[Chapter 16]

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"Mirabel" Victor repeated when he saw she didn't try to move. "If you don't get back to the house soon you'll freeze to death," he said. Mirabel felt herself awaken from her dream and she looked at herself. She was still wearing the strapless dress from the night before. Suddenly, a wave of icy air hit her. Victor was right, those clothes were not suitable for this place.

"Come here," Victor insisted. "Some men brought your stuff in the middle of the night," he said. Mirabel walked very slowly back to the house, while she looked around intently trying to find a way to escape. However, she understood that they were in the middle of the mountain. If Mirabel decided to run, she would probably find herself a couple of hours later in danger of death.

Mirabel climbed the two steps that separated the corridor from the ground very slowly, without taking her eyes off Victor. The truth was that she had a lot of questions and didn't know exactly where to start. "It's ok," Victor murmured with pleasure once she found herself beside him. He put her hand on her shoulder, trying to guide her, and it strained her patience. Mirabel considered herself to be sweet and cheerful, but she would never define herself as a docile person, so she would not allow him to think that she was.

"Don't touch me," she muttered under her breath as she broke free of her grasp. "Why I am here? she asked. Victor laughed with almost irony in his voice. "Interesting question, it would be more interesting if I had the answer" Victor answered almost to himself. Afterward, he sighed long, as if he were trying to regroup his scattered thoughts. "You are here because there are people who really need that river. Encanto is the only municipality in the department over which no one has control, we need to pacify this area" Victor responded almost as if he were reciting a speech that he heard somewhere.

"Encanto is peaceful. My family's magic has kept it that way for almost sixty years," Mirabel replied. She could almost see Victor's brain working, and all the doubts he seemed to have were reflected in his gaze. "What exactly are you planning to do with me, Victor?" Mirabel asked, raising her voice more and more. "Let's say that my grandmother gives you the land, or even worse, you marry me and force me to give you the river, what will you do with it?" she asked. "You don't understand Encanto's magic, I don't even understand it, because it's capricious and unpredictable, it doesn't follow our very human rules, as all magic is," she said. "Are you planning to keep me here forever locked up in this house? Or do you intend to sacrifice yourself and force yourself to marry a woman who despises you for an uncertain plan and that you don't even know if it will work?" She asked. Victor's expression deepened. It was clear that he had all those questions too.

However, Mirabel failed to appreciate the effect of the doubts she planted in his head, as a sharp pain in her cheek alerted her. "Enough!" he screamed as he slapped her. Mirabel felt petrified. Victor did quite a few things to her when they were children, but if there was one thing he never did to her, it was to hit her in such a simple way. Mirabel was scared, whether she liked it or not, she was locked in that house in the middle of nowhere with that man who behaved like a wounded and scared animal, the kind that would do stupid things without thinking twice.

Mirabel put her hand to her bruised cheek and looked at him for a few seconds. He frowned and took her forearm without any delicacy. "Let's go to the warehouse. They left all your things there. Take your clothes and put them in your room." he said as he unceremoniously left her at the cellar door.

Mirabel obeyed, since she wanted to take a bath and put on some clothes more suitable for that climate. She finished her work and went into the private bathroom of her room. As expected, that house in the middle of nowhere had no public services, so the light was provided by a couple of kerosene lamps and the water came from a nearby river, and was hidden in a boiler that probably heated it, so she had the small pleasure of taking a shower.

Mirabel felt the water falling around her as she wandered over and over how her life had taken such a turn. She could see that it was an ugly combination of adverse circumstances and bad decisions that put her in this difficult position. Mirabel felt like crying, although she couldn't do it, ironically, she felt too scared to allow herself that luxury. She pulled herself together, she dressed in her old clothes from the capital, and left the room. A masochistic part of herself wanted to look Victor in the eye and ask him exactly what he was planning to do with her, until he lost his temper.

"Much better, you look more relaxed," Victor said as soon as she entered the kitchen. Mirabel looked at the clock on the top of the wall, and realized that it was already noon, so Victor was surely preparing lunch. The scene was disturbingly homey.

