Bernardo and Maggie are horrified to learn that Vernon has done double trouble against the honor and dignity of their best writer. Now Isabel stands before them demanding the termination of the contract! What will they do?
"Mrs. Freire, please do not terminate the contract." Bernardo begs like a teenager, "We're not interested in getting fine money if it means losing our best writer!"
"Am I really the best writer?" Isabel haughtily sneers, "Then why was I treated like dirt when I came here to deliver the manuscript of 'Next to You'?"
To provoke him even more, Isabel takes the long-awaited manuscript from her purse and places it on Bernardo's desk.
Like a child tempted to stick his finger in the icing on the cake, Bernardo stares at the manuscript, wanting to snatch it and run out of the office with it.
"Mrs. Freire, when I read the article about violence against women," Maggie explains, "I thought Vernon Queiroz had gotten your family's permission.
Melissa more than quickly puts the check in her purse. The women's plan paid off."Congratulations on the wise decision, Mr. Marçal." Melissa stands up, "It's good to see that you care about the well-being of your contract authors, not just how much money they generate in your pocket."Bernardo faces Isabel, "Mrs. Freire, if something happens again, come promptly to my office. We won't take long to correct any injustice."Flávia gets up and concludes in a threatening tone, "I hope there are no more injustices, Mr. Marçal! Isabel, give him the manuscript."Isabel pushes the manuscript closer to Bernardo and he takes it as if it were his son.The three ladies say goodbye and leave.Once the door is closed, Maggie asks, "Honey, are we really going to take Vernon Queiroz out of my magazine editorial? Just now that he's produced a great story?"Bernardo stares at his wife as if to say 'what the f**k?', "Honey, I think
João Paulo visits Benjamin and finds him attentively watching a cooking show on TV. He has a notebook in hand, writing down the recipe and watching the chef perform the preparation."Hello, buddy! Do I get in the way?" João Paulo greets him."No, you can come close," Benjamin responds without taking his eyes off the TV.João Paulo sits on the sofa and follows the televised attraction, "Will you learn to make four-cheese lasagna?""I found it interesting," Benjamin responds almost hypnotized.João Paulo smiles, thinking that his friend has found something else to do besides boxing.******After lunch, Bernardo calls Vernon to his office. The poor editor can hardly imagine that he is being taken to the slaughter."Hello, my dear boss!" Vernon sits down without waiting for a request, "Did you call me to congratulate me on my work on your wife's magazine?""Vernon, while I recognize you have talen
Vernon arrives at home in a huff, slamming the door. The radio is on and Surface's song "The First Time" is playing, but no one is present."Nobody's listening to this radio? So I'm going to turn it off, huh?"Elza appears from the kitchen, worried about her husband's hysterical scream, "What's wrong, honey? Why are you so stressed? I'm afraid one day your body won't take it.""And?" Vernon throws his briefcase on the couch violently, "Nobody cares.""This is not true." Elza lies to calm her husband, "Come on, sit down and I'll make you some tea to calm down."But, it will be impossible for Vernon to calm down when he wants to talk about what happened. "Bernardo removed me from the Maggiezine team! And he didn't even dignify to explain why!"Elza is discouraged. She thought that for once Vernon's antics would go unnoticed and they might annoy Isabel. But apparently, they went to complain to Bernardo.She is surprised that Vernon doesn
Days later, Josias is standing at the phone in the living room of his penthouse, shirtless and wearing plaid pajama bottoms. He stares at the phone book they have, thinking of Tobias Ibrahim's number.William approaches him already in a suit, ready to work, "Hello, Josias. Thinking about life?""Thinking if I should call Mayor Ibrahim." Josias turns to his brother-in-law, "I may seem ambitious and nosy, but sometimes I think they have a project for Rocha Constructions."William cheers, "Maybe that's right, and they're just waiting for your call."Josias takes a deep breath, "Well, it's still early. I'll call when I'm in the office properly dressed."William laughs. Caio and Alan appear with Ernesto."Do you have your lunch boxes?" Ernesto always asks this, and the boys always laugh. They will never forget their lunch."Bye, boys. Behave and study properly." Josias says goodbye to the young men."Goodbye!" They wave and follow E
Josias is properly seated in his presidential chair, reading the construction reports of the Melissa Building in Victoria.He stares at the phone on his desk and then at his datebook. Should he call Tobias?William enters his office with a list in hand, "Josias, here are the teams that are free for an upcoming project.""Mayor Ibrahim's project?" Josias takes the sheet, good-naturedly.William is surprised, "Do we have some Mayor's project?""Not yet, but you already know how I feel." Josias leans back in the upholstered chair, "That's why I asked you this before." He looks at the list, "Ah, the main team is busy...""A house in Saint Gabriel," William responds."All right, let's call." Josias takes courage, picks up the phone, and dials it.On the other side, Tobias attends the call in his apartment with a towel wrapped around his waist, he had just gotten out of the shower, "Hello?""Tobias? This is Josias Rocha."
