Chapter 7

• Maximiliano closed the door very carefully, making sure that no sound came out of it, so that his son would not wake up, it was easy to put him to sleep, most of the time at least, but when his sleep was interrupted, there was no human power that could calm his childish energy.
• When he finished closing the door, he saw how his mother was waiting for him, sitting on the sofa while drinking something from a cup. He approached her, he had an idea of what she wanted to talk to him about, it was as if he had the ability to read it in her eyes.
• "How did it go?" asked the woman, drawing a bitter smile from Maximiliano, who finished sitting in front of his mother and sighed, that action did not send any good message to the anxious woman, "Did it go badly?"
• "It was lousy," he said frankly, adjusting his back.
• "What do you mean, lousy, Maximiliano? I need you to tell me what happened," she asked him, taking a trembling sip from her cup of tea. Her son had told her that he was going out to find, once again, someone for the business, he had told her that there were possibilities -many, he had assured her- that she would accept, but hearing the word "lousy" made her dismayed.
• "She thinks I'm a stalker pervert".
• "She has her reasons, I told you it was not a good idea to go to her work to harass her, especially if you had seen her before, you would not go unnoticed".
• Maximiliano sighed once more: at the wedding where he had first seen Amelia, he knew she was the perfect woman to be his fake wife, or so he hoped. He had tried with too many women already, but they had all been failures, they demanded a lot of money for little effort, the only thing they had to do, was to sign some papers alleging that both were united in a marriage, and that was it, but to the high society women, it seemed a mediocre pay that he was offering, and even raising the pay to four million, they said it was mediocre, so he had decided to try with women who were not from the high society, realizing that they were even worse, much more violent, always on the defensive, or provoking him, although he made sure to clarify that it was only a fake wedding, no sex, no kissing, just the only kiss that was required for both to be captured eternally in a photograph. So, when he heard Amelia's friend say at that wedding that she was an eternal bachelorette, that she worked in a mediocre cafeteria and lived alone, he knew he had struck gold, although, in that moment of reflection, he realized that it had been of no use, and that if he did not find a wife within a week, he would lose that fortune.
• "I had to chase her in the middle of the street, we almost got run over, she told me to go to hell and pulled my middle finger out" The man laughed at the memory, at the time it had not seemed funny, but when he thought about it more calmly, and with a cooler mind, that was a hilarious scene: he covered in sweat, chasing a woman whose name he only knew, to ask her to be his wife, then she asking him if he had snorted cocaine, he laughed again, maybe the best thing was to laugh at his own misfortune.
• "What do you mean you had to chase her in the middle of the street?"
• "I wanted to talk to her, but when she saw me at work, I think she thought I was a depraved stalker, ran away, I chased her, proposed the fake wedding, and she laughed at me".
• "What a disrespectful woman, doesn't she know which family you belong to?"
• "Is that important when a stranger chases you on the street to ask you to marry him?"
• His mother mulled it over for a minute, answered nothing.
• "But she refused?"
• "Of course she did," he replied listlessly, "No one in their right mind would marry a stranger, I gave her my number to call, but she won't. I know she won't answer. I know she won't answer".
• "Damn it," his mother spat, setting her teacup down on the table, "It's stupid for your grandfather to have made such a condition to collect the inheritance that belongs to you by family".
• Maximiliano nodded, he could still remember the perplexity that had taken over his gaze when his grandfather had told him that he would not let him have the inheritance he was entitled to if he did not marry a woman. His grandfather had been too specific, he had told him that it would not do to pretend happiness, or to hire a false wife. Maximiliano had been seized with a burst of rage. "Marry me to collect a fortune?", he had told him, claiming, that lacked any sense, he could not find it, but the wrinkled man was very determined, he had told him that if he wanted to receive the fortune, that was what he would have to do, otherwise, he would end up losing it. "I don't have too much life left, so I won't be able to enjoy it, but you are young, with the years it will hurt you to lose it".
• "You should have told him that it was too short a time to find a wife".
• "I did! And his only answer was that six months was more than enough time to fall in love with someone and marry her..., or him." Maximiliano laughed. "He told me he didn't care, that he just wanted to see me happy".
• Her mother laughed too, but the nerves did not disappear from her face, elegant, with a beauty that the years could not tear from her.
• "Well, I think you are very attractive, getting a husband would be... easy".
• "Mom, even they reject me. But really... it was a lousy idea to leave only a month to go before the deadline to start looking for a wife..."
• "I still don't understand why your grandfather did that, but what I understand even less is why you didn't tell me in time," she reproached him, "Haven't you thought about seducing one of the cleaning ladies?"
• "Grandfather strictly told me that if he finds out it's a fake wedding, everything will go to hell, so no, of course I won't try, I think... actually I think it's best to let that inheritance go".
• His mother denied flatly, with firmness etched on every faction of her face.
• "Of course you won't give up the inheritance, Maximiliano, it's yours! There is no way you will give up so much money, besides, remember what you told me".
• The man sighed, he had lost count of how many times he had done that action that day, but it was the only way he found to release a little of the heavy tension that like rocks settled on his shoulders. He was a young man, but not too young to allow himself to waste his life in the company, away from the only thing that kept him alive, his son. So he had decided that once he had the inheritance in his hands, he could forgo having to be in the company. The progress of the company had declined because of his severe alcohol problems, from which he was recovering, he wanted to cede power to someone else, but he wanted to have more money before that, for his alcoholism had not only plunged him into deep darkness, but his family as well. His family name had almost gone bankrupt and very few people really knew about it. Even relatives were oblivious to information as such.