"I made meat, potatoes and salad, it's the fastest I could find" he said while the sound of the meat in the pan made her mouth water. She hadn't eaten anything since the day before and found herself famished. The two of them sat at the table located in the corridor, right next to the beautiful but sad landscape that surrounded them. "You've never struck me as the kind of person who would kidnap a woman and hide her in a dark house in the middle of nowhere," Mirabel said as she took the first bite of her piece of meat. "Don't? So what kind of person do you think I am?" he asked as she rubbed his temples. "More like the kind of man who would rather find a trophy wife and pursue a messy public life under everyone's eyes. Look at you, you like the luxuries, the glamor of the parties, you want to be someone, you are not the type of gray men who would do this," she said.

Victor smiled. "No, I'm not, but we can't always do what we want, can we, Mirabel?" he asked as he was more likely stabbing his food with his fork. "And I suppose that despite the facade, you are scared" he said as he ate a piece of his meat, "I suppose you are afraid that I will finally get tired of this situation and decide to throw you off a cliff, in a place where no one can find you" he said while giving her a disturbing smile. Mirabel pressed her lips together, and he laughed softly.

"The world seems to turn in a circular way, in the end everything returns to its place. I'm back to being that school bully who enjoys seeing the "sweet and kind" Mirabel Madrigal scared "Victor commented, while he said the last words as a joke. "You could not do it, my family will not lose their powers and they will not rest until they get revenge" said Mirabel. She felt that she had tapped into one of Victor's secret fears, but he took pains to hide it and keep his countenance calm. "Don't push me, Mirabel. We both know that with you here, very bad things could happen" he replied.

Mirabel stared at him, because whether she liked it or not, he was right.

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"You have to rest," Camilo told Dolores, who had been sitting all morning in the middle of the central patio while concentrating on listening to each and every single one of the voices of the town. He gave her sister a glass of water and she drank it without thinking twice, since she had spent the last three days in that position for more than eight hours.

"Do you know what my problem is?" Dolores asked as she recovered. "I don't pay attention," she said. "What are you talking about?" Camilo asked his sister without being able to understand. "I hear many voices at the same time, they all speak, it is impossible for me to listen to them all. I hear them, but I don't really listen to them," she said. Camilo felt worried when he heard her talk about her like this "I don't like that you are so hard on yourself" he replied.

"Everyone talks about Mirabel, the town is shocked, but nobody says anything useful" Dolores commented. "If Victor really is behind this, and I'm sure he is, I'm sure he won't let himself be found out so easily. He knows about your powers, he knows that you will be able to hear him" Camilo replied. "Can I confess something to you?" Dolores asked, "go ahead", Camilo answered.

"I haven't been able to stop thinking about that night when Isabela found you two in the garden. She is destructive, but I have to admit that she was able to see the truth behind any mirage" she said. "What are you talking about?" Camilo asked, who hadn't heard his sister talk about that episode in a long time. "I…" Dolores began as her voice trailed off and her eyes filled with tears. "I… well… Isabela was right, I harmed Mirabel during the night of her engagement with Mariano. I didn't want the two of them to get married, and I thought that was the only way to avoid the engagement," she said.

"Dolores, that was very, very bad" Camilo sighed. " I know, I know. That was why Agustín wanted to protect Mirabel, because he knew that she would end up paying for everything, as always" she said. "Still, I don't understand why you feel guilty," Camilo replied. "I think I could have done something different, I feel like we all somehow pushed Mirabel, put her against the wall,made her feel she had to escape, maybe all of us precipitated this misfortune. We don't know where she is, she could be in danger , or dead in a ditch" Dolores continued as she lost her self-control as she spoke. Her sister began to cry without any shame, and Camilo had no other option but to see her, hoping that at any moment he would find the ideal words to comfort her.

"We will find her, Lolita, I promise we will, Victor is not stupid enough to do something to Mirabel. He knows that we have powers, and he knows that we can find her," Camilo said. Dolores stopped crying and narrowed her eyes, almost as if she had heard something.

