Seventeen

ONE month later, a new benefit was given to the workers.
It was a health check-up for everyone conducted at the health center.
And for the first time, it was mandatory.
A mobile laboratory arrived for lab tests. The Quirozes wanted to make sure that everyone was in good health so if anyone turned out to be otherwise, they could then be treated early.
Urine and stool samples were taken. The stool test became a source of puns to everyone.
It took a few days to finish checking up on all tenants since there were older ones who took their sweet time to visit the center.
But when Arianna received the result of her exams, something caught her attention.
She'd had a pregnancy test? It was a pregnancy test—clear in the wording. And the result was negative.
She already knew she wasn't pregnant. She got her period in time.
In fact, she’s been horrified to see the first spots of blood in her underwear because it didn't even occur to her during the whole confusing period since that night that she could get pregnant with what she had done with the Señorito!
When she calmed down, she couldn't stop thinking about how this was the very first time that medical exams became mandatory in the hacienda.
And why did they take a pregnancy test for a young woman who was unmarried and had no relationship with a man?
As Arianna stood at the edge of the plot of land that they were using and was granted by the Quirozes... as she gazed beyond the field to the direction of the rest house where she had that night tryst with Señorito Enrique as some other person that she really wasn't, she started to admit that something smelled fishy, as Tommy thought.
Was it possible that the Señorito already knew who he was with that night and was doing something to find out if he had gotten her pregnant?

"SHE'S NOT pregnant..." Enrique felt dazed as he repeated what Brad said.
He was sitting behind his desk in the study, taking care of the paperwork when Brad entered to tell him the news he had been waiting for since he woke up this morning.
"Are you sure?"
"I am sure," Brad replied.
He looked relieved himself as he stood in front of the desk, even though he also looked stressed enough that he didn't even sit down.
He was looking intently at Enrique, waiting for his reaction, before he would know what to do.
But Enrique remained quiet.
"So... are we going to relax now? What? Is this tantrum finally going to be over?"
He did not utter a word, but the scowl he threw his way made Brad both cringe and grin.
He rolled his eyes then he sighed.
"So what do you want to be done now?" he asked in surrender. He had his hands on his hips, ready to act again.
He was shocked when he found out the woman he'd sent him as a gift was innocent. The fool paled like an albino when they learned she was a tenant in the hacienda and whose daughter she was.
Enrique knew his father favored the late farmer who had, as a young teenager, gone out to help grown men rescue livestock and other families in the hacienda in a storm that created a flash flood. He almost died saving an infant in that flood.
If his father finds out about this, Brad was dead.
Not that he hadn't tortured his cousin himself, too.
Enrique was obsessed.
It was like all his emotions and energy that used to get spent in his disastrous breakup with Helene transferred to this woman.
He couldn't forget about her. He couldn't still comprehend how he didn't notice anything amiss about her reactions that night to his... brash… attention.
It wasn't like he was inexperienced himself. He had bedded a few virgins when he was younger, some he wasn’t ashamed of, some he would rather forget.
He was happy when Helene gave up her virginity the first night their relationship became official. He had mistakenly thought it was a sign of love.
That it meant she also believed their love would be for life.
A marriage.
A family.
He was wrong.
A moment passed before Enrique realized he missed something while thinking about Helene.
*Pain.*
That stabbing-like pain in his chest... that used to be there did not materialize.
How long had it been like this that he didn’t even notice its loss?
*Wow…*
His eyes focused on Brad. He was standing there still, patiently waiting for his next instructions about Arianna.
"I don't know. I don't have any plans yet beyond this," he finally admitted to his cousin.
The woman wasn't pregnant. She would have been very relieved when she found out.
Madame Venus tried to lie about giving her instructions about protection but finally confessed that everything had been a rush and that particular part of the prep was totally forgotten.
Their workers took care of this privately.
Since it was the first time someone totally not a worker of their circle was suddenly thrust into sex work, no one thought about this.
And there was an assumption that since he was the client that night, he would protect himself and the woman because, boy, had that call girl got pregnant by a Quiroz, she would be very lucky indeed.
He would take care of her and the child.
Everyone expected that of a Quiroz.
*"Pretty manipulative of you..."*
That was what Brad accused the Madame of...
But Enrique did not feel that way at that time.
What he remembered feeling was a concern for Arianna. He couldn't stop worrying about her.
She couldn’t welcome a child who was the product of a night she was forced to have sex with a man she didn’t even know had power over her.
She would be worried enough that she would be outed once she finds out he knew who she was.
What terror she must have felt as she walked alone towards his house.
He remembered it vividly, even dreamt about it in a haze of red color, the same as the scanty dress she wore that night.
In his dream, this darkness had a tinge of red haze, and her moans were a confusing mix of pain and ecstasy... her arms holding his body in a vise asking for both rescue and deliverance.
He could have saved her that night by not going through with it, as he'd planned when he watched her approach the house that night...
If she hadn’t looked up at him… if he hadn’t seen her beautiful face… if she hadn’t looked straight at his eyes as if she could see him in the dark...
His nightmares of their night together always ended up in blood freely flowing on the sheets...
"Enrique...?"
His eyes focused again on Brad. His friend’s eyebrows were narrowed, worried.
"What is wrong now? She's not pregnant. With every help you’ve already extended to her and her family, she's going to be alright."
He nodded, still quiet.
"Okay. Can we talk about the new generators we’re installing in the grain warehouses? Let's talk business and get your mind off her for now."
Brad finally sat down on one of the two seats on each side of the huge desk and then gazed expectantly at him.
He just looked at him, thinking.
"Uh, what about taking a vacation? Looks like it's time for you to let go of this. Okay? What about a trip to Europe? I'll go with you, buddy."
He remained quiet.
Brad winced. "So, this isn't finished, huh?"
He slowly shook his head. Brad hung his head.
"Go, prick," he said, finally allowing himself to smile.
"Going," Brad replied glumly as he stood up. "You know, I don't even want to think about what's in your head now. No. I don't want to. She is a total beauty, yes. But you don’t even know what kind of person she really is. You don’t even really know her. And you're going crazy with all this guilt."
"I may be..."
Brad was already walking towards the door, but he turned as he reached for the knob, looking at him. "You are not doing it. Please, tell me you're not."
"I am."
He closed his eyes. "This isn't my fault. This isn't."
"It is all your fault."
"I knew it. I knew it as soon as I saw her picture. I knew it. Fucking bastard," Brad said before he finally took himself out of the study.
Enrique was still smiling when the door closed.