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Completely tense, I leaned my back against the wall by the door and closed my eyes for a moment.

I thought about how this man knew I was here and also how he knew my name, but I came to no conclusion other than that it really must have been Emilio who gave him this information.

When I opened my eyes again and looked down at Arco, he seemed to have calmed down somewhat, although he was still staring at the door.

"Isalie?" came Ernesto's voice again, but despite everything I decided not to open the door. If something had happened to Emilio, he would surely send anyone else here instead of his father.

"I know you're standing behind the door!" He got louder and I was suddenly afraid that he was about to kick in the door, so I jumped away from the wall and bravely stood up.

"I want you to leave immediately!" I spoke assertively and took a few steps backwards to position myself behind Arco, who suddenly started to growl again.

He probably sensed my fear or nervousness. I didn't have a clue, but was more than grateful to have him with me at this moment.

"Don't worry! I just want to show you something!"

I listened tensely and with a racing heart as he might have put something in front of the door, but he wouldn't get me to answer the door anyway. My fear was greater than my curiosity and my trust in Emilio was greater than all of that. If he said his father was a bad person, then so did I. There was no doubt about it.

"I still won't open the door!" I shouted loudly, but he didn't react anymore.

I listened with bated breath and heard footsteps on the stairs, but it could be someone else. I quickly turned and walked through the darkened living room straight over to the window to look down at the street.

At first nothing happened, but after a short moment I saw an elderly gentleman in a gray suit walking towards a limousine. It had to be him!

I watched what was happening down there for a moment and waited for the limousine to leave before I quickly ran back to the apartment door and opened it.

Luckily for me nobody was there anymore. There was only one black bag on the floor and curiously I picked it up to take it into the apartment. I closed the door behind me and led Arco back to the kitchen and set the bag down on the counter.

I wasn't sure what was in it, but I knew one thing - it wasn't going to be good.

Taking a deep breath, I glanced at Arco and then pulled out everything in the bag.

It was photos and a cell phone, which made me frown.

I wanted to take a look at the dark photos first, but when the cell phone suddenly started ringing, I got a fright and stared in a trance at the unknown number that was flashing there.

I swiped up the green handset, switched to speakerphone, and held my breath until I heard Ernesto's voice again.

"There are three videos on the cell phone. Watch them in peace and let me tell you one thing. You must be a lovely girl. Do something with your life while you still have one and something else. If Emilio, this cell phone or the videos you don't have to worry about your future anymore!"

Hung up!

I hadn't been able to breathe the entire phone call, and I was still having trouble breathing while my hands were shaking uncontrollably. I didn't want to watch the videos and dropped the phone from my hands to pace nervously around the room.

Surely they were videos of Emilio. The threat from his father alone suggested that. Plus his thoughts. He must have thought I was going to leave Emilio after those videos, which made me terribly panicky because I had a hard time imagining what those videos were supposed to be.

I jerked to a halt in the middle of the room and reflected on the fact that I really did have feelings for him. This was no longer an infatuation, where you walked through life with rose-tinted glasses. There was more between us and that's why I just had to know if I could live with it or not.

Determined to look behind its facade and learn the reason for its darkness, I ran back to the kitchen counter and shakily picked up my phone to start the first video without hesitation.

What I saw there left me completely speechless, because this video was probably intended more to blackmail me.

I saw my apartment door and a man who was disposing of Carlos' body. Surely that was the Cleaner Hektor was talking about. But regardless of whether it was the cleaner or not. It was a body and my apartment, so either way I'd be in the police crosshairs.

But I would stand up for Emilio. Ernesto had to come up with a lot more than that.

I took a deep breath and then turned on the second video, which must have been done at dinner.

Emilio was sitting there with a pretty woman and they both smiled at each other while their hands were clasped on the table.

I didn't mean to be jealous of his past, but I reluctantly felt a warm tear slide down my cheek as I watched, heart aching, as he placed a gentle kiss on her cheek.

My breathing was jerky and I now knew exactly what he meant! His father was a nasty asshole who only wanted to upset me and hurt Emilio.

He had every right in the world to have a past and if he was happy with another before me then so be it.

"What a bastard," I cursed his father, thinking that the third video couldn't have been worse, but I was wrong.

I saw Emilio with exactly the same woman as before, only they were hugging each other by a pool. I didn't know what to expect, but when I saw her in the next few minutes of this video, everything inside me cramped to the core of my being. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold my phone and the tears running down my cheeks made it difficult to see anything clearly.

But I was grateful for that!

I didn't want to recognize anything anymore, because that was the most horrible thing I had ever seen.

This woman was simply drowned in the pool and Emilio - he sat by and comfortably smoked a cigarette as if it were his everyday life. As if he doesn't care at all...

I knew that he must have killed a lot of people and somehow out of love I had accepted it blindly. But now I was no longer blind. This video opened my eyes.

It wasn't like Carlos that Emilio was forced to kill that woman. She was no threat to him and familiar to him as I could see from the previous video which only made things worse.

Breathless, I slipped the cell phone into the pocket of my jogging pants and took the pictures to hand, in which I recognized other dead people, all of whom had been badly beaten up.

Crying bitterly, a world collapsed for me at that moment, because his father had achieved what he had set out to do. I doubted... Not just Emilio, but myself for falling in love in such a short time with someone I didn't know and didn't question.

Talking about such acts was different from seeing them and I was so upset I didn't know what to do now...

I felt alone and abandoned... As if I had been living in a dream before and now I had been rudely woken up...