At that moment, her parents walked through the front door and decided to keep them company. Her mom seemed grumpy, as her cloud was lightning and she was giving off a light rain. "What's going on?" Camilo asked after sharing a brief greeting. "We had a meeting with the Encanto´s mayor, but it wasn't encouraging," Felix commented with a somber look in his eyes. Pepa put her hands on her hips and tapped lightly a couple of times. "He knows something, I can feel it, he knows what happened to Mirabel," she said. Then his mom crossed her arms and snorted in exasperation. "I don't know how this could happen, that jerk should never have been mayor, his family doesn't even live in Encanto" she said. "The people voted for him," Felix replied. "Well, people voted wrong" Pepa replied, "Mom used to have better control over this town before" she replied.

Camilo looked at her mother, he already knew that she was a temperamental woman, and deep down, she could be almost as dictatorial as his grandmother was in the past. "Shh," Dolores murmured as she placed her finger over her lips, indicating that they should be quiet. She listened in silence for a few moments.

"One of the mechanics in town saw Victor, he knows something" Dolores suddenly said. "Tell Bruno what you heard. He will get the truth out of him if he doesn't want to collaborate" Pepa said, while Camilo couldn't help but think that he was seeing a door to the past. That was the reason why no one dared to contradict the Madrigals, because like it or not, they had created an aura of mysticism and fear around the family, and no one inspired more fear than Bruno.

"The mechanic said that he had repaired one of the axles on Victor's car. He works on the outskirts of town. Victor visited him during office hours, just when he was supposed to be working in his office," Dolores explained to Bruno, while he sat quietly at the dining room table. His uncle looked truly exhausted, to the point that he hadn't even bothered to wear his tattered green ruana. He had probably spent hours trying to see a clue to the future in the sands of time.

"We'd better pay him a visit," Bruno said. "Camilo" his uncle called him, "tell Isabela and Luisa to get ready we will go talk to that guy" he said.

A couple of hours later, Camilo found himself driving with his uncle and his cousins to an intersection a couple of miles outside of Encanto. It was the place where the pavement road began. The mechanic's workshop was nothing more than a ugly shack with a couple of zinc tiles on top, where travelers could inflate flat tires or put water in their vehicles. Camilo parked the truck a few meters from the garage, and they found the mechanic with his head in one of the local cars.

"You speak. I'll speak when I have to" Bruno murmured to Camilo. "Good morning," Camilo greeted. The mechanic looked up and wiped his hands on a rag that made his hands even dirtier. He was a short guy with fair skin and sparse white hair. "Excuse me, we heard that a person we know passed by yesterday, during the day, we want to know more about that" Camilo commented while his cousins surrounded him. Surely the sight must have been frightening. All three had powers admired and feared in equal intensity.

"Who are you talking about?" the man asked. "Victor Valenzuela. We know he passed by in the morning, and we want to know what you can tell us about that," he said. "Please, I don't want any trouble. I just put air in one of the tires on his car, nothing else, I really don't want to get involved," he said. "Sir" Camilo began seriously. "It is not a secret that we are looking for Mirabel Madrigal, and we suspect that he took her," Camilo insisted, but the guy seemed more and more nervous. "I'm sorry, I don't want to…" he muttered.

At that moment, Bruno emerged from behind. That version of Bruno was the one that Camilo remembered from his childhood. Menacing and intimidating, with an air of mystery around him, and a slight sickly green gleam in his eyes. "You know things, the sands of time told me," Bruno said in a tone that almost sounded like a whisper. "Do you want to know what other things they show me?" he asked. "All about a terrible accident in the mountains, a public service bus travels too fast, and loses control in one of the curves, to the point that it slides into a cliff, a terrible fate, there are no survivors" Bruno said. However, his uncle abruptly turned around.

"Let's go children, there is nothing to do here, the gentleman does not want to collaborate" Bruno said calmly. "Wait!" the guy yelled. "You can't leave me like this, you have to tell me what do you mean" the mechanic yelled as he tried to catch up with Bruno, who had already started back to the truck.

