Child of a King

Chapter twenty-four - Corazoncito + Characters

Running my fingers across the envelope in my hands, I shifted from one foot to the other as I stared at the closed door.

Curling my hand into a fist, I knocked a few times, getting to the conclusion that now would be as good a time as any.

"Come in".

Opening the door, I spotted the person I was looking for immediately as he was standing over a table with a laptop in front of him.

"Am I disturbing?" I asked with a quiet voice as the room was completely silent.

Rafael turned around to gaze at me in surprise. He eventually shook his head. "No, Miss Estella. How may I help you?"

"This is for you". I held out the envelope to him, nervously biting my lip as he accepted it with a frown on his face. "I've made it myself", I added, fumbling with my fingers as he peeked inside.

Softly smiling, Rafael held out the bracelet I had spent all day making, the colorful beads shining in the dimmed light from the bulb that lid up the surveillance room. I didn't know his favorite color yet, so I made sure to use all of them so that I knew that he liked at least one of the colors.

"Thank you, Miss Estella. You shouldn't have", he said with a gentle gleam in his kind eyes.

Blushing, I brushed some stray hair behind my ear. "There's more", I mumbled, pointing at the envelope.

Reaching inside the envelope once more, he pulled out the paper. Unfolding it, he ran his soft gaze across the drawing I had made for him. I had tried to recreate how Rafael had saved me yesterday from Mr. Rubio, using a lot of time to make our faces look happy as he held me safely in his arms, a big red heart circling us like a picture frame.

"I'm not that good at writing yet but", he kneeled down so both of us could see the drawing. "It says, 'Thank you for saving me. You're my knight in shining armor'." Glancing at the sword I made in his hand, I quickly pointed there. "See, I even made you a sword and shield! Then you can always protect me. Since Ezra is knight of Villa junto al lago, it's only fair that you're a knight too. Well, if you want to, of course, it's okay if you don't-". Redness prickled my cheeks when I caught myself rambling, his wide smile stopping me mid-sentence as he beamed down at me.

"That's really sweet of you Miss Estella". Wrapping an arm around my shoulder, he gave me a small squeeze. "I'll keep this right here". Standing up, he used a few pins to stick my drawing to the board on the wall. "Then I'll see it every time I'm at work".

A big smile formed on my lips. "That looks lovely right there!"

"Want to help me put this on?" He asked, holding out his wrist and the colorful bracelet I made him.

Biting my lip in concentration, I locked it around his wrist, beaming with joy that it fit around his wide arm.

"Wow! That looks so good", he said, flicking his wrist around to see it from different angles. "My wife is going to be so jealous", he chuckled.

I giggled too until I noticed the long red marks that trailed along his skin, guilt twisting like a snake in my gut.

"I'm sorry about that", I mumbled with remorseful eyes.

Rafael waved his hand dismissively. "Don't think about it. It doesn't even hurt".

"But it wasn't nice of me to scratch and kick you. It was very mean". My head bowed in shame. He saved me and in return I hurt him. Bad Estella!

Kneeling down in front of me again. "I'm not sorry that you did it".

"Why not?" I frowned, not understanding what he meant.