"How are things going in Los Angeles?" Gina asked him.
Matt was walking to his car after picking up the takeaway coffee at the Peach Pit.
"Not as good as I had hoped," he replied.
"Is serious?"
"More than I could have imagined in my worst scenario"
While on the phone with Matt, Gina looked out the window at the life of New York flowing into the evening, somehow that city had saved her, calmed her down, gave her breath. She would never return to Los Angeles, she would never have contact with any of those people again except Dylan and it was not necessary for him to know, she had chosen to take a step back for that love that had never found peace but that existed. At least for her.
Gina closed her eyes "is he at risk of being convicted?" SHe said in a low voice.
"I think so," Matt replied, "but it's not just that"
"And what else?"
"He wants to divorce Brenda, and he wants the audience to think it's Brenda who wants to divorce, to distance herself from him"
'Why?' Gina asked.
"Because he doesn't know what else to do, because he's a man with his back to the wall, and no man should be with his back to the wall, because he thinks that separating his life from Brenda's can somehow save her at least. That producer that Brenda reported, Jackson, is on all the talk shows every week to throw shit at her because she is married to a rapist, Brenda has just been fired, and also thinks Ashley wants to ask him for compensation that can hit his family hard. Separating the properties, giving it all to Brenda, maybe it's not such a bad idea."
"And what does Brenda think about it?"
"Brenda still doesn't know," Matt replied, closing the car door. "I'm going to tell her right now, he doesn't want her to visit him, he wants everything to seem absolutely real so that she has a minimum of hope of saving herself."
"Brenda will never sign," Gina replied.
"Do you know her?" Matt asked.
"Just from Dylan's stories, sometimes he told me about her, he told me about his years in London, he didn't tell me about it only a few times he told me a lot, that's why I never understood why he lied and pinned around Kelly and that's why I never managed to win his heart, I guess.. It has always been about Brenda... not Kelly. ... about the witch Kelly instead.."
Matt held his breath for a few seconds trying to look for the right words.
"What?" Matt asked.
"how was it?"
"It was hard," Matt sighed, "and it's still hard, but I met the famous Brandon, and now I've figured out a lot of things too."
"What do you mean?"
"I understand why Kelly has been with me for so long and tried to make things work before she got back with Dylan."
"Uh?"
"I mean that after calling off her marriage to Brandon and after he left for Washington, Kelly was a broken person, and she saw in me a resemblance to Brandon that gave her the illusion that she could be with him"
"Did they make fun of us then?"
"No" Matt shook his head "I don't think so, they just told each other one more truth, but you can't fool the heart for long and it was like that."
Gina sighed.
"These are things that can happen but let's see the bright side"
"And what would it be?"
"This whole story allowed the two of us to get to know each other"
Gina laughed honestly, it was true. In Matt she had found a real friend, a support.
"I miss you a lot," Gina replied.
"I miss you a lot too. I have to go now," Matt said, "I have to talk to Brenda and I'm afraid it will be upsetting for her."
"Are you going to her house?"
"No, she told me to meet in an hour at the clinic at Brandon's, I hate this part of my job."
XX
"So you and Nate decided to come tonight?"
Blanca smiled "we'll come but I can't tell you how long we'll stay. Nate says that I don't have to be ashamed of anything, that it's the school party and that we have to stay with our friends, and that we can leave at any time in case I feel uncomfortable."
"I knew he had prepared a private party"
Blanca blushed "I don't know anything about, your plans?"
"I have the key to the room" Emma chuckled embarrassed "but I don't know how to tell Samuel, I mean I feel ready, you have no idea how ready I feel"
"And do you think he's not?"
Emma was embarrassed "We are not two saints Blanca, I mean, but when we get to the moment Samuel gets stuck, he says he doesn't want it to happen that way, he doesn't want to be in a hurry, and if I have to tell you everything there is something inside him that escapes me"
"Maybe he doesn't want to go wrong with you," said Brenda who had come over their back.
'Mom...' Blanca exchanged a kiss on the cheek and hugged Brenda tightly.
Blanca was very worried about her mother, in recent times events had slimmed her down, worry had slimmed down her face.
'Really?' Emma replied happily.
"I think so," Brenda replied.
"Yes, me too," Blanca confirmed.
"A couple's first time is an important thing, it's an important choice, very often because of the rush and passion, people let themselves be overwhelmed by the moment, some don't remember with pleasure their first time, maybe Sammy wants to make it unforgettable, he doesn't want to make mistakes."