• "But I don't think I'll find a woman before this week is over, and Amelia... she won't call me, she won't accept to be my fake wife..."
• "Amelia is her name?"
• "Yes," he answered, "Amelia, Amelia..."
• ...Amelia, Amelia...
• ***
• Amelia let out a curse when she hit her arm trying to open the hard door of the place where she lived, it was made of an archaic, worn and strident material, which she hated. Everything in that place was filth and mess, she hated it, but she could not demand too much, basically nothing, it was much cheaper than the other places, the rent was half of the regular rent, if she went to the owner of those establishments and demanded him to fix that mess -that was in the bathroom, in all the pipes, in the light, in the door-, he would send her to hell and evict her, the salary she received was too miserable to afford to pay more for a simple room.
• She closed the door behind her, throwing herself on the couch, stretching the bones in her back and listening as they lost their numbness. The silence there was always a terrifying one, even though she had more neighbors than she could remember, you didn't hear the typical childish screaming, or marriage fights you would expect to hear in a place like this where the walls were made of paper.
• The image of that guy proposing marriage came into her head when the silence was too much, making her laugh.
• On the way she had eaten some chocolate bars in an anxious way, she knew that this kind of food would end up killing her, she was determined to improve it but she always failed. When she held the shopping bag, she realized two things: she had the smell of that man engraved on it, his perfume, intense, was still in her arms because of his grip, the second thing she realized was that her cell phone was ringing, she held it in her hands, it was her mother.
• "I've been calling you for about thirty minutes, where were you?"
• "Hi, mom, how are you? I'm fine, thanks for asking," Amelia laughed, "I didn't have my cell phone on me, it was in some shopping bags, what's wrong?"
• "I went to the doctor" The small smile on Amelia's face evaporated immediately. Sadness shook her when she remembered her mother's health condition. Cancer, that disease that, without suffering from it, had brought a thousand tears to her eyes.
• "And w-what did the doctor tell you?" The nerves caught in her throat, the beginning of a sob she was forced to hold back, suddenly, her mood had declined, every time she remembered her mother being diagnosed with cancer, the only thing she could think of was that teacher of hers who had died of the same disease, she did not want her mother to die, the simple fact of thinking about it, distressed her deeply.
• "No improvement... I was prescribed some pills... they are too expensive, up to seven thousand dollars for a one-month dose..."
• "S-seven thousand d-dollars?"
• "And even more," her mother lamented, "I told him that if there wasn't something more economical... because that doesn't even assure me that my condition will improve, I have followed the diet he has put me on, drank all my green juices... the improvement has been very minimal, I don't want... I don't want to resort to chemo... but the pills are very expensive..."
• "No," Amelia interrupted her, "You're not going to have chemo, Mom. I'll get the money for the pills, you don't have to worry about anything..."
• "But, Amelia, where are you going to find so much money so soon? The ones that cost seven thousand dollars are the main pills, then he prescribed me more, which are three times as expensive... not all of them are for cancer, some are for the other problems: diabetes, fatty liver... in total... Amelia, I was calculating and in total they are... about... about twenty-five thousand dollars in medicines".
• Amelia cursed to herself, that was what she earned in a year.
• "Don't worry, you have to drink your medications, I will do my best to get the money however I can... maybe... I don't know, I don't know how, but I promise you, mom, I will get the money, do you hear me?"
• "Amelia, I don't want you to overexert yourself for someone who doesn't deserve it, I'm already old, daughter... if cancer doesn't kill me, diabetes will... I feel that both are playing tennis inside me to know which one of them will kill me first..."
• "Don't say things like that, Mom!" Amelia's voice broke, "I'll buy those medicines, if it's the last thing I do".
• After saying this, she hung up with a bang, not waiting for her mother to refuse yet again. She began to shake from one corner to another, with anguish clinging to her movements, she earned two thousand dollars a month -which barely covered her expenses-, if she worked overtime, she would earn a few more dollars, but not enough... if she looked for three jobs.... she would end up dying from the stress, but doing it was the only thing to do, she didn't have the money to pay a debt of twenty-five thousand dollars, the bank wouldn't lend her a penny more... just looking for three jobs and sacrificing herself she could make a little more money, but she didn't think it would be enough to reach twenty-five thousand dollars in a short time...
• Suddenly, Maximiliano's proposal brazenly crossed her mind.
• "Yes, I need a wife within a week, it's urgent, miss. It's something that suits both of us."
• "It will be a short business of a few months, she will have a good remuneration; she only has to pretend to be my wife, she only has to pretend that we are a happy couple... then she will leave with her money and we will never see each other again. There will be nothing, absolutely nothing between us, no sex, no kissing, nothing, I just need me to legally appear married to someone."
• She needed money urgently, and a man was offering her a fake wedding in exchange for it, that particular proposal became much more tempting at that moment, when anguish had gripped her heart.
• "No," she said to herself, "Don't think stupidly, you won't agree to marry a complete stranger".
• She wrapped her arms around herself, anxiously pondering what else she could do. Her job, it was very tiring, she could not imagine what it would be like to have three, she would end up suffering a collapse and she would be the one who was sick. She could not get sick, she had to take care of her mother... but she needed that money... she needed it urgently... and the only way to get it, one that did not come out of her head, was to accept the proposal...
• "That's crazy, no, no, no, no, I won't accept that, of course not" she let herself fall sideways, her head full of worries, as she meditated on what to do. She cursed aloud as, for the third time, the image of Maximilian popped into her head.
• She could not marry a man she didnt knew....
• No, she couldn't do it...
• "I won't," she thought, determined.
• But life had very different plans for her.