"What do you mean?, or who?. If you don't, you are dooming me and my family to a life of fear, we will never set foot outside of Encanto again for fear of the prophecy being fulfilled" he said. "Give me the information I'm looking for and I'll give you what you need," Bruno replied. The mechanic thought about it for a few distressing seconds. It was a difficult decision: face possible revenge from Victor and his associates, or face uncertainty and fear for the rest of his life.

"Victor Valenzuela passed by here shortly after half past eleven in the morning. An odd hour, considering he was supposed to be at the office. He asked me to put air in his tires" he explained. "However, you found something strange in all that, why?" Bruno asked. "It's just a silly thing," the mechanic replied. "Well, I want to know,"Bruno insisted, "The mud on the tires of his car seemed to be from the moors. I told him that the car was too nice for the harsh land of the moors. He got angry and told me to mind my own business. Then he got into his car and drove away. I've never seen him in such a bad mood," he said.

Camilo took a deep breath. The moors were a beautiful land, but desolate, if Mirabel was there, she would have very few opportunities to escape, because that place was deserted and hardly had any roads that tourists and farmers sometimes used to climb the snowy peak. Not to mention that its extension was enormous, covering almost three Departments. Finding her would not be easy.

"Perfect," Bruno said. "Perfect?" asked the mechanic who looked so nervous that he had already broken out in a cold sweat. "We're leaving," Bruno said suddenly as he motioned for them to get into the truck. "No, wait, you can't go like this," the mechanic yelled. Bruno turned one last time and looked at the man with his sick green gaze. "Your brother's wife, she will be the victim of that misfortune" he said. "I don't know when it will take place, the vision wasn't clear, but the end of it was very clear," Bruno replied.

The four got into the truck in silence. Bruno agreed to go in the back, since there wasn't room for everyone in the cabin. Camilo kept looking at him through the rearview mirror. His uncle had shown them a face that none of them knew, but it was the most recognized by the town. That was one of the things on which Mirabel and Camilo had always had different opinions. She saw a gentle and misunderstood man, but Camilo saw someone slightly different. Maybe his uncle was that good and gentle person, but he was also a practical man who went to great lengths when something had to be done.

"What you said to that man was really scary. Is it true?" Isabela asked once they all met in front of his grandmother, in her office. "Of course it's true. No one would respect my gift if it wasn't. People would start to think that my predictions are fallible, and eventually, I will have the same faith of Cassandra: no one would believe my predictions," he said. Isabela stared at him. "I thought you didn't like inspiring fear," she said. Bruno smiled almost sadly, "I don't like it, but sometimes a healthy dose of fear can do more for the family than all the respect in the world" he replied.

"What did the fish lady do to you, for you decided to give her that prediction?" Camilo asked. Bruno looked up "That wasn't a prediction, that was an injustice. I simply let her know that it was not a good idea to keep that poor animal in such a small fish tank, and boom, the most predictable thing happened" he replied. Isabela, Luisa and Camilo laughed, but they were very nervous about the whole thing.

"Uncle" Luisa began, as she seemed to be the only one who had the courage to ask what everyone wanted: "did you have a prediction about Mirabel?" she asked. Bruno stared at her without answering. Suddenly her grandmother opened the door of the room, and she walked in with Julieta.

"I have a person at the registry office who can help me," Julieta said. "I healed his son a couple of months ago, he promised me that he will investigate the Valenzuela properties," she said. "And if he doesn't?" Luisa asked as Julieta's face suddenly hardened, "Then I won't be able to give you the second dose," she said.

At that moment, her grandmother slowly moved to the chair behind her desk. "In the past everyone respected the Madrigals in this town. I don't know what has happened lately. No one would have dared to touch any of us in the past, I think we are losing our touch" the old woman said as she clasped her hands across the top of her desk, giving her a slightly menacing look. "Well, what happened today is a brief account of why you have to collaborate kindly with the Madrigals, isn't it?" Bruno asked. His grandmother and his uncle shared a brief smile, while Camilo was surprised at how alike they could be.

