Don Tomás, 70, was a rich farmer in a rural city in Oaxaca.
He had had his first spouse, Doña Rosa, who died ten years earlier, leaving him three married daughters.
Regardless of his superior age, Don Tomás nonetheless dreamed of getting a son who would keep on his final identify and proceed the household line, a want that remained unfulfilled for him.
So he determined to remarry.
His alternative was Marisol, a 20-year-old daughter of a poor household from the identical city.
Marisol was stunning and recent as spring, however poverty had hit her exhausting.
Her mother and father, needing cash to pay for his or her youngest son’s medical remedy, agreed to provide her away in change for a big sum of cash.
Though she didn’t need to, Marisol agreed to the wedding out of affection for her household.
On the eve of the marriage, with tears in her eyes, she advised her mom:
“I simply hope he treats me nicely… I’ll do my obligation.”
The marriage was easy however hanging, as a result of Don Tomás wished your complete city to know he was nonetheless “robust” and able to father a baby.
The neighbors murmured and criticized the big age distinction, however he didn’t care.
He smiled with satisfaction, excitedly getting ready for the marriage night time, assured that Marisol would quickly be pregnant.
Though resigned, she tried to look comfortable to meet her position.
The marriage night time arrived.
Don Tomás, elegantly dressed, drank some medicinal liquor that, he mentioned, would make him really feel younger once more.
He took Marisol’s hand and led her to the bed room, his eyes stuffed with anticipation. She, nervous, pressured a smile, afraid of disappointing him.
The environment grew to become intimate.
Don Tomás whispered endearments to her when immediately, his face contracted, his respiratory labored.
He let go of Marisol’s hand, positioned the opposite on his chest, and fell closely onto the mattress.
“Don Tomás! What’s improper with him?” Marisol cried, her eyes huge with terror.
She tried to carry him, however his physique was already inflexible, drenched in sweat.
A hoarse moan escaped his throat, shaking the younger girl.
The picture of the liquor he had drunk minutes earlier than flashed via her thoughts: what he had trusted to “rejuvenate” him had become a silent poison.
Determined, Marisol known as for assist. Don Tomás’s daughters and different family burst into the room, discovering the outdated man immobile and the younger bride crying, misplaced within the confusion.
That night time was a chaos of screams, working, and crying.
They took Don Tomás to the hospital, however the medical doctors may solely affirm the worst: he had suffered a sudden coronary heart assault resulting from exertion and age.
The information unfold all through the city.
Individuals, already murmuring concerning the unequal marriage, now spoke louder.
Some felt sorry for Marisol, others mocked:
“He didn’t even handle to provide her a son… destiny is simply.”
Marisol remained silent, her gaze misplaced.
She remembered his phrases: “I’ll do my obligation.” However that obligation by no means started; all of it led to a tragedy nobody had foreseen.
After the funeral, the cash obtained from the marriage was sufficient to pay her household’s money owed and her brother’s remedy.
However in return, Marisol confronted a merciless destiny: a widow at twenty, eternally marked as “Don Tomás’s second spouse.”
Their marriage ceremony night time, which was presupposed to be the start of an engagement stuffed with pressures and expectations, ended up changing into the final night time of a person’s life… and the start of the heavy cross a younger girl must bear for the remainder of her days.
