20: The News

Tearing her eyes away from Mario when they said goodbye at the restaurant had cost Marta a great deal — and now she had to face either solitude or the prospect of sharing her life with Manuel and Mario.
Why had she said he had no reason to leave? Marta knew the answer, but she didn't want to admit it.
Julián walked them home before heading to his own place. Felisa was unusually quiet the whole way, as though she weren't there at all.
Just before they turned into the car park, Julián showed his talent for poor timing again.
"Honestly, I don't think it would be a bad idea for all five of us to live together." The communal garage door opened. "I know you said it's just a formality — but it's still a marriage."
"I'm not sure what you mean, Julián."
"I mean the taxman is going to investigate you and Manuel for tax evasion — it's obvious!"
Julián drove to Marta's second parking space.
"They won't find anything, because you have done your job." Marta looked at him pointedly.
"That doesn't change the fact that you've sealed the merger with a marriage, Mum." Julián sighed as he parked. "That smells like fraud from miles away."
"And what do you suggest?"
"You need to live together."
"I don't know Manuel well enough to move in with him." Marta admitted.
The three of them were now standing at the lift.
"And what do I do with the flat? We've always lived here." Marta said. "We were living here when you and Melisa were born."
"Life goes on, Mum — you have to let go of dead weight, and right now, this place is that. Think about it."
They reached the landing, and Julián stayed in the lift. He waited for Marta to open the door, then pressed the button and went back down to his car.
Once inside, Marta kicked off her shoes and dropped onto the sofa exactly as she was.
"Well, that's quite something, friend!" Felisa broke her silence.
"What are you talking about?"
"Are you seriously considering Manuel's proposal?"
"Julián has a point, and I don't like drawing that kind of attention." Marta knew she couldn't argue with it.
"Moving in together is the best option — you couldn't have asked for a better opportunity."
Marta looked up, eyeing Felisa with disbelief at her tone.
"What are you implying?"
"I would have said yes without a second thought." Felisa crossed her arms and began pacing the living room like a guest lecturer at a seminar. "That man is offering to share a home, one that would be part of the business. You'd have a working environment that's hugely beneficial for the merger." Felisa stopped abruptly, turned to Marta, and the smile she showed was not a kind one. "And you'll have the chance to see Mario every day."
"I can't do that, Felisa!"
"You heard Mario yourself — it was his idea." Felisa looked away, shrugged, and resumed pacing. "If Manuel knew, do you really think he'd take the company from you? Think about it — it's his own son you slept with, not some stranger."
"Does that make it any less of an infidelity?" Marta asked from the sofa. "Sometimes I don't understand you."
"I know — turn the situation around." Felisa sat down on the small sofa. "If Manuel were unfaithful to you — by sleeping with Melisa — would you forgive him?"
Marta's face registered pure shock. She took a moment to process it, given what she knew of Melisa's character.
"Him, possibly. My daughter — no."
"I didn't expect that." Felisa frowned. "Because of the age gap?"
"Because she's my daughter."
"And what difference does that make?"
Marta narrowed her eyes. She had been viscerally honest, and she didn't like her own answer.
"I think—" Marta tried to organise her thoughts "—I think Melisa is more pragmatic than all of that. I can't picture her being swept away. If she were, I'd think she'd been brainwashed, or hit her head."
"Well, forgive the comparison — but I would have said exactly the same about you until last week."
With that, Felisa went to the kitchen to make dinner.
Marta began turning Felisa's theory over in her mind and reached only one conclusion — that Melisa had stirred jealousy in her simply by being near Mario. She felt contemptible for it.
They had dinner — a homemade Caesar salad — and exchanged little beyond bland comments about whatever was on television.
Marta went to bed more exhausted than sleepy. Felisa had given her a cold bath of reality.
The infidelity clause worked both ways — and while she couldn't bring herself to care if Manuel found a stable partner, she didn't want it to be with her daughter. Why?
She woke the next morning with a revelation: when Mario had walked through the courthouse door, the pieces on the board had rearranged themselves entirely.
She could no longer love freely. Her romanticism had been dying all weekend and had finally expired on Tuesday, the second after she signed.
Marta set herself a clear goal: to love Mario in secret while living alongside Manuel. She would keep the company together with her husband for the good of the merger.
She glanced at her wristwatch — the hour hand between seven and eight, the minute hand pointing to the five.
Marta put an earphone in and called Manuel while she got dressed.
"Good morning, Marta — I was just about to call you."
"Good morning, Manuel." She took a thick striped polo neck from a shelf. "That idea of living together — did you have a particular property in mind?"
"Not really—" a short, slightly flustered laugh "—but I can start looking."
"I've been thinking about something else." Marta held up her suit skirt and stepped into it. "You know those houses that have a smaller one beside them on the same plot?" She fastened it. "Could it be something like that?"
"Perfectly! I know just the area — Marisa's family lived there."
"I don't want to stir anything up—" she put on her suit jacket with an apologetic expression "—Manuel."
"I'll manage, don't worry. Mario will be pleased to know we'll be living near his cousin Lope."
Marta smiled bitterly. Mario. She had to cover her feelings with protocols — and she had to start with learning to live alongside him.