Now Tobias is properly dressed, dry, hair combed, and smiling before Josias in his office. Tiago and Octavio are standing next to the boss."I didn't expect such an audience to announce what my father had in mind." Tobias watches playfully."We look forward to cooperating with the city, Mr. Ibrahim." Tiago eagerly declares."Well, my dad was wondering..." Tobias starts talking about the city's need, "...when will we have a top-notch hotel in Lagoon City."Josias takes a deep breath and leans back in his chair, "Go on.""Our city has surpassed 250,000 inhabitants." Tobias continues, "And we can expect the population to continue to increase thanks to neighborhoods like Sunset Village that are coming to life with new residents. So, a city this size like ours starts to attract a lot of businesses.""And have we attracted a lot of business?" Josias asks, very interested."Yes." Tobias proudly responds, "In addition to Marçal Publish
Josias, Octavio, William, Tiago, and Igor are gathered in the meeting room."Gentlemen," Josias begins the meeting, "we are gathered here to discuss Mayor Ibrahim's proposal. He wants us to build a more sophisticated hotel for the upper class that is pouring into our city.""I still can't believe it." Octavio wonders, "A TV station based in Lagoon City?""Our city will overtake the capital." Igor jokes, "It will be like New York and Washington.""Yes, Washington is the capital, but New York is THE city," William adds."What do you guys think about it?" Josias wants to stick to the subject."I'm in." Tiago says, "With the blessings of God and Everaldo, we will achieve this feat.""Did you speak with Everaldo last year, Josias?" William asks anxiously.For everyone, it is already a tradition for Everaldo to say a blessing to Josias every end of the year.But, Josias remembers that in 1990 it wasn't exactly a prophetic bles
On the Rocha penthouse, Carlos is resting in the lounge chair while listening to Enigma's song "Sadeness Part 1". He has his eyes closed, peaceful, tapping his feet in time to the music.The landline phone rings and ruins the harmony from before. Carlos mutters through his teeth and gets up to answer it."Hello?""Who is talking?" Vernon clucks on the other end of the line."This is Carlos Campos, patriarch of the Rocha family," Carlos commands respect and authority.But Vernon doesn't give a damn, "If you're the patriarch of the Rocha family, why the last name Campos?"Carlos is indignant, "Don't you read the newspapers? I'm the grandfather of Josias Rocha's wife, and I'm the oldest member of the family, understand? Campos and Rochas are one family.""OK, no need to teach me the family tree." Vernon continues petulantly, "I just remembered you, we met at some social events. I'm Josias's stepfather and I want to invite him to dinner."
