My treasure   

Alejandro Fendi was a busy man, so he could not waste time.

After that lunch he and Ariel would head for the house he shared with his mother and his little sister, Annie, but Alessia lived very close by, along with her annoying husband, so with the excuse of seeing his mother he spent a lot of time in that house.

Why did they live together, and why not? Her mother was very old and from time to time her health was in danger, her children wanted to be close, very close to her and none of them would let the other spend more time with her, because it was really an internal competition.

Ariel, next to her in the car, was very nervous, she was going to marry that man at some point and for some reason she didn't feel she had the right to object.

"You're deciding for me." She said quietly, but Alejandro heard her.

"You could say yes."

"Could you also say you're forcing me?"

"Only if you want to play the victim. Look at it this way, I'll be forcing you to have a better life, in the future you'll think of thanking me, that I assure you."

"Alejandro, I..." She needed to think things through, but it was still all very confusing to her.

"What, do you have a boyfriend, do you have kids, is someone waiting for you in a dumpster somewhere?" she let out a mocking laugh and looked at Ariel still with all the soap smeared all over her body. He hoped that wasn't so much for his mother and worsened her health. He intended to present Ariel like this, just as she was. That they would be aware that if they cornered him, nothing was going to go right. They would know what it was like to oppose Alejandro or try to corner him. "Don't worry, from now on you'll have me. Mind you, my mother is a bit conventional, she had a hard time accepting my ex-girlfriend sleeping with me at home. But with time she got used to it, she'll be fine with you sleeping with me in a few days."

"W-what?" That was not expected, if he said there would be no love, why would they have to sleep together? If there was no love and they were not going to fall in love, Ariel would not be with that man and that was very clear to her. "I will do no such thing! It would be like giving you my little music box! My body is my treasure too and I don't intend to share it!" Ariel declared firmly. In the face of that she could not give in.

Surprised, Alejandro smiled. He stretched his hand up to her face and stroked her cheek, focused on her huge eyes and saw the purity in those bright brown eyes.

He could tell Ariel was a virgin.

"All right, but we're going to share a bed, even if you don't share your body with me. We'll be married and in everyone's eyes it will be so. I may not love you, you may not love me but it will be a real marriage. Mind you, I am a man who enjoys the pleasures of the body, chastity is not my thing." Simply put, he wasn't going to be with Ariel, but that didn't mean he was going to give up having sex with other women.

Alejandro smiled a wicked smile and that made Ariel shudder, she understood perfectly what he was referring to and she couldn't say anything, she had made it clear that she wouldn't share her body with him, so her future husband was willing to look for other options to satisfy her body, her desires.

"Fine." She bit her lower lip and then kept her gaze straight ahead when Alejandro withdrew his hand. "How old are you, Alejandro?"

"Thirty-four, just turned thirty-four."

They parked in front of the house and the driver hurried to open the car door for them, still not understanding how it was possible that his boss had just stopped in front of a garbage dump and chose that girl as his future wife.

For him his boss could only be crazy, he could not find any other logic, any other explanation.

When they opened the door to the house, Ariel kept her eyes on the floor, aware that everything inside there was going to leave her very surprised and she didn't want to embarrass herself or embarrass Alejandro.

They were going somewhere inside the house, but she didn't dare to look up. She knew that there was a very rich smell in there, it smelled delicious, like warm cookies, like a freshly opened oven where something delicious was coming out. It felt like a warm place, full of love and harmony...or that was Ariel's impression.

The reality was darker.

"Alejandro?" Her mother's voice denoted astonishment at seeing her son return with that woman holding his hand. "What does this mean?" She was aware that this action did not belong to Alejandro, so Mrs. Fendi felt worried.

"Mother Of God!" Little Annie exclaimed as she entered the room and saw such a thing from her brother's hand, but while they were amazed, Alejandro was more than pleased, his plan was working. "I can tell you just pulled it out of a dumpster, can't you feel the stench emanating from it, it's disgusting!"

"Annie!" Her mother exclaimed. "More respect, please. It's a human being and your brother must have some explanation for bringing that...thing home." She watched her son waiting for him to say something, looked at Ariel, who still didn't look up.

"He's not going to say anything, he's just gone crazy already. I just know that Alessia is right, you must give up command, Alejandro, you have lost your mind and now you bring that lake monster into the house, I feel retching!"

"Then just get out of the room, my talk will be with mom, not you."

"What a stink! Gross!"

Although Ariel knew that really her smell was uncomfortable, she thought that the liquid soap she spread over her body disguised it a little, she expected nothing less from the situation, but those words of that unknown woman made her tears spill, she wanted to run away, she struggled with Alejandro's hand holding her but it was of little use, he kept his grip firmly.

"I want to leave, please." She told him in a low voice, but he didn't respond. "Please, I want to get out of here." She repeated a little louder in case he hadn't heard her.

"Well, at least we know he's talking." Annie walked over to her and touched her shoulder in disgust, looked at the hideous cloth covering her head and hair and then caught sight of that thing Ariel was holding in her hand, against her leg. "Where did you steal that from?" eager to annoy, Annie grabbed the music box from Ariel's hand, making her furious.

"It's mine, give it to me! It's my treasure!" While Annie laughed, Ariel struggled with strength to get out of Alejandro's hand, he did not pretend to let go and she just watched as the woman laughed at her treasure. With no other choice, Ariel hit Alejandro in the crotch, making him not hesitate to let her go, she ran towards Annie and there she tried to take what was hers, her treasure.

"Get away from me, you stink!" Disgusted, as she watched Ariel approach her, Annie threw the music box on the floor, away from her.

It was small, it didn't work, certainly that treasure of Ariel's was very fragile, so when Annie threw it to the ground, all its pieces scattered until the music box became nothing.

When she turned around and saw what had happened, she felt as if her heart was breaking. She looked at Alejandro with her tear-filled eyes and couldn't tell what was in the man's expression.

Ariel did not hesitate to drop to the ground and begin to pick up her pieces.

Alejandro approached silently and stopped his hands.

"Stop, you won't be able to fix it, you won't be able to do anything, Ariel." But she didn't listen to him, she picked up every last piece of her little treasure without stopping crying.

She felt very sad and already hated that horrendous woman and Alejandro for not doing anything or releasing her in time.

"This music box was like me." She said in between crying. "It looked worthless, but it still had a value, why else did no one see it?" He pulled it to his chest and shielded it from everyone. "You didn't see its value either, Alejandro?" That left Ariel very sad and devastated, it was not only a music box that was useless, it was an object that someone had pointed out as useless and that she was going to give it another use, another value, a new appreciation.

That was how Ariel treated her treasures she found in the trash, the same way she wanted them to treat her, to see beyond the broken and dirty, perhaps damaged pieces, to see their inner value, but she knew that Alejandro was not able to see it and for some reason she felt disappointed in the stranger she was about to marry.