Chapter 1 - Red Thread

Shimmering chandeliers hung above their heads as they held their crystal glasses elegantly, exchanging glances and whispers, wondering what hidden news awaited them. Since they learned about this event, their search had begun, but all their work had been in vain as they couldn't extract the desired information.

Journalists, employees, artists, the elite, both known and unknown, eagerly awaited the start of the gala, their crystal flutes filled to the brim with the finest champagne.

If you were to be there, you would definitely feel like you were inside a fairy tale ball. The guests had pulled out their tuxedos and evening gowns from their closets. Those who were attending as guests for the first time, rather than as employees, dressed in a fancy manner, drinking and enjoying themselves like wealthy individuals.

They talked loudly, dancing to every song played by the band, which raised questioning looks among those who had decided to call themselves the elite.

The music changed as a thick fog covered the floor, increasing the anticipation. The main gate opened, and from there, the hosts of the gathering entered, hand in hand.

The man gracefully held the woman's hand and, before taking the microphone, kissed her forehead, softly mumbling a thank you.

"Welcome, friends and family. I know that I haven't personally interacted with many of you, but if you are here because my better half invited you, then you are also my friend. And my family consists of those whom I have spent my entire life with, from the moment I wake up until I enter my room."

Those who seemed out of place applauded loudly and whistled, reminiscent of mariachi bands. The man beat his chest and bowed to them.

The elite felt out of place as those without their social standing garnered attention.

"Today is 'Dia de los Muertos.' Many of you celebrate it like Halloween – a festival to remember those who are no longer with us. Wherever you are, mama y papa, may God keep you in His glory."

Some tears welled up as the man looked up at the crystal cupola, giving off an aesthetic of a full moon. The woman next to him, with golden hair and eyes as deep as the sea, pecked his cheek, showing her presence as a gift from heaven. The eye-to-eye gazes that contained thousands of unspoken words sparked envy in those who couldn't meet their perspective.

"25 years ago, we started the year with a broken heart as our little angel decided to leave us. It was a test from God…" Tears choked his words, but his wife stepped in.

"A test that his love and concern for a broken woman like me, who had lost the desire to live, passed with flying colors. He was there supporting me when I was ready to let go of everything, when I said the worst words, when I became blind to his pain." She stopped and looked at the guests, making both those he called family and those who weren't tear up. She took his hand and cupped his cheek, looking into his teary eyes, and spoke. "I have told you many times that I love you, but I never dared to ask for forgiveness. I am sorry for my blindness at those times, Ricardo. I was lost in the dark, but you held my hand tight and showed me the way to the light again. Thank you, cariño." She ended by pecking his lips. He held her hand and gave her a tight hug, one that exchanged not just heartbeats, but souls.

"Mi vida, you don't have to thank me for that. Firstly, I did my manly duty to support my woman, to look after you and make sure you were always fine. Those harsh words you said, I can't lie and say they didn't hurt, but you were saying them to your man, to me. When we made our eternal love promise before the virgin, we signed up to be there for each other through everything, the good and the bad, through thin and thick. I was with you just as you have been the pillar of my life, my anchor, the wind that brought me to safe land."

He concluded by pecking her forehead. The guests applauded upon witnessing their declaration of love.

"Now that you know how it started, let me add how it continues." Ricardo, holding his wife over his heart, spoke again, and immediately his eyes and posture changed.

"Today, just like 25 years ago, God has blessed us with a baby girl. Yes, in the same year we lost and regained our dream, our love, our princess, who is as marvelous and divine as her mother. She is the only woman who can make me do anything, even dressing up as Maleficent because she wanted to be Aurora on her 15th birthday. I remember her words that convinced me to obey her…"

"Dad, I want both of my moms to be with me on my special day. I know you are my dad and are a man, but you have carried me in your arms, comforted me countless nights, stood by my side till I fell asleep, telling me made-up stories. You have been and still are my personal chef. Sometimes, even when you weren't near, I felt your presence. Jokingly, I have told you I have two moms because I love you as if you had given birth to me, making mom jealous because I gave her part to you. I can call myself the luckiest child to have you as my parents. I know I have worried both of you with my recklessness and those times I succumbed to people's malicious words. Without your guidance, I would be lost. If mom is your anchor, you are mine, Papa."

A young lady appeared, interrupting his speech, stealing the glances of the elite and receiving the blessings of her family. Carefully, holding back her tears, she approached her parents.

After a long hug from her father and a peck on her head, she was released from his arms, careful not to ruin the dress he had hand-stitched for her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present my one and only, my dream, my princess Maya Sarahi Rivera del Fuente. She is the one who inspired me and my wife, Ximena, to give life to 'Sarahi' jewelry, the brand that has traveled the world and crossed the oceans."

This was news as no one in the elite knew about the famous model being related to the "Sarahi Jewelry" brand and being the heir as well, as she is the only child of the couple. Either way, they applauded at the revelation of the moment.

Maya descended the stairs of the podium with the charm she held as a model, but not only that, inside her is noble blood. More precisely, her mother has blue blood because she belongs to one of the Spanish royal families.

Her hips swayed as she made her way to meet the guests.

She knows how to attract the attention of the opposite gender, although she cares for none of them.

She knows everyone from the elite world because they couldn't miss the opportunity to meet the model, the blogger with almost one billion views on her YouTube channel and millions of followers on her social accounts.

Many of them have tried to ruin her reputation by inventing stories about her personal life, but all their ill efforts were null towards her.

She flashed her smile at those hypocrites who dared to stand in front of her after covering her life in mud.

Her red wine-colored dress, accompanied by the delicate necklace from the latest collection of Sarahi's brand, went hand in hand with that particular object.

 A red thread intertwined like an ivy on her wrist.