Emma was embarrassed to say that she had taken a room for that evening and that she wasn't sure if it could match an unforgettable first time, but her passion and desire was consuming her
"When the time comes you'll know," Brenda smiled with a sad smile that brought back to her images of her spring dance, and of her first time, which in fact made her heart forever.
The two girls smiled.
"I have to go to your uncle Brandon's clinic, but I'll be back here to help you prepare for tonight"
"Okay mom" Blanca smiled.
Brenda on the way out looked at both girl's clothes hanging out of the closet. Both very beautiful, certainly much more beautiful than that horrible dress that both she and Kelly had chosen for their spring dance. It was one of the most beautiful evenings of her life. One of those that forever marked Brenda's heart.
"See you later"
XX
Kelly had taken Grace to Brandon, to the clinic.
Brandon had a soft spot for his daughter, made him cheerful, dragged him every day into the enthusiasm of life. Grace could keep Brandon tied to her little finger.
Kelly laughed thinking about that time she had come home from work and found Brandon sitting at the mini children's table putting the nail polish on Grace.
His Brandon, granite, sitting at a small coffee table putting the nail polish on those small, joyful fingers. Grace had wanted every finger of a different color and Brandon tried to be very precise. It was a disaster. Part of the nail polish ended up on the nail but also on the finger.
Kelly didn't interrupt them and observed father and daughter in that sweet rite.
At the end of the job Grace looked at her botched fingers, then looked at her father and said "you were great" and Brandon melted as he melted every time Grace smiled at him.
"There's the prom this evening," Kelly told her husband.
Brandon remembered Samuel's visit and words, the special event his guy was preparing for and he wasn't sure if he had told his mother about it, he liked the exclusivity Samuel had reserved for him and he felt a little guilty about Kelly because he wasn't telling him right away.
Grace's presence was his most immediate excuse.
"I hope that at least for this evening everyone can forget the situation we are in"
Kelly smiled "yes me too"
"I'll tell you Kel, I'm really tired of being in this place, I need to go out, to get some air, to go home" then he put his mouth to his wife's ear "to take a shower".
Kelly smiled mischievously.
"Do you want to go out?" Brenda had looked out at the time "We can go out into the garden!"
'Aunty!' Grace was always happy to see her aunt Brenda, because she was the one who invented a thousand games.
Brenda hugged Grace tightly, she was the exact copy of her mother, then dedicated a sweet hug to Kelly as well.
"How are you?" She asked her, removing a hair from her cheek.
Brenda glanced at Grace and made an effort for the best smile she could but that did not deceive either Kelly or Brandon who looked at each other sadly.
"I think it's time to go baby," Kelly told her daughter, exchanging a look of understanding with Brandon.
"But I want to stay!"
Kelly looked at Brenda "We'll be back later" kissed Brandon on the lips.
Grace gave a big hug to her father and greeted him gently.
At that moment, Matt also arrived. She saw Kelly kiss Brandon and saw their daughter hold on tight to her father. Matt sighed and smiled inside himself thinking about the conversation he had had with Gina the same morning. It was impossible to win against the Walshs.
Matt knocked on the door calling attention to himself.
Everyone greeted him, including Kelly.
"You just arrived just in time," Brenda told him, "I'm about to take Mr. Walsh for a walk outside."
XX
Philip was reading the Holy Bible on his bed while Dylan tried to write a letter to his wife. He wrote a few words, erased, then crumpled the paper and this distracted the Indian.
"Some things can't be put in writing," the Indian told him.
Dylan thought he was right.
"I asked for a divorce and instead there is nothing in the world that I would like more than to be with her, than to live with her"
"So why did you ask for a divorce," the Indian simply asked.
Dylan was caught up in a fit of anger.
"Because there's no way out of this story and I don't want to drag her with me."
"I understand that in a place like this hope is lost but you are innocent"
"How do you know?" Dylan asked him.
"I see it in your eyes," the Indian replied.
"And you're innocent?" Asked Dylan that he didn't move his gaze from Philip's.
The Indian closed the Holy Bible.
"No, I'm guilty and it's right that I'm here."
Dylan took a few seconds because he wasn't sure he wanted to ask the question.
"Why are you here Philip?"
He looked at him even more intensely, he saw inside Dylan, he could read and guess every scar Dylan was carrying.
"I killed my wife."
