Chapter 4 .

From that moment on, Mateo would show up in the girl's dreams without her needing to call him. It was something that came naturally to him, he could not even explain it to the girl.

But he was happy to spend time with her, to get to know her better and above all to make her laugh. Because yes, she was so cute when she laughed....

He blushed violently at that thought and looked away in embarrassment. Sofia looked at him confused, not knowing if his question had embarrassed him or if he was thinking of something else but waited almost impatiently for the other's answer.

"So? " she asked.

"Eh?"

"How are you doing with football? Are you okay? "

"Oh, football! Yes, well, everything's fine" he cleared his throat, stroking the back of his neck with embarrassment "I was offered a place in the youth team of a very important team down town, but I don't feel like leaving my family. Of course, I've always dreamed of leaving my small town, playing for this team or even moving to another country. But my parents? Rafael? Is it right to abandon them to follow my passion?"

Sofia, now fifteen years old, wrinkled her nose and smiled broadly, revealing the dimple on her right cheek: "What you think is very noble, but I think your parents have made too many sacrifices to see you spend the rest of your life standing by their side and by your brother's side. I mean, it wouldn't be fair.

Wouldn't it?

Mateo, your mother and father love you too much to keep you tied to them. They want you to move, to follow your heart and your passion. Dad always says that before you make others wear the oxygen mask, you should do it. That way when you become a famous footballer - because you will become famous, I'm sure - you can repay them for the sacrifices they have made for you, giving them a peaceful life."

The girl's wisdom had, once again, struck Mateo: who at the age of fifteen would have ever thought as she did?

He was literally open-mouthed before nodding his head, agreeing with everything she had told him."You're right," he replied, "but you who talk so much, are you following your heart?"

That question disconcerted the girl who remained silent and played with the hair band she kept on her wrist for when she had to tame those unruly curls.

"I don't, but it's not me we're talking about".

Seriousness took the place of melancholy and a chill ran down the footballer's spine. "You must go, Mateo. Accept that place, you also know it's the right thing to do"

"Sofia..."

"Don't you dare talk about me again!"

"But..."

"Mateo, you must make your dreams come true"

"You should too, Sofia."

It was the first time he called her that and expressed himself to her in a serious tone. He didn't want to and couldn't see her letting go because of her broken family that was destroying her, confusing her. Mateo only wanted Sofia to take the reins of her destiny into her own hands, to fight for what she believed in; she was a good singer and loved music. He did not understand why she was not going out of her way to follow his path.

Instead she let her mother move her around like a puppet, letting her decide for her what school to go to, how to behave and how to dress.

Sofia was subservient to Maria.

And Mateo did not know how to free her from this.

"You have to confront her" he muttered to her in an angry tone

"What? "

"You have to face your mother! "

Sofia shivered.

She couldn't face Maria, she wasn't capable of it. She was like the last villain in that damn video game that you can't finish for years because it's so monstrous that it makes your legs shake.

She felt that way.

"I can't do it" she replied all in one breath, getting up from that meadow and walking away from the 18-year-old.

"Sofia..."

"No!" she shouted, "I told you that it's not me we need to talk about"

"But why are you so afraid of her? "

"Because that woman is the devil!" she thought, not daring to answer the boy with words.

Her restless mood made the environment they were in change, turning the sky from clear to cloudy in two seconds. The wind caressed her face, wiping away the one tear she had managed to shed without being noticed by the boy who came up to embrace her from behind: the young woman's eyes dilated with surprise and her heart began to beat wildly.

What the hell was going on?

"When you like someone you feel butterflies in your stomach and your heart won't stop beating"she had heard from her classmates, almost all of whom were in the throes of their first crushes. And her time had come. She could feel the butterflies and her heart was now completely crazy.

So that was how it felt.

But suddenly she woke up.

Maria's voice catapulted her out of that world and back into real life.

Angry about something, the woman was squawking, gesticulating and holding what looked like a broomstick. Confused, the young girl crinkled her eyes and tried to listen to the woman's words that were slowly becoming clear; but she did not have time to open her mouth when the woman hit her once in the side, a few times on the legs and fortunately the girl managed to cover her face with her hands.

The pain of all those blows vented itself in an almost inhuman scream that came out of the young girl's throat, scaring even the woman, who even looked at her daughter with terror.

"Face her!"

That one word spoken by Mateo was so vivid that he seemed to be there, beside her, trying to give her all the strength the young woman needed. He was right, she absolutely had to gain strength and try to rebel against that woman who had treated her badly for years, humiliated her and marginalised her from everyone.

Fatou had told her the exact opposite.

According to Maria, however, Sofia deserved nothing, she should not have been born.

While she was thinking those things, her daughter had time to push her away, to try to escape her tormentor.

"Where do you think you're going, little girl?!" shouted the woman, who remained interjected for a few seconds before beginning that manhunt.

Sofia locked herself in the bathroom, sat against the door, and sobbed as her mother sensed that she was there and thus started banging on the door.

Facing her...

Despite all that pain the girl got up, opened the door and asked the woman for a moment to explain herself.

But that was the worst idea.

Hearing Sofia yell at her triggered, once again, that violent part of Maria that was preparing to attack again; the daughter, however, would not back down and stood firm, ready to take every other blow.

"Why? "she suddenly asked, "Why do you hate me so much, Maria?! I didn't do anything to you! Do you resent me because I look like Dad? Or maybe because I was born and ruined your stupid plans? I didn't choose to be born, you're the one who slept with daddy! "

The woman stood still not knowing what to reply.

What an impertinent little girl!

She grabbed the girl by the hair, dragged her out of the bathroom and then out of the house, into the cold and snow: she looked at her with disgust, spat at her, and before closing the door in her face said something that would haunt the young woman for a long time: "You are dead to me."