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Mirabel had already spent three gray days in that country house. If she hadn't found herself trapped against her will, she would have thought it a wonderful place to rest. Being so far from civilization, that house did not have any public services, but the Valenzuelas had equipped it with all possible comforts and beautiful stuff to comfort the soul.

She spent her days completely alone, since Victor had to return to Encanto. Her only entertainment was reading the books from Miguel Valenzuela's library, cooking for herself and walking through the moors. She admired the sad but beautiful landscape of the mountain, green and white, where the moss that covered the ground and the frailejones that grew wildly were the creators of all life on the mountain, the source of water. Mirabel sat on the ground as she felt the moisture running and the sound of the water calming her.

"Mirabel" called a voice from the house. She knew it was Victor, so she decided to ignore him. "Mirabel!" he yelled even more annoyed. She slowly opened her eyes, let out an exasperated snort, and stood up. Victor was getting more and more irritable as time went by. She supposed the stress of the whole situation was starting to get to him.

"What's going on?" Mirabel asked as she moved closer to him. "Where Did you go?" he asked. "I was on the mountain, behind the house." She answered. Victor took a deep breath. "Let's go to the kitchen," he said. Mirabel had made beans in one of Victor's mom's modern pressure cookers, so he heated them up and served a plate. "You won't pretend that we play to the little house," she commented, annoyed, since the last thing she wanted was to sit down and have a conversation with him.

"You look so horrible, it looks like you haven't done your hair in days and that black dress doesn't suit you at all" he commented. Mirabel felt her cheeks turn red from the annoyance. The truth was that she had bought that dress with buttons and collar for a funeral, and she had not worn it since then, since she had the impression that it looked like a sack of potatoes. To make it worse, she had combined it with a dark green sweater that made her look even more subdued. Mirabel always used to comb her curls carefully,as she liked to shape them with the help of coconut oil. But in the last few days she had not seen any point in continuing with her routines so her hair looked lifeless and frizzy.

"I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, I don't know if you'll finally throw me off a cliff or I'll get out of this alive, the last thing I care about is looking horrible" she replied. "Good point," he said as she continued eating. "How long will I stay here?" Mirabel asked as she stared at him. Victor passed his food and took a long time to answer. "I don't know," he said. Mirabel could feel the discomfort and nervousness in his eyes.

"You can't keep me here forever," she replied. "I don't mean to, this is a temporary situation, but don't think too much of it. I am not enjoying this" he said. "It would seem that you do, you have always liked to have control over those you consider the weakest. Besides, considering the way you've acted, your obsession with me scares me," she said, to which he responded with a snort.

"Please…" he said. "Have you seen yourself in a mirror? Do you have any idea how others see you?" he asked "You are a sad secretary who became a sad rural teacher. You're not even very pretty or charismatic, you're perfectly ordinary, it's no surprise that the Madrigals aren't interested in including you in their stuff. After all, they certainly are extraordinary," he replied. Mirabel felt her cheeks turn red once more. "Then why were you flirting with me?" she asked. "Because of the river, why else would it be?" he replied with contempt.

Mirabel felt like an idiot. The truth was that his confession took away an extra concern about her present. However, his words were hurtful, and they reached the deepest part of those old wounds that she still had at the bottom of her heart. "I guess I feel calmer hearing that," Mirabel said, downplaying the matter, since she didn't want him to know how much her words had affected her.

Another couple of days passed in that sad solitude. Mirabel knew that escaping would be nothing short of suicidal. The moors were surrounded by dense rainforests, which were barely populated, she would be hopelessly lost at the first opportunity. But then, something unusual happened.

Mirabel got up very early in the morning, and she put on the first dress that she found. Victor didn't usually stop by the house this early, since he still had to keep up the facade and show up for work every day. However, that morning he showed his unpleasant face to her. To the point that she was forced to make breakfast for both of them. She hated visits from him, they felt like some kind of forced domesticity.