Dylan was shocked, Philip didn't really look like a murderer and yet he confessed to him without his voice shaking.
"My wife was a white woman, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, Alice. I met her at a bus stop, now a thousand years ago, I was just a young, Native American guy trying to find a job, and get an apartment. I never denied my origins, let's be clear, and neither did my family, but I didn't want to live in that ghettoized world anymore, I wanted to see what was out there. I asked permission from my father and the tribal chief to be able to take my sabbatical to calmly decide on my life and permission was granted to me, I never thought the world could be so beautiful and so cruel at the same time" Philip dedicated a smile to Dylan, an resigned smile.
Alice was wearing a blue dress, I still remember it as if it happened yesterday. Her hair was gathered, she was holding the books in her hand. I had a job interview at a car wash. It wasn't much but it was a way to start. I had even worn a tie," Philip laughed.
"The bus didn't arrive, and so we decided to go on foot, if the bus had arrived we would have stopped it on the street, I think that was the most beautiful afternoon of our entire existence. Six buses passed during our walk and we didn't stop a single one, we continued to walk and in the evening we found ourselves in a cafe under the disapproving gaze of all the people. Alice didn't care. We've never broken up since."
"And then what happened?" Asked Dylan, regretting it right away.
"We got married the following year" but we had to come here to California because Montana wasn't ready to see us build a life together. The first few years were phenomenal. Alice found a job as a secretary at a dentist, we had a small apartment. I was able to save some money and opened my car wash. I knew how to do my job and people were lining up to come to me," Philip said proudly.
" Don't think it wasn't hard, racism was everywhere, you don't know because you're a rich white man, but for people like me sometimes it's hard to even be able to get into a store or not be stopped by the police."
Dylan nodded, he didn't want to interrupt Philip felt in him the urgency to speak and how precious it was that Philip, the man who never spoke, had chosen him.
Unfortunately we didn't have children, Alice suffered a lot from it but I thought it was a fortune and now I think so even more. Perhaps God and the spirits knew what our destiny was and did not want to leave a child orphaned for the world, because there is already too much pain circulating without being stopped. We managed to buy a house. A small house with a green roof, the neighbors had learned to accept us, they invited us to neighborhood parties, it seemed that somehow my life had been set on track. One day I had a problem with a guy from the area, a team of white people who had decided that my car wash was competing too much with theirs. I tried to resist the spite they were doing to me but they became more and more aggressive and the damage more and more serious. One night they set everything on fire. It all disappeared into ashes. I was devastated and didn't have the strength to react. I could have rebuilt it a hundred times and a hundred times they would have set it on fire."
Dylan felt a huge sense of sadness for that man with his back to the wall and he felt with his back to the wall too.
"Alice tried to give me the courage and strength, the police closed the investigations against unknown people, and I didn't have insurance, I started working in nightclubs as a bouncer to try to save money and be able to reopen again. The sense of failure, impotence, and the availability of alcohol made things even worse."
"Yes, I may not understand many things but I understand this one," Dylan replied.
"Have you been an addicted too?"
"Sobery for ten years," Dylan replied with a smile of understanding.
Philip made a nod of understanding. "Alcohol and my stupidity took everything away from me, Alice's love, the smile, the will to live. I was blinded, no one wanted to help an idiot and drunkard Native American in the end even Alice couldn't stand the situation anymore. Believe me, I don't blame her. During the day I slept and she went to work, at night I worked and she slept and of that love, of those guys at the bus stop there was no trace left. They were as if they disappeared under the weight of an unhappy life that I had imposed on Alice. She tried to help me, believe me in every way, she really loved me and in a deep way, but that love of hers was not enough. This is not to say that it is worth less than others who survive just because they have more luck.
"One evening the place I was working for fired me, because I was drunk as always, I came home in anger, frustration, I had decided to go hang myself, I had decided to spit in the face of that world that rejected me just because I didn't look like anything in them. I saw Alice sleeping. She was so beautiful, she had aged but she was always beautiful. At that moment something snapped into me, something malignant and powerful, I thought we could both get out of this world, a dark thought that rose as fast as foam and took my mind."
Dylan didn't dare to speak but could distinctly feel Philip's living despair. The same as that night.
