes, Daniel. And I not to understand it. I to hate the one to beat his wife or girlfriend. And I think that a violator must be put in prison. But Terrence not to pay for that yet. And I to be sure that he to keep beating his fiancée, and she to love it and not to tell the police about it.”       “Do you want to say she likes being beaten?”       “I think,” Blanca shrugs. “I leave a man that just to slap me in the face. Because it not to be good. I hate a man like this.”       “Okay, I got it… What about the second one? What about his brother?”       “Edward? Oh… That kid to be much worse… He actually to be in prison but to be free.”       “What?” Daniel opens his eyes widely. “Edward? Edward was in prison?”       “Yes, he to kill a man. I hear that Edward to be arrested at the crime place and deny his fault too hard. He to be in prison for some time and even to stand trial. But sadly, he to be found non-guilty and released. Another man, who Edward to blame for the murder, to be put in prison.”       “Damn, how awful…” Daniel moves his shocked eyes aside for a second. “So, is that kid also a killer? The killer that walks freely!”       “Si, mi amor. I to be resented when I know it. So, I not to like the fact that you spend time with such horrible people. One to want to kill you. Another must get therapy and be far from people because of his terrible mental health. And the third one must be in prison for a terrible murder.”       “Oh, shit…” Daniel exhales sharply. “How I could get in touch with those people…”       “I not to understand it…” Blanca shakes her head with sadness in her eyes. “Unlike them, you to be the most innocent one, but the band’s fans to love those, who do very many bad things. And it to be very hurtful… And terrible… Artists must give an example…”       “Amazing… Those people are worse than I thought…”       “I to be sorry that I not to say it the last time. I just forget it… And you not to ask…”       “I think we talked about Peter more. About what kind of bad tricks he did to you. And now I heard about the tricks of those brothers…”       “You to be hated you because you to be too perfect. And people not to like someone like you. They want to give attention to someone to do bad things. Those three get on well with you at first but then stop to do it. And the case of mine to make everything worse. They not to love me and to think you must be with the other girl. The girl that to be hysterical and have hysterics almost every day.”       “Now I completely get it.”       “So, you must forget that you to be a part of that talentless band. And you must stop playing guitar and singing. You to be worthless at that. That not to be your element.”       “Oh, I don’t know…” Daniel sighs heavily and runs his hair over his hair. “I don’t know, maybe, you’re right… The Internet users have the same opinion and think that I’d better stop doing it.”       “I want to say again that I not to want to hurt you,” Blanca replies softly and kisses Daniel on the cheek with her dry lips. “Por favor, don’t take everything I say seriously.”       Daniel sighs with sadness in his eyes again and moves them down, looking at everything he sees under his feet and locking his fingers tightly. Blanca watches him for two seconds and hugs him around the shoulders, caresses his cheek, and turns the man’s face to him, holding it with one hand.       “Come on, sweetie, not to be sad,” Blanca says in a much higher voice with sadness in her eyes. “Nobody to want to say you to be talentless. People just let you know that it not to be what you need. When everybody to say that you cannot do it, you must listen and pay attention to something else. There to be so many interesting things in the world, and you to choose what you like. What I like.”       “I will probably do it…” Daniel nods. “I’ll try to do something else and do my best to love it.”       “The important thing is that I to approve it.”       Daniel hugs Blanca tenderly with a slight smile, getting very upset because of her words. The Spaniard hurt him and his feelings with her criticism of his hobby. However, when he thinks of the bullying that Peter and his friends allegedly provoked, Perkins decides that Blanca is absolutely right and just tries to save his dignity that was hurt so much and save him from shame and misfortune.       “Okay, Daniel, don’t be so sad,” Blanca says softly and caresses Daniel’s cheek tenderly. “There to be nothing bad that you try something and realize that it not to be yours. Just try something else and find out how you do it. You to find something that you to like and do much better early or late.”       “I’m not upset…” Daniel lies hesitantly in a low voice, caressing Blanca’s head and looking into the distance. “It’s okay. Really. I understood it a long time ago…”       “Don’t worry, querida, don’t worry…”       With these words, Blanca slowly runs her hand over Daniel’s chest, looking into the distance and thinking about something important to her. After calming down a little, the man steps back from the girl some time later and smiles at her, as if he agrees with her. Perkins carefully fixes the girl’s hair and does not move his eyes off her eyes, still making himself sure that he might feel something for her or love her early or late. The foreigner does not stop smiling and looks into the brunet’s eyes closely, as if she is trying to get him at her mercy, but looking like she is in love with this man. A few seconds later, Daniel decides to take the initiative for the first time in a while, grabs Blanca’s face confidently, and gets her involved in a tender kiss without doubts. The Spaniard gets a little confused but answers him back with pleasure, hugging Perkins around the shoulders, running her hand over his forearm, and letting him control the process.       The kiss gets more passionate and deeper quickly enough. But only Blanca feels pleasure. While Daniel just makes himself think that he feels something for this girl. He does want to believe that this girl tells him the truth. And the offense is one of the things that gets obsessed with him and makes him forget everything he felt before. About being happy to accept the help of his close people for some time… When the passion gets stronger, Daniel steps back from Blanca’s lips slowly and starts covering her neck with tender kisses, making her go crazy from pleasure, not understanding what he is doing and just letting some instincts do their work. The girl does not hide her sensual moans and bends backward somehow, scratching his back with her nails tenderly or just caressing it, breathing in the smell of his skin with a slight smile on her face, and biting his ear softly.       Well, Perkins feels nothing. Even a small hint at something nice and light. He just keeps kissing Blanca and caressing her as if he is acting in a movie and playing a scene, in which he should kiss a girl. However, now, when Daniel keeps the situation under his control, he is not disgusted by everything he is doing. And seeing that everything is happening by itself, he becomes more confident and decides to show the foreigner how she should kiss to make him like it. Or at least not to make him wish to clean his stomach…       Some time later, Daniel steps back from Blanca and looks at her without emotions in his eyes, while she is smiling widely and breathing a little heavily from a nice excitement. He tries to figure his feelings out and realizes that… He feels nothing?! Even if the man kissed and hugged the girl passionately enough, he did not feel anything special. Just emptiness. Nothing from what he heard about. No nice shake on his whole body, no excitement, no attraction, no breathing issues, no fast heartbeat… Nothing! But at least, Daniel was controlling the kiss and making Blanca obey him. The man thinks whether he did not forget how to feel what people call love. The Spaniard has a strong heartbeat, can barely breathe, and smiles widely, looking at Perkins with an ogle gaze full of gloss.       “Oh, querida…” Blanca pronounces in a little shaking, low voice with a wide smile. “It… It to be so amazing! ¡Perfecto beso! I… I not to know what to say how wonderful it to be…”       “I liked it very much, too,” Daniel lies with a little false smile, caresses Blanca’s cheek softly, and tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear.       “Gosh… You to be… You to be imitable! It to be what I to expect from you!” Blanca grabs Daniel’s face softly. “I say that you kiss so perfectly! You always know how to drive me crazy.”       “Even if I barely knew what to do?”       “You to know everything, mi amor,” Blanca replies confidently. “You know how to kiss me and give me pleasure.”       “I’m glad you liked it.”       “¡Oh, mi amor!” Blanca puts her arms around Daniel’s neck and hugs him so tightly that she squeezes everything inside him, not hiding her wide smile. “¡Te quiero, mi vida, eres la mejor! Soy feliz contigo, Daniel. ¡Mucho, mucho!”       “I didn’t understand what you said, but I’m sure it’s something good,” Daniel replies with a slight smile.       “Yes! I say that I love you, call you my life and the best one, and let you know that I to be happy with you.”       “Sounds beautiful!”       “Spanish to be a very beautiful language. And even if I live here, I never forget it and always remember where I to be born.”       “Aw, sweetie…” Daniel kisses Blanca’s temple tenderly and puts a hand on her cheek. “Would you teach me some Spanish words, so I understand you? I’m ashamed that I don’t understand you. And I’d be happy to help you to speak English better.”       “I to be happy to teach you to speak Spanish, sweetie,” Blanca replies confidently with a slight smile. “You start to speak it very soon.”       “I promise to be a good student, miss… Erm…”       “Moreno. But soon, I to be señora Moreno de Perkins. Well, or just Mrs. Perkins, as it to be in America.”       “Señora Moreno de Perkins sounds very beautiful.”       “I think so.”       Daniel says nothing and just smiles slightly, barely touching Blanca’s cheek with the back of his hand and still making himself sure that he can love this girl. However, the man does not aim to remember everything so hard and just wants to live a quiet life with the Spaniard, who understands that he may catch her in the lie and wants to do her best for this person to never recall anything and find out who actually did such a mean thing to him.