Josias visits the Rocha Hotel since he didn’t have a day off for the staff. In the management room, Eugenio gathered David, Benjamin, and Sybil. “Why is that mere cook present at this meeting?” David asked disparagingly. “Because that’s how our boss ordered it,” Eugenio replied dryly. “I didn’t say anything and didn’t call this meeting, so if you’ll excuse me...” Benjamin and Sybil were horrified to see David leaving the meeting just like that. However, when he opened the door, David came face to face with his father. “David, where do you think you’re going?” “DAD!” David exclaimed, extremely surprised. “I didn’t know you were coming!” “Didn’t Eugenio tell you I was coming?” Josias asked with a scowl. David understood who the ‘boss’ was. Benjamin and Sybil felt vindicated. Josias sat down at the desk, taking Eugenio’s seat, while the manager remained humbly standing. “Very well,” Josias began the meeting in a formal tone, “I’m here just to make things crystal clear. First
Melissa and Mary visit the Mountain Café.“A guava juice for me, Mr. Mountain!” Mary requested, smiling sweetly.“Of course, my princess!” Rodrigo replied, thinking Mary was very adorable. “Neil will make a delicious cup for you.”“Thank you. But the princess is Carol,” Mary responded, striking a serious pose.Melissa and Rodrigo laughed heartily. Mary is something else...“Rod, how has it been managing the café in your father’s absence?” Melissa asked seriously.Rodrigo served a baked chicken pastry with ketchup to Mary. “I'm getting by, Melissa. Josias was here earlier, more concerned about my loss than his own, as always. Isn’t he supposed to be resting?”Melissa nodded. “My husband is like that: he only relaxes when all of us are relaxed.”“An impossible mission because of certain people.”Neilton approached with the glass. “Who ordered a guava juice?”“I DID!” Mary grabbed the glass and went to a table.Melissa leaned forward, “Neil, Rod, how are Daryl and Diane? Behaving?”“Cont
At João Paulo’s house, he and Josias were about to have a significant conversation.“Walter, do you want to go with your mom to the kitchen?” João Paulo asked, looking at Helen. “I think she made some walnut cake.”“It was carrot cake,” Sandra replied, already getting up from the couch.“You got it.” Helen appeared and picked up Walter in her arms. “Let’s let Dad and Uncle Josias talk.”“Bye, Uncle!” Walter waved goodbye to Josias.“Bye-bye, I want a piece later!” Josias chuckled.Once alone with João Paulo, Josias became serious. “Don’t let anything or anyone ruin this family scenario, little brother.”“I’m fine. No one wants to ruin anything,” João Paulo replied casually.“Well, I hope David hasn’t caused you any trouble.”“He probably doesn’t even know I exist, man.” João Paulo shrugged.“But I stopped by Café Montanha and found out that the Vasquez family has replaced the Mountain family as the ‘annoying people.’”João Paulo sighed in disappointment. “Yeah. They—”The doorbell ran
Josias visits Café Montanha for a coffee and finds Rodrigo there. “Rod, how have you been?” Rodrigo is taken aback. “How am I? You’re the one who suffered a horrific loss recently!” “But you also lost your father. We’re in the same situation,” Josias explained as he sat down on a stool. “I’m okay, Josias. Life has a way of cheering me up. For example, I’m back at the diner after Thierry decided to take his place at the supermarket.” Rodrigo smiled. “What about the photography studio?” Josias smiled back. “It’s still going to operate, and Thierry will make periodic visits. But he’s going to appoint one of the staff to manage the studio.” Rodrigo served a pizza pastry to Josias. “Thank you. Well, I hope everything is alright between you two. I need to visit Rosemary and meet Jean Luc — is that the name of the baby?” “Yes, the name of the supermarket heir. Meanwhile, Frank will be here or somewhere else.” Josias interjected, “If Frank wants to work at Rocha Constructions, count
At the Rocha Mansion, Josias receives a visit from Benjamin. “How have you been, Ben? Any news about your parents?” The two embrace. “Actually, that’s what I want to talk about.” Benjamin scratches the back of his neck. The embrace breaks. “Let’s go to my office.” The two gentlemen enter Josias’s imposing office. “Any problems with Adolfo?” Josias asks, becoming serious. “Not yet, but I hope not to have any,” Benjamin replies with some sadness. “You know, Josias, what happened with your father made me think about my family, about how important it is for all of us to be together in the final moments.” “That’s true. João Paulo can tell you that better than I can.” “I think you can say it too. Vernon was the father you never had.” Benjamin clears his throat. “So, I’ve been looking into some hotels and realized there’s a demand at the Rocha Hotel in Victoria.” Josias looks at Benjamin, understanding where he’s going with this. “You want to go to Victoria to be close to your pare