"I suffocated her with the pillow. Alice woke up immediately, tried to defend herself but could not do anything against my dark evil, after a while she stopped struggling, and at that moment the evil force went away suddenly, I had killed the only happy thing in my life because I wanted evil to win over me. I didn't even deserve death. Death would have been a grace I didn't deserve. I called the police. I signed the confession. Suddenly the horse gone crazy inside me I find it quiet. He disappeared. Living without Alice, being the cause of her death is my greatest punishment, greater than death itself. What works should never be touched Mckay. Don't touch what or who loves you."
Philip concluded his story and Dylan had lost all his strength.
XX
Matt helped Brandon sit on the wheelchair, along with Brenda they went out into the garden. Finally going out was wonderful for Brandon, a taste of normality that seemed extraordinary to him.
"How's Dylan?" Brandon asked.
"He survives, but the situation has gotten even more complicated..." Matt said.
Matt looked at Brenda, felt the urgency of having to talk only to her, and Brenda sensed him immediately.
"There's nothing you can't say in front of my brother," Brenda reassured him.
'It's okay...' Matt took a breath "the meeting with the her lawyer did not go well, they added a new evidence against Dylan, DNA".
"DNA?"
"They found Dylan's DNA in Ashley's mouth"
'How can it be?' Brenda asked confused.
Matt looked for the most appropriate words and it was an ungrateful job "Dylan told me that on the night he drove Ashely home, he had to climb over to help her open the door, as soon as he managed to get Ashley in, she kissed him, he immediately walked away and left."
There was no other way to tell Brenda, who had listened to everything, her face had turned into a grimace of pain.
"Dylan swears he turned down Ashley's advances and walked away immediately and that's exactly what we see in the footage, Dylan running away and getting into his car":
Brandon had remained silent, his gaze passing from Brenda to Matt.
"The jury will see a man running away after raping a defenseless woman," Brandon suggested.
"I'm really afraid ... "
Brenda's silence had become terrible.
"Brenda..."
She looked up "I believe Dylan, and I will believe Dylan every second of my life, my husband is not a liar."
Matt gave her a shy smile.
That's not all...' said Matt taking a piece of paper from his folder, he drew a long sigh "Dylan doesn't want you to be dragged further into this situation, he's afraid of being condemned, he's afraid you might lose everything" Matt stretched the paper towards Brenda who took it in her hand but didn't read it and kep watching Matt.
Matt for a moment thought that this woman in front of him was damn strong and damn sexy, it seemed like a completely inappropriate thought to him but he couldn't help but think so.
"Dylan signed the divorce agreement, he gives you all property and he wants the divorce to turn out to be requested by you, he doesn't want you to go see him in jail, he doesn't want you and the kids to get dirty by this story."
Brenda listened without really understanding, Brandon put his hand on top of his sister's.
"I'm never going to sign the divorce," Brenda said.
"He knew you were going to respond like that but he begged me to make you think about the consequences," Matt said. "Potentially this story could destroy you, it could disintegrate you too."
"I will never sign," Brenda replied with tears in her eyes. His body was shaking.
Brandon looked at Matt and then his sister.
"We don't abandon Dylan," Brandon said
"It's his choice," Matt replied.
"He's not reasoning, he's destroyed, he's with his back to the wall," Brandon tried to provide an explanation.
Brenda had a hard time breathing.
"What did you find out about Ashley Monroe?" Brandon asked.
"Virtually nothing more than what they already knew, no one seems to know her"
Brenda looked at the paper she was still holding in her hands.
"The DNA is a question too," Brandon added, "because in a hypothetical rape a person should worry about wearing a condom but makes the mistake of kissing the victim on the mouth. It doesn't make any sense, if it's a throo, you don't have time to think about anything."
"The guard at the entrance to the studios knows Ashley," Brenda said suddenly.
Matt and Brandon turned to her "what?"
"The guard at the entrance to the studios knows her and greets her," Brenda repeated.
"how do you know?"
"One day I met her at the Studios, it wasn't the first time, I tried to talk to her"
Matt opened his eyes wide "Have you tried to do what?"
"The guard knows her," Brenda said once again trying to ignore the reprimand that Matt was trying to make to her.
"We should talk to the guard," Brandon suggested.
"I can't go back to the studios," Brenda said.
"We're going to send Valerie," Brandon suggested. "She'll never say no to us."
This little strategy seemed to make Brenda feel better for a moment.
"Are you going to Dylan's?" She asked Matt.
He nodded.
"Tell him I will never sign for divorce"
"I'll come with you," Brandon said. Both Matt and Brenda watched him.
"You can't come with me"
"I have to talk to him," Brandon replied without hesitation, "bring me to him."
