The perverse fantasies of the CEO

"I declare Mr. Carlos Albertos Sáenz innocent of guilt and charge, and the State must pay compensation for the total sum of 1,200,000 pesos, which must be deposited within 30 days starting today. I said!" And there was the loud sound of the hammer hitting that small wooden platform, which ended the session.

Santino Rivas had won a new case once again. In twelve years of career he had never lost one, and that led him to be considered the most successful and best paid lawyer of recent times. Therefore, not everyone had the purchasing power to pay for his services, and this was one of those cases.

Mr. Carlos Alberto Sáenz had been accused of murder, but turned out to be innocent, and thanks to Rivas he was not only able to win his freedom, but also a bonus for having been wrongly accused.

"Congratulations, Dr. Rivas," one of his team of lawyers spoke to him.

He just nodded his head in thanks and went on without another word.

Santino was the type of person who only cared about himself and put his own interests above others.

Arrogant, with an air of superiority, he looked down on everyone else. Apathetic, incapable of showing any kind of emotion for anyone, he had no qualms about expressing the only thing that interested him in every person who by necessity fell into his hands.

Although he belonged to a vip law firm, he was not looking to socialise with anyone. In short, he kept to his working hours. He barely answered his colleagues' greetings.

There wasn't a woman in the building who didn't gawk at him as he walked by. The indifference with which he behaved towards them made him more desirable in their eyes.

The years of his successful career at the firm had given him one of the most privileged places in the whole building, and that was the office next to the boss's. Santino was synonymous with success. Santino was synonymous with success. What everyone wondered about his personal life, however, was that in twelve years he had not even mentioned a partner. In fact, he didn't seem friendly with anyone, he just ignored them. His private life was a mystery. Some believed he was a homosexual and others claimed that a woman had broken his heart, and that was why he was frivolous with everyone. The truth only he knew.

He had never been in love. In fact, he didn't even know what it felt like to love someone or even to have any kind of emotion for anything, however insignificant. He was not the typical man who watched an action movie and mimicked the male character. He would even turn on his 57-inch LED. Even though he bought it five years ago, he never took the plastic off, let alone turned it on. Come to think of it, he didn't know if it worked either, he just had it and that was it.

Everywhere he went, women turned to look at it.

At every traffic light where he stopped, there wasn't a person who didn't feel intimidated by his cocky, arrogant demeanour.

But that morning everything would change.

Six months ago

Abril Evans was preparing to take one more subject of her degree and to be able to pass to the third year at the University of Law. All week she had been reading and re-reading because she dreamed of having that degree in her hands and giving her parents the joy and pride of having a daughter who, despite adversity and the environment of need in which she lived, was able to become a professional with a lot of effort. She wanted to buy them a house, no matter how small it was. A house at last. However, fate had something else in store.

After giving a kiss to Catalina, her 13-year-old sister, and her parents, she entered the building, not knowing that it would be the last time she would see her parents alive and her sister standing.

As the clock struck eleven in the morning, his mobile phone rang. As she looked at the screen, she read Mum. An icy chill ran through her, making her feel uneasy. A dreadful feeling came over her. She dreaded taking the call, but did so because maybe her mother had forgotten to tell her something. Maybe she was just feeling restless because she had spent the last few weeks sleeping so little because of the exam. Without further ado, he took a breath and answered.

"Hello? Mom?"

Despite telling herself that everything was fine, something in her chest was wrong. He could breathe a heavy atmosphere.

"Is this the daughter of Mrs. Susana Cervantes de Evans?

At that moment he felt a pain in his chest and he dropped the pen from his hand."

"Yes. What about my mum? My dad? My little sister?" She started to become hysterical. At the silence of the person speaking to her, the more nervous she became.

"Please, miss, what happened to my family?" Then she turned her attention to the sounds in the background. They were ambulances.

"I regret to inform you that the car in which the lady was travelling with a man and a minor has been involved in an accident. We need you to come to the Argerich Hospital."

The world stopped around them.

"But are they all right?" he asked, his voice cracking. Hearing no answer, she insisted by way of pleading, "Please, what happened to my mum and dad?" She could no longer hold back her tears. Her heart was telling her that something bad had happened.

"I'm so sorry, your parents didn't make it."

She couldn't hear what the person on the phone said next, because tears blurred her eyes and a sharp pain pierced her heart and fragmented her body.

Her cry came out accompanied by a piercing scream that took everyone in the classroom, her 80 classmates, including teachers and assistants, by surprise.

"What's the matter, Miss Evans!" the teacher demanded, but she only covered her mouth and screamed into her hands. In the meantime, she dropped to her knees and made involuntary movements backwards and forwards.

At that moment, her best friend, Erika, grabbed her mobile phone, which was on the floor, and found out why her friend had broken down in tears on the floor.

"And where is the baby hospitalized?"

The doctors told her that she had been admitted to the nearest public hospital an hour ago and that she was in a very serious condition, that she had to be operated on and that they had to go to the clinic so that Abril could sign the authorization papers, since Catalina was a minor.

"We'll be right there. She hung up and helped her friend up." Come on, I'm coming with you. We have to go to the Argerich Hospital so you can sign some papers.

They knew each other and had been friends since high school. Although in the year before last they had a confrontation over the wretch of a boyfriend they had, who lied to both of them and who they took revenge on in complicity, which ended up consolidating their friendship.

Erika had the hard task of telling him what was going on with her sister.

The teachers allowed her to leave and gave her all their support in case they needed anything, but Abril had only a million questions in her head, among them: how did it happen? Who was to blame, if there was one?

When they arrived at the destination, and after checking with the Guardia, she signed the papers for the operation and had the painful task of recognising her parents' bodies in the morgue. Although Erika told her not to do it, she felt strong enough, in spite of everything, to see them in that state and for the last time.

