MARCAS DO DESTINO

Marks of Destiny

As they say that in life everything that is good lasts a little, this sentence fits perfectly in Eduardo and Gabriella's life. The destiny, sometimes, is cruel and by pure whim was about to radically change the course of their beautiful love story. That runaway truck, besides causing the discovery of the hidden trip, arrived like a hurricane, destroying their dreams of love and changing forever the life of both.

After the collision, throwing Eduardo's car on the cliff, panic took over everyone involved, the ambulance was called immediately, but with the severity of the accident the paramedics did not believe they would find survivors, when to everyone's surprise, came soon the verification that Eduardo and Gabriella were alive, after performing the first aid they were sent to hospital, going straight to ICU.

While Eduardo and Gabriella were being admitted, between life and death, Eduardo's parents, still not knowing anything, were in the garden of their residence, with the gardener doing some changes in his collection of very rare plants, at the exact moment when they received the call to inform them of the tragedy that had happened to their son. Maristela, Eduardo's mother, when she heard that her son had suffered an accident and was hospitalized, she knelt on the floor in tears.

— My son… my God, no! My son, no! — she says as she gets up and runs to call Clovis, Eduardo's father, begging him to take her to his son. The two went to the hospital, while the gardener, not understanding anything, continued his work until one of the employees arrived and dismissed him, informing him about the accident with the son of the bosses.

Maristela was taken by the anguish of the possibility of losing her only son, she did not think twice and asked for Eduardo's immediate transfer to one of the most important hospitals in the country and finds out that he was not alone in the car, when she confirms that her son had someone with him, she asks her husband to take care of the situation. While Eduardo is transferred, Clovis, also very distressed and unsettled with the possibility of losing his son, sees no other alternative but to authorize the hospital to do everything possible to save the girl and to assume all the responsibility for the financial part. Meanwhile, Ronaldo, Gabriella’s father, comes home early and Soraya, Gabriella’s stepmother, asks:

— What is this miracle that you come home at this hour?

— Problems at work — he replies.

As night is approaching, Soraya distills her poison. The witch makes malicious insinuations in an attempt to make Ronaldo stand against his daughters.

— Enough, Soraya! Can't I have one minute of peace with you in this house?

Marina, who was waiting for her sister's arrival, was already restless with her delay and still had to listen to everything quietly from the sofa where she was sitting watching TV: disgusted to hear Soraya speaking badly about her and her sister, she got up passing by them going straight to her room to sleep. The night passes, and the day comes, and Gabriella doesn't show up. Marina's concern was inevitable, but she kept quiet, because she didn't want to worry her father too, Marina thought.

— Surely they left it until today. Before talking to him, I'll wait until tonight.

Unfortunately, Marina's waited in vain. Two days have passed from the date set for the return and no Gabriella arrives, already in panic and with her heart pounding, Marina asks Mrs. Ophelia for information about Alice, because she knew Alice would also travel with the school, Soraya hearing the conversation, goes running to Ronaldo and starts questioning the delay of Gabriella to get home.

— It's funny, isn't it, Ronaldo, your little daughter forgot to come home, wasn't it this week that her school group was coming back from that retreat?

Still not knowing anything and the reason of her stepdaughter's delay in returning from the trip, making Ronaldo nervous, she talks and talks without stopping, Marina arrives right on time and says.

— You can leave it, dad, I'm going to school today to find out about the day that was scheduled for the students to return from the retreat.

Marina doesn't waste any time, she goes to school. When she arrives, she looks for the board of directors totally worried and wants an explanation, when she asks why her sister is late to return from this retreat, comes the explanation, the director calls her to her desk, asks her to sit down for a while and calm down, then she starts to explain what happened, she tells everything that happened before the departure of the students to the retreat, explaining that the bus broke down a little before leaving on the scheduled date and that because of that the trip was postponed to the next day, but Gabriella did not show up for boarding. After finishing the conversation, he still gives a warning:

— Marina, there are rumors here at school that Gabriella travelled with one of the students to another place, but I can't say anything, this is just rumors that was circulating among some students. What I can do to try to help is to find out if this is true.

Marina, totally disconcerted, thanks for the help and says goodbye, heading straight home. Surprised with what happened, Marina arrives home, bewildered, without any reaction, stops for a while and starts to tell her father what she found out. Ronaldo looks at his daughter, before even asking anything, the tears came down in despair, his father's heart knew something was wrong and when she finished talking, both of them didn't know what to do with the situation. Soraya, missing the opportunity to be quiet, she speaks more than she should.

— But nobody listens to me in this house, I knew this was all going to happen, you gave Gabriella a lot of rope, I always warn you and still come out as wrong, these girls do what they want with you, Ronaldo, I won't say anything else.

Marina, thinking about going to the police, talks to her father and decides to wait another day.