Chapter 2: Crude Heart.

"Take my advice " Galo continued. "Find somewhere else to sleep and come back tomorrow. This party is for important people with very important personalities and I was glad to be told that you are not allowed to set foot in this residence or I lose my job.

"You heard that clearly? Or I lose my job! Doesn't that sound familiar, huh?" He taunted Carl, grinning wickedly.

"Now if you could please excuse me. I hate wasting my time with a nobody," he said, turns his back on Carl to return to his apartment, leaving Carl outside to wonder and battle with the intense cold, wind and dust that disturbs his face and scattering his hair.

What will he do now? He has nowhere else to go and it was already the ungodly hour of the night.

He felt soo helpless and disoriented, but it was not the first time he is being treated this way.

His mind was busy thinking about what to do, and then a logical thought came to him.

"Mr. Edgardo!" He thought.

He opened his phone to contact his father in-law, believing he is back home already, he mustered up the courage to dial his number.

Firstly, he was a little afraid because of the strong personality of Mr. Edgardo which made him someone that could not be easily contacted.

"Well.. I'm his son-in-law. He should want to answer my call," he said, hoping.

Unfortunately for him, he did not know that the number he just dialed belongs to his sinister mother-in-law.

The call picked.

"Good Evening Mr. Edgardo.." He said gently as the phone rest on his right ear.

When Mrs. Vincenta recognized the owner of the voice, she immediately jumped on the phone yelling angrily.

 "Who gave you this number, you damn fool?!" She demanded crudely as if Carl had deeply offended her.

Her angry voice echoes in his ears, making his heart to quiver.

He quickly apologized.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, I was trying to contact Father..."

Immediately, she interrupted him abruptly.

"What?! You useless and stupid fool. What were you trying to do, huh? You want to tell my husband that I locked you out?

Listen and listen good, if you're not as dead as I hope you are. Do not ever call my husband your father, you understand! He can never be a father to a lowly servant who cannot achieved a single asset of his own, let alone building a home for his family. A nobody who lives miserably and doesn't even have a dollar to his name, let alone a hundred, hoping on your wife and her family to feed your belly. Don't you ever call my husband's phone unless you want to find yourself behind bars for being such a waste of a man!"

Carl froze at the trampling of his soul, he did not expect his mother-in-law words to be this harsh and hostile.

However, she continued tiresomely;

"Now listen you bastard, I don't care if you are married to my beloved daughter. Very soon you will find yourself on the street where you belong when you finally see your wife in the arms of another man who is your age and wealthy enough to handle his problems and hers, you hear me?

I'm sure Galo has already warned a stubborn ox like you that we have some important visitors in the house and I don't want them to see a loser like you around..

Find somewhere else to stay and come back anytime but early until all my guest are gone! She yells and immediately ended the call, not wanting to hear a single word from his mouth.

So terrible it was. Carl was wounded by every word that came out from his mother-in-law. He fell gently to the ground and sat down. He leans his back on the gate and slowly pushed his phone back into his pocket with a weak effort.

His cloth was soaking wet from the rain already. He looked around but could only see a large tree at his right that is opposite the residence. It has broad leaves on it's branches that might save him a few drop of rain.

He quickened his pace and dashed under the tree. He gradually began to shiver from the strong cold he felt at the time as he was just seventy-five percent sheltered from the rain.

He saw a quiet time to reflect on his misery.

My life is a big mess!  He thought deeply.

"Why is it hard to get something good to do to fend for myself despite living with this wealthy family. They see me as a gold digger and with all the connections they have they refused to help me. At least even if it is a little, I could level myself from depending on what they offer me with so much humiliations.

"How could I have stooped to such a level that Galo, a mere gatekeeper, could harass and insult me with no slight remorse?!" He commented solemnly in a self-deprecating tone.

As the rain continued, he took off his watch from his wrist and was about to keep it inside his pocket when he decided to check the time. It was already midnight.

He wondered if he could survive the night outside with the rain and the unbearable cold. Certainly, he would not have the urge to sleep.

He knows none of the neighbors would be kind enough to give him a warm shelter because they are just as prideful as his in-laws.

**

All his life in the Chavez mansion, he lived in hell.

The five people who made his life miserable in his family were his mother-in-law, his two vile brother-in-law, his sister-in-laws and one of the most powerful aunts in the family who despised him so much for his very poor status and believed that his marriage to her niece is a sham and must end.

He feared that Camila might one day decide to divorce him. He loves her so much. He could do anything to make her happy, but she insults him and brags about all her accomplishment and called him a failure.

But still, Carl continued to live his unhappy life with the family because of his undying love for Camila. He was so bound by his love that he thought it's a marriage ordeal, for better or for worse. He believes that the future still holds great fortune for him and will stir her feelings towards him...

***

Carl held his arms together tightly as he was getting frozen from the icy cold when suddenly his eyes caught something on the walls of the Mansion that struck his heart.

His heart jumped and the sleep that was about to elope him swept once as his eyes clinged to the window of the bedroom he supposedly shared with his wife. He saw a young man closing the transparent curtains of the bedroom and the shadow of the man was seen moving to the side of his bed. Suddenly the light in the bedroom went off and sparked the uttermost curiosity in his mind.

Searing pain shot through his fragile heart as he hurriedly stood up from under the tree and fastly paced to the gate of the residence again with his body shuddering and his eyes hot with anxiety... 

"Ca-mi-la?!" he exclaims with fright as his wife's name frequently read out from his lips...