"What are you planning to do today?" he asked as he took a drink from his coffee. "Walking on the moor, washing my clothes, why do you ask? Frankly, I don't want to talk to you, or pretend we're friends, because we're not," she said. Victor rolled his eyes in exasperation. "It was just a fucking question, you don't have to get defensive. You should know that I have been excessively generous with you during the time you have stayed in this house. I could make your life hell, but I haven't" he replied, and now it was Mirabel's turn to feel exasperated, "how magnanimous of you, I guess I should be thankful that I'm not chained or starving" she answered. "Well, yes, I think you should be grateful," he replied.

Suddenly, the sound of tires on the gravel in the driveway alerted them. Mirabel was surprised, since the only person who came that far away was Victor. She was on her feet before he could stop her, and ran down the hall to the front door. Mirabel realized that it was a blue car far older than Victor's. Miguel Valenzuela got out of his vehicle, as he stared at her with eyes wide open full of fear, "My God…" he murmured.

Mirabel felt Victor grab her forearm tightly and practically throw her behind him. "Go to your room, Mirabel" he ordered her. "But..." she began. "Now" he yelled. Mirabel returned to her room while she listened to the screams of father and son. "I can't believe you were capable of committing this villany Victor" Miguel Valenzuela shouted.

She was really curious to hear what the two of them were talking about, so while they were shouting reproaches at each other in the backyard of the house. She crept carefully into a tool room at the rear of the building, and she watched them through a tiny window.

The back garden was decorated with a country table made from the huge trunk of a fallen tree, and makeshift chairs from the rest of the trunk stuck into the grass, where vegetation grew. Miguel Valenzuela remained seated on one of these trunks, while he fanned frantically himself with his hat despite the coldness, as Victor looked at his father with an expression full of concern and his arms crossed.

"You're unbelievable, Victor, you really are," Miguel said as his little mustache danced up and down in annoyance. "I can't believe you would have had the nerve to do something like this," he said. "The mayors of the region are really upset because she did not agree to help us, if she is still alive it is because I have intervened," he said. "My God…" Miguel Valenzuela repeated as he rubbed his temples looking like the desperate father that he was. "I don't know what I'm going to do with you, Victor. I've been asking you to leave that poor girl alone since you were a child, but you haven't listened to me, you never do it. Why does it always have to be her, Victor?" Miguel asked. That was exactly what Mirabel had spent years wondering.

"I... I don't know" Victor replied nervously. Miguel looked up at his son. "Please, tell me you haven't..." Miguel began without daring to finish the sentence. Victor seemed to take a few seconds to understand, until he finally did "oh, no, no dad, how can you think that? Who do you think I am?" he asked.

"That's an excellent question, Victor. Who are you?" Miguel replied, as he seemed to have gained momentum to scold Victor. "I don't know who you are anymore. Certainly, you are not the person I always thought: I always saw you as a somewhat temperamental young man, but very intelligent and very talented. That's why your mom and I made so much effort to pay for that university, to give you the best" Miguel began as he seemed more and more annoyed. "I always thought that deep down, you were a good-hearted man. But all I can see is a young buffoon who seems to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for a fashionable car and a couple of fine suits, with nothing more in his head than superficial ideas that lead him to commit foolery like this" Miguel said.

Victor seemed overwhelmed by that sermon, and even Mirabel felt second-hand embarrassment, because deep down, Miguel was right. There was something very pathetic about the way he had acted so far.

"I don't know who you are anymore," Miguel repeated. "I never thought my son would be the kind of person to hold a young lady against her will," he concluded. " Everyone in town knows it, or at least suspects it. The Madrigals will not leave things like that. They will come after you" he said. Victor got annoyed, "so let them do it. I'm sick of that family, and that all of Encanto always surrenders to them." he responded, and now it was Miguel's turn to get upset. "We owe them a lot, Victor. Alma Madrigal interceded for mom when we got to town, because nobody wanted us here. The only thing we had back then was the clothes we were wearing. Alma Madrigal herself took care that mom had a job and she even gave us a hand in the first months so that there was never a lack of food on our table, "he said.