She touched it and a genuine smile replaced the facade one. Now standing before the moon on the patio, leaving behind that world that once fascinated the young girl who gave everything and in the end, ended up covered in mud.

She knows tomorrow will be worse. The tabloids will be filled with hate, twisted stories, and inventions about her character and now her family. But still, that red thread brought peace and hope.

Flashbacks

Maya POV

"Another disastrous news about the runway model Maya R. She was released from jail yesterday after being caught driving her new purple Lamborghini Aventador limited edition while wasted. What could have caused her condition?"

"What are you doing, Maya? Why do you hurt yourself with fake news?" Calypso, my dear friend scolded as she switched off her TV.

"Fake news that sent my papa to the hospital. You know that he refused medical care as no one could reach me. What if I came late that night... I don't even want to imagine that..." remembering that moment constricts my heart and tears wet my cheeks. I didn't bother to remove them, but Calypso's son comes in handy as he jumps on my lap and uses his little finger to erase them.

"Tía no llores por favor (auntie, please don't cry)," his sweet mistake made me smile at him as I pecked his black jet hair, alias Ronaldo style. Just seven years old and he has his charming way to conquer girls' hearts.

Calypso had told me that he protected a girl at his school because everyone was bullying her for being a bit overweight. My inferno was the school where I was constantly under the pressure of the skinny-bony girls club that turned my days into nightmares. But for the sake of the gentleman standing in my lap, who has opened my eyes, I let go of those memories.

"Jeremy, if you and my not-so-adult friend have finished the eye contest, please take your bag and go to school as the bus has arrived." We both listened, but no one was really going anywhere.

"JEREMY!" Calypso yelled, scaring both of us. Jeremy flew away, not wanting another scolding.

With him gone for school, we came out of her humble yet warm house and got inside her turtle, which once again broke my prediction by leaving us in the middle of the road.

"My turtle might not be a Lamborghini Aventador, but it always takes me everywhere I want," she playfully spoke as if she had read my mind. Sometimes I truly believe that she has magical powers, and one of them is reading my mind and Jeremy's too.

"I should have never passed that car to others; it brought so much confusion."

"What is done is done. Look forward and change paths because you cannot get more than what you have already earned with the life of a model and blogger. You have the potential to do great things, not to mention that I have seen true love on your path. Something rare that only selected people can have," she spoke while opening her thrift store with old objects. She is a self-taught art curator, something that comes from her family.

I have visited many art curators in my voyage, but none is like her. They are cold, not giving emotions, but just strictly doing their job.

Beside this, she has a special place in the store where she uses her spiritual gift that her Maya ancestors passed on to her. I don't believe in those things, but she has indulged my mind on some occasions.

I see something new on her desk, a red thread ball since the last time I visited her a month ago. I took it and I was playing with it, throwing it up and catching it as it came down.

"Don't play with it, Maya. It isn't a simple ball," she scolded me. I usually would stop, but something pushed me to not obey her and continue throwing it up in the air until it touched the air fan, which flung it away.

"Maya, run! It can't fall into the wrong hands," Calypso yelled, and I started following the red thread ball in broad daylight on the streets of Mexico City.

How fast that ball ran, only I know, as I left the old building and went toward the corporate skyscrapers that were across the city. Luckily, I had my big New York hoodie and loose pants, like this, I would not be part of another scandal: Maya running after a ball. Is she so dumb? Either way, I continued chasing the ball that started to dissolve. I picked up the thread and slowed my feet as I started to make another ball. I was lost in finding more thread, fearing it would tear when I bumped into something.

Raising my head, I felt like the ground was gone and I was up in the sky, accompanied by those sky blue eyes that made my heart race.

"Oh dios mío, you both made the same ball from the two lines of the first ball," I heard Calypso wheezing, and immediately, we came out of the sky.

"Calypso, calm down," I panickily approached her, but she took my left hand and twirled the thread of my ball's side, then did the same thing with the dreamy blue eyes that were looking at us with a questioning look.

"Now, pull as much as you can until the thread shreds off," Calypso told us, and we looked at her perplexed.

"Did you hit your head, sis?" I whispered to her, but she signaled for me to follow her instructions.

"I have no time for nonsense, here is your ball, I am out of here."

I was disheartened when the dreamy blue eyes spoke so harshly to us, and my defense anger took over.

"Neither do I!" I exclaimed and pulled my hand away as he did.

Instead, we went apart and collided with each other.

He smelled so good, a mixture of coconut and vanilla, my favorites. How much I wanted to stay in his chest, surrounded by his arms, but he was not in the same line with me; he was waiting to go away from me.

Reluctantly, I moved back, looking at his eyes maybe for the last time. I walked away, not realizing that our thread was torn apart by colliding.

I lost sense of time, walking carefree and enjoying the October sun, when Calypso caught my arm, having the brightest smile ever.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing, just happy!" she said, juggling with the balls as we finally arrived at her shop.

I smiled with her.

End.

My mind went a week ago. She couldn't come as she needed to go to her birthplace when Dia de Los Muertos is celebrated, differently like in the Coco movie. Going to the cemetery, praying, and offering food.

I went last year with her, but this time, I need to take her words to change my path.

"Maya, come, your father wants to present our new ortak. Hopefully, he accepts to give us a helping hand," my mom dragged me away from the patio. 

Coconut and vanilla scents covered my surroundings.

"Here is my precious Maya," my father stretched his hand, and I felt safe in his arms.

I turned to see him.

Those dreamy eyes are right here in front of me.

He bows to take my hand, which is frozen but melts under his warm breath and his soft lips.

What is going on with me?

Why am I feeling like an October leaf that flirts with the wind, flying everywhere?

Will he let me fall, or will he carry me on for life...

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