Someone rings the doorbell at João Paulo’s house. The homeowner goes to answer after taking a shower and putting on clean clothes. But when he opened the door, João Paulo felt like slamming it in the visitor’s face. “Don’t be rude!” Erasmo exclaimed. “What do you want, you old bore?” João Paulo shot back. Erasmo barged into João Paulo’s foyer. “The mourning is over. Let’s pick up where we left off.” “Are you crazy? Who decides how long mourning lasts? We just got back from the trip!” “Not exactly, it’s been a day. Life goes on, my friend!” Erasmo replied mockingly. João Paulo remained serious. “But I don’t want to continue living this way, where fights and intrigues are the order of the day. Mr. Vasquez, you have a business to run, and I have a family to raise.” “But you found time to slap my son-in-law when he was here defending his family, didn’t you?” “Alan was extremely rude, but that was some time ago.” João Paulo frowned. “I don’t feel the same anger as before.” “So a
At the Vasquez Mansion, Alan could hardly believe that the people were thinking about more intrigues and disputes. “Guys, don’t you understand that I even forgot the reason I slapped Uncle João Paulo?” “Ridiculous!” Erasmo gestured. “You just maintained respect because it was a difficult occasion. But now, the mourning is OVER!” “Do you think João Paulo will rest, dear?” Sofia asked, sitting next to him. Alan shook his head. “If Uncle João Paulo doesn’t want to rest, then he is truly despicable. But my dad is back in town. He wouldn’t dare to do that.” The news should have been uplifting, but the members of the Vasquez family merely exchanged silent glances. With Josias present, it’s quite likely that he will put a stop to their fighting. Alan turned to Olivia. “In the meantime, we should celebrate the recovery of my dear mother-in-law!” Olivia and Sofia smiled awkwardly because of the secret they were keeping. “That’s right, let’s celebrate life!” Erasmo wrapped his arm arou
Josias Rocha and his family returned to Lagoon City. Those who were waiting for them stayed in the mansion and greeted them cheerfully in the foyer. “WELCOME BACK!” Melissa, crying, embraced her parents, William, and the twins fervently. Josias greeted them with a light smile. “Where’s João Paulo?” William asked. “He went straight to his house. His kids needed to rest from the trip.” Melissa wiped her tears with her fingers. “Alan went straight to his mansion. Especially now that his mother-in-law has woken up from the coma.” “That was a scare; I thought we’d have two funerals,” Simeon commented. Everyone headed to the living room. “Is Paris very beautiful, Mom?” Mary asked. “Yes, sweetheart, it’s stunning. We’ll go shopping together another time, okay?” “Do you have pictures?” Ignacio asked anxiously. “Yes, son, we took some pictures.” Melissa sat on the couch, pulling out a package from her bag. Josias sat in the armchair, taking a deep breath. William approached him.
At Café Montanha, Daryl walks in for a coffee and finds Rodrigo at the counter while Neilton serves the others. “Hey, are we back to the old tradition?” “Don’t be a clown, man.” Rodrigo laughs. “Yes, Thierry is at the supermarket, as we agreed.” “Hi, Neil. Can you make me a cappuccino while I enjoy a natural sandwich?” Daryl places his order. “Sure thing, Mr. Mountain.” Neilton heads to the back. Daryl sits on the stool. “So, how do you feel after getting back to your element?” “I don’t regret at all helping my dear wife at the supermarket, Daryl,” Rodrigo admitted while preparing the natural sandwich. “I’m not talking about regrets.” Daryl joked. “But it’s undeniable that after Uncle Francisco’s passing, you prefer to stay here, carrying on the legacy he left.” “Just like Crystal Blue.” Rodrigo smiled. “Hey, I’m aware that you’re looking to open another restaurant in Sunset Village. Do you think you can manage it? How’s the prospecting going?” Daryl picks up the sandwich but