‘Mrs. Ferrer!’ the man exclaimed, surprised. ‘To what do we own such an unexpected visit?’

‘I was with Alba. She fell and harmed her hand, I insisted she should come to my place so that – ‘

‘Did this pest hurt you, my dear?’ Mrs. Hernandez looked at Marina from head to toe, searching for a wound.

‘No, Marina wounded Alba.’ Jenny explained, keeping her voice calm. ‘Your daughter collided with Marina and fell. Her hand met some glass shards and we were taking them out and bandaging it till a few minutes ago.’

The writer got a glance from both Alba and Marina that clearly said: “Ah, we were, weren’t we?”, but she didn’t mind it.

Mr. Hernandez turned to the teen, his face even more scarlet, and yelled: ‘Your liar! Little peevish creature! We didn’t raise you to be this rebellious, silly kid! You knew Andreas would be waiting for you and just purposefully ran into Mrs. Ferrer so as to avoid seeing him!’

‘What the f.?! Do you have any idea –‘ Ms. Schecter began to meddle. Her mouth was strongly clamped shut by Marina’s hand.

‘Stay out of this.’ The Italian whispered fiercely. ‘You’ll just make things worse for Alba. Let me handle it.’ She let go of the writer, ignored a stare laden with loath and turned to address the teen’s parents. ‘Look, Mr. and Mrs. Hernandez, nothing was planned. It was totally my fault that your child got hurt and she was late to that appointment because I made her go to my house, where I healed her hand.’

‘It’s a nice line she has told you to deliver, sweetheart.’ The Mother said. ‘She is a goddamn liar.’ Then she faced the girl and went back to scolding. ‘Did you even think about what you put us through? What you put Andreas through? The boy went away with the impression that we didn’t want anything with his family! The alliance is truly over now, thanks to your selfishness.’

‘Alba kept her eyes downcast. She didn’t dare saying anything since nothing made her folks lose their temper more than her retorts. Jenny had a hard time remaining shut and only watching the scene. She wanted to at least offer the girl some comfort, a safe harbor in the middle of that crazy dialogue.