The Wedding Date

Part Two - Chapter Nineteen: José and Nia Pereira

“Feeling better?” Cristiano asked as he handed Felisa a cup of hot chocolate, his heart ached knowing that there was nothing that he could do to fix this.

Her parents were gone and there was nothing that could be done to bring them back for her; Cristiano hated that it was something that he couldn’t fix.

Felisa nodded her head as she offered him a weak smile, she could see that he was still worried about her especially since he hadn’t been expecting her to break down like that.

“Amor… if it’s not too hard, could you tell me what happened?” Cristiano asked carefully as he sat down beside his girlfriend, he only knew that she had lost both of her parents when she was fourteen and that it had been in car crash that had killed both of them.

Felisa wrapped her hands around the hot cup and chewed on her lip, she swallowed as she looked down at her hands as she nodded her head.

“It was their anniversary and they went out for a meal, Fabio was only about a month old and Rhea was four years old,” Felisa said softly as she spared just a glance at her boyfriend as she set down her hot drink knowing that there was a strong chance that she would drop it.

Cristiano watched his girlfriend, his heart aching for her knowing already that she had been fourteen and had so much put onto her shoulders in one foul move.

“They left us with a babysitter, I can’t remember her name now but I know she spent all night on her phone,” Felisa said softly as she swallowed as she tried to recall what had happened when she had lost her parents.

It had all happened so quickly and she couldn’t recall the moments that had led up to that moment when she had lost them.

“It was raining quite heavily and we were all stuck inside, I remember doing my homework when there was this blue flashing light that lit up the entire living room,” the brunette whispered as she took a shaky breath.

Felisa felt Cristiano rest a hand on her arm in comfort, she could tell that he didn’t want to push her and it was hard on her to talk about this.

Cristiano watched his girlfriend wishing that there was some way that he could fix this, he had lost his father at twenty and that had been hard for him; he had sworn to always be there for any children that he had and had never liked drinking more than he should.

“I was the one that answered the door, the babysitter was too busy on her phone to notice that the policía were outside,” Felisa said with a snort, she could remember being so confused about what was going on and why they wanted to come inside.

It had only been when she led the police officers into the living room that the babysitter had even noticed that Felisa had let them in; she’d been told off for doing so before the police had dropped the bomb that had shattered her world.

“A drunk driver skipped the lights and crashed head first into the car after losing control of his car, killed them both instantly,” Felisa whispered as she closed her blue eyes as she recalled being told that her parents were never coming home.

The brunette felt Cristiano pull her into his arms in an attempt to comfort her, he held her to him as she sniffled knowing that she was nearly done; she needed to do this for herself.

“I was asked to identify their bodies since I was the only relative that they had, the babysitter just disappeared off home,” Felisa whispered as she shivered, it was something that she would never wish on anyone and had nearly broken her to do since she knew nothing of either of her grandparents.

Cristiano felt anger grip him at the fact that she had been all alone as soon as she had been told that her parents had gone.

“The policía dropped me off back home with Rhea and Fabio afterwards and I was left to plan their funerals with what little money that we had,” Felisa said as she recalled just how alone she had felt when the police had left her home; she had no one to turn to and no idea on how to cope.

Cristiano brushed his fingers down her back knowing that there was no way that he could do what she did; he would have broken a long time ago.

“We lost the house a month or so after their deaths, I had dropped out of school by that point,” Felisa said as she brushed some hair from her face, she closed her eyes as she cuddled into Cristiano’s warmth knowing that it got easier from this point.

The footballer just held her quietly knowing where this was going, he hated that the system had failed her like it had and left Felisa with no choice but to turn to escorting to provide for her siblings with what they needed.

“What happened to the driver?” Cristiano asked as he moved to wipe his girlfriend’s nose with the bottom of his T-shirt, he didn’t care if it got snotty and dirty; he brushed his thumb against her cheek making Felisa look at him.

The brunette swallowed as she stared at her boyfriend, she knew her eyes would be red now and it felt good for once that she could talk about this with someone.

“They never found him… he fled the scene,” Felisa whispered as she drew herself closer to Cristiano, she could feel his hands shaking at the news that the man that had destroyed her family had never been caught.

The footballer took a shaky breath knowing that he would never allow anything to happen to her or Thalia; he would never survive the loss of either of them.

“When is the anniversary?” Cristiano asked as he looked down at his girlfriend, he wanted to go with her since he knew that she would be going to visit her parents’ final resting place.

The footballer wanted to support her since he knew she’d be so focused on everyone else that she would forget to grieve herself; he wanted her to be able to lean on him if she needed to.

“11th of November,” Felisa whispered as she looked at Cristiano, she offered him a weak smile glad that she had found someone like him.

***

Pascal Fernandez knocked back the last of his beer as his blood shot eyes stared up at the screen of the large television that sat before him.

He knew that he shouldn’t have been haunting himself by watching what was on the television screen but Pascal couldn’t stop himself; he had been haunted by his actions for nearly thirteen years and now his actions had come back to haunt him even more.

Pascal had never known that the couple that he had killed in that car accident had children, he hated himself even more for depriving them of their parents.

Even more so now that he had heard that the eldest daughter had been forced to become an escort to support the family.

However there was nothing that Pascal could do about it now, he didn’t want to risk turning himself in because his own family needed him; the anniversary was painful enough for him but he had moved on because he had to.

José and Nia Pereira would always haunt him for what he had done that day, he had been told by a friend not to drive home that drunk but he had and it had resulted in him killing to people.

That same friend had been the one to help him cover up the fact that he had murdered two people and was the reason that he hadn’t gone to the police when he had heard that the couple had died.

Pascal just hoped that his guilt wouldn’t get to him now.