The doctor had explained in detail the severity of the injury to her sister's spine and head. Sadly, if she survived, it was very likely that she would never walk again. Hearing this caused everything in the girl to collapse, because from one second to the next she would lose everything. In the morning she was the happiest woman in the world and hours later she was thinking about where she would get the money to bury her dead parents.

When she saw some policemen, she started bombarding them with questions, but they didn't answer a single one. She was desperate and needed answers.

Suddenly, she saw her parents' accident on Crónica TV news.

Witnesses said that this was a heartless man travelling at full speed and, apparently, drunk, against his will and at over a hundred kilometres per hour. The worst part of the case was that the guy is a member of the national parliament. What were the chances that a powerful personality like him would be convicted for the crime of poor and humble people without putting his influence at stake? None. That was a losing battle. However, that was not all he had to face because within two months he lost his house, for it was mortgaged; his parents were the only ones who could pay for it and, even so, they owed because his mother works as a domestic servant and his father as a master baker in the neighbourhood bakery. That is why, when they died and they had nothing to pay, the bank started to auction the house, so that, in addition to being orphans, they were now on the street, but, luckily, Erika, who lived alone, lent them part of her flat. That was where they lived.

She helped her with Catalina, who used a wheelchair, which she got because her boyfriend's grandmother had died a year ago and gave it to her as a gift, and despite having to attend a special school because of her condition, the reality was that the girl had no desire to live. Her dreams of one day becoming a dancer were shattered. On the other hand, Abril could barely cover her and her sister's expenses on the paltry salary she earned at the health food shop. On top of that, the doctor had given Cathy hope of walking again with the help of spinal cord stimulation implants, but the entire treatment, which lasted about a year, was to be carried out in the United States and cost $200,000 dollars, which was impossible to raise, given that in pesos it was more than $40,000,000. She did not want to break the child's illusion, but she would never be able to afford the treatment. But one morning, six months later, her life would change completely.

Today

Santino was driving his white Mercedes-Benz C-Class 2022, one of the brand's newest and best, disinterested, through the streets of Buenos Aires, without imagining what destiny had in store for him.

Because of her need, Abril was forced to take a part-time job and made fast-food deliveries on a bicycle that occasionally got a flat tyre and left her on foot cursing the guy who sold it to her.

She was so frustrated that she had to give up her studies to be able to give her sister the operation she so desperately needed, the one she had dreamed of, that she overextended herself so that the girl could use her legs again, even though she was sinking into a pit from which she knew she couldn't get out so easily. In fact, she doubted she ever would, but that morning things were going to turn her life around.

When the traffic light turned red, and he gave Santino the pass to move forward, he didn't see a young woman on her bike coming, who was crossing quickly, so she could get with the schedule, and he ended up ramming her. Thank God, he barely hit her front wheel, but it still caused her to fall to the ground. A small scratch appeared on her knees, which were bare because she was wearing shorts due to the heat.

"But are you an idiot?" he shouted as he realized that the contents of the trays were scattered all over the street. "Are you going to stay there or help me?

As soon as his car hit the bicycle, he immediately got out, but when he saw that the girl was fine and that nothing had happened to her, he turned his attention to the boot of the car, which apparently had a scratch on it. When he realized what she had called him, he just stood there looking down at her. It wasn't his fault, she crossed wrong. Why should he help her and get his suit dirty? After all, her bike had scratched his expensive car and he would have to take care of it.

"Oh, God, these guys don't know what humility is," he heard her say in an angry tone. He felt that comment was meant for him.

"Excuse me, did you refer to me as "these guys"?"

When April managed to gather all the trays and, as best she could, get her bicycle upright, she arranged the packages in the basket and gave it her full attention.

"Yeah, any problems?" she asked defiantly. If there was one thing he detested, it was disrespect from people, especially if it came from individuals like him.

And for him there were two things that bothered him more than anything else:

1. That he was addressed with the terms she used, because he maintained that it was totally disrespectful.

2. That they messed with his most precious asset: his car.

"You have to apologize," he told her seriously and sharply. She began to look both ways. Noticing that his expression didn't change at all, she asked him who he was talking to. You. You must apologize immediately.

She put her hands on her hips and burst out laughing.

"You're really out of your mind."

He took offence at her remarks and insisted that she apologize.

April hated men like him, arrogant, arrogant, with pretensions of being master and supreme of the world and everyone in it, but she would not be part of that "everyone" just like that. She moved closer to him.

He held out his hand, and she stopped in her tracks.

"You are invading my personal space. I demand an apology immediately."

Then, tired of the man's arrogance, she ended the conversation.

"You know what?" she smiled. In the meantime, he waited patiently for that apology, which in his dreams would never come "Kill yourself, asshole!" and left to get on with his work.

He, on the other hand, stood there, uncomprehending.

It was the first time he had ever been told "no" to anything he proposed.

As soon as Abril arrived at the food house, she explained what had happened, since some of the customers had called to complain about the delay. The truth was that she had only been stuck in traffic for twenty minutes, long enough to cost her her job. What would she do now? She had lost her second livelihood and with it the illusions of being able to get out of the abyss she had been in since the death of her parents.

"Son of a good mother!" He stormed into the flat and threw his backpack on the floor.

"What happened, why are you home so early?" questioned a surprised Erika, who appeared from the kitchen wearing a chef's apron and all full of flour. Behind her was Cathy, looking just like her and holding back her laughter, though clearly the image was amusing. All three burst out laughing.

-What happened to you, April?

It was then that she remembered why she was so angry.

-Because of some jerk I lost my job. -That was enough to