Guillermo furrowed his brow as he uncomfortably sat at their dining table. He looked around after staring over the empty seat that Graceilla used to occupy. There was also an unused set of plates on the table.
He just arrived home from an out-of-town business convention. He went away the day right after the party.
"Have any of you called my daughter? Or is she out of the house?" He was expecting Graciella to meet her. She was always excited to spend dinner with him after his business trip. That always meant some new designed bags or shoes and he just bought her one of the channel's latest.
However, he was a bit surprised not to see or hear from her.
"Or did any of you forget to inform her that I'll be arriving now?"
"Senior, I had been reminding Ms Graciella of your arrival. I also kept on checking on her every day. However, even though I was knocking on her door, she always yelled at me to go away. She simply called us through the intercom to send her food and put it outside her room, by the door and, she never goes out. But today, she didn't touch the food we put outside her door. So, I don't know if she was still inside her room or she sneaked out." The maid trembled a bit while detailing the story to Guillermo. They always knew how protective he was of his daughter. He even treated him like a child most of the time.
Guillermo massaged his head as he listened to the maid's story. Without saying another word and without even touching his food, he stood up and walked with his huge brisk steps towards Graciella's bedroom.
"Graceilla, baby, are you there? Open the door please." It took a few moments for Guillermo to wait and knock on Graceilla's door. However, they received no response from the inside. He tried and tried it again until it made him feel like knocking didn't get them anywhere.
Guillermo leaned his head over the door feeling helpless and anxious. His heart was beating fast with worries.
"Get me the extra key to this room." He tried to speak as calmly as he could.
One of the maids ran and came back with the key and abruptly opened Graceilla's bedroom door. It was dark inside and the smokey scent of cigars and weeds enveloped the entire bedroom. One of the maids directly grasps the switch and turns on the light.
To everyone's surprise, they found Graceilla unconscious on the floor. Empty bottles of wine and beer were beside her as well as cigarette and weed butts. The carpeted floor was mostly wet and stained from liquor spells and spoiled food bits.
"Graciella, baby, I'm here, wake up," Guillermo walked over to Graciella and carefully woke her up.
Nevertheless, she didn't respond. Guillermo pushed a bit harder and louder but she stayed unconscious and it was starting to make Guillermo scared.
"Call the ambulance," without a second thought he commanded.
***
"What happened to my daughter?" Guillermo asked as the doctor finished checking Graceilla's test.
"Please sit down Mr La Ruffa, I need to ask something," The doctor said.
"I'm good, just ask away and answer my question too." He never even gave a glance at the vacant seat in front of the doctor's desk.
The doctor simply nodded and shrugged.
"Okay, I just want to ask if your daughter has had some serious problems these past days?"
Guillermo furrowed his brow and it made him worry more. He remembered the last time she was with her daughter was the night of her supposed engagement party which didn't turn out well after he had decided not to push Daerin to marry Graciella and he even had spoken some hurtful words to her.
"Why? Can you just tell me straight?" Guillermo's voice went high and loud as he shivered. With one little move, he could even wrap his hands around the doctor's neck.
"Your daughter has overdosed on drugs. I don't know if she had been using this kind of drug before or if she trying to commit suicide."
"What? I don't think my daughter has been using illegal drugs. And, yeah she was pretty upset these days." Guillermo slumped down the chair. The same chair that the doctor offered him in the first place, which he never bothered to take.
"I understand, maybe it was also her first time using it. However, it put her in a bad condition. Her body was having a hard time controlling the drug. It controlled her instead and messed up the balance of her immune system. Her haemoglobin dropped uncontrollably and she needed some blood transfusion." The doctor explained.
"Okay do what you must doctor, money and pay would never be an issue here."
"I know Mr La Ruffa. However, the problem is we lost stock in her blood type."
"That's not a problem. You can take mine. I can do the test as soon as possible."
"That's great Mr. La Ruffa. I'm going to send the papers for your daughter's confinement and you just have to wait in your daughter's room, so we can start the blood transfusion as soon as possible." The doctor stood up as he offered a hand to Guillermo.
***
It took a few minutes more as the nurse appeared and took a bit of Guillermo's and Graciella's blood samples for the test and a few minutes more until the result appeared. The whole time waiting, Graceilla still didn't wake up and as the time passed it made Guillermo worried more.
He couldn't help but blame himself. He thought that what he did was right, over the shame that Graceilla did at the party it was simply right for him being his dad to put her in her place and let her know that she was wrong in that part.
Nevertheless, with what happened to Graciela he wondered if what he did was right. Graciella was the only daughter he had and all Guillermo wanted was not to lose her daughter. He held Graceilla's hand and kissed it.
"If you want that boy back, let's get him back. Just get well and fight Graciella."