Dad and son were silent for a few seconds, until Miguel looked up again, he seemed exhausted. "They are using you, Victor. To all those big shots in Bogotá, you are nothing more than a small-town puppet, stupid and violent, one piece in the middle of their game, and in the end, you will be the only one who will get burned out of all this" Miguel said in a low, almost solemn tone. Victor looked closely at his father. "I can't do anything anymore. I'm up to my neck in this thing," Victor replied.

Miguel got up slowly. "I'm going to think of a way to settle this cleanly, I'll save your ass one more time, but after that, I want you to leave this town and never come back Victor. You used to be my greatest pride, but I don't want to know anything about you anymore, you are nothing more than a shame" he said.

Mirabel ran to the other end of the house, to the entrance where Miguel Valenzuela's car was parked. "Sir, please help me" she said as she stood between him and the front door of the car: Miguel seemed to stop short and looked at her with a look full of pain. "Miss Mirabel, I'm so sorry," he said. "Please take me with you, I can't stay here," Mirabel said.

Miguel sighed deeply and took her by the shoulders. "I promise I will, I'll get you out of here, but I need you to wait just a little while longer while I make sure that both you and Victor can get out safely," he said. Mirabel understood her, this is what she meant to help him one last time.

"Please, I can't stay here any longer," Mirabel replied. Miguel sighed. "Please, I beg you. He is my son, I cannot simply abandon him to his fate "he asked. Mirabel knew at that moment that it was useless to continue insisting, since she had seen similar expressions in her parents every time they protected her from the injustices of her grandmother. Mirabel felt a little sorry for him, although she did not want to do it, since the situation was too serious.

Mirabel watched the car leave while she wondered over and over again what she should do.

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Camilo had barely paid attention to the work on the farm in recent days. He sometimes felt strange during work, as if he wished the whole world would stop until he made sure Mirabel was safe. However, things were not like that, and he had to use all the strength he had to get up and go to do his chores day after day despite his heart breaking with pain.

Camilo was quietly walking through the coffee plantations on the road when he saw a familiar car. It was Miguel Valenzuela 's . He had already secretly approached him before, when he warned him that Victor had traveled to meet Mirabel after her interview at the Ministry. Miguel didn't seem to expect good things from his son, like the rest of the Madrigals, and he couldn't blame him.

As he watched the car approach from the hill, his heart filled with hope, for the truth was that Aunt Julieta hadn't had any luck finding out about Victor's house. He was probably hiding in another municipality, and that would require looking at each of the registration offices until they finally found Mirabel's whereabouts, which would take months.

"Good afternoon," Miguel said as he parked his car at the side of the road. "Good afternoon" answered Camilo while he analyzed Miguel. He looked tired, and even seemed older than he remembered. "I saw her, I saw your cousin," he said. "Did you see Mirabel?" he asked as he felt slightly dizzy from the news. "Victor is an idiot, it probably wasn't even his idea. He was stupid enough to take her to the country house we have in the moors" Miguel said. "Why are you telling me this?" Camilo asked. "Why did you prefer to come to me than to the police?"

Miguel looked up from him and watched him in silence. "I know that if the Madrigal family confronts him, he will have no choice but to surrender, we don't have to involve the police in this. I promised years ago that I would get him out of Encanto,and this time I will do it forever, he will never bother you again, please, there is no need to go to the police with this information" he said.

Camilo watched him for a few moments. He did not share Miguel's opinion, Victor had to pay for what he did, that had stopped being a childish joke a long time ago. However, he knew that if he told Miguel that, he would not give him Mirabel's location, so he decided to accept his terms even for a while, while they found a better solution.

"Okay, I'll take care of it, I'll go get her," Camilo agreed as he shook Miguel's hand.


Hello everyone, this is close to the end, I think at most there are a couple of chapters left. Thanks for reading, bye.