MONDAY UPDATE ON FALL INTO TEMPTATION EPISODE 17
Three years ago, at Santi's house, Lola walks in on Carolina and Damián arguing about Cheatin’ Dam “cheating” on Cheatin’ Caro with his own wife. Lola wants to know what’s going on and Dam, the professional liar, covers quickly. He tells her they were discussing the possibility of Lola working part time at the company office and was just trying to persuade her, knowing how Caro feels about Lola finishing school first. Lola thinks this is a great idea and Dam washes his hands and tells them to work it out. Lola says she can talk to her dad, then leaves the room.
Now Dam leans toward Caro and wants to talk. Caro wants him to leave—sarcasm dripping from her cheatin’ lips—now that he and his wife are getting along, go enjoy her. She asks him rather unconvincingly to leave her in peace and escapes to her bedroom to think, pace and reflect. He leaves and has to call Raquel to tell her the two-family brunch is off. He has an emergency to deal with back at the factory.
Lola comes into Caro’s bedroom and wonders if there’s anything else wrong. Caro asks, “Like what?” Lola says, “You tell me.”
Dam and Raq are getting ready for bed. Dam is explaining the emergency had to do with his mother doing some things he didn’t like. Raq bristles at the mention of Dam’s mother (the saintly Miriam). Raquel wonders why his mother has any say at all in running the business. Wasn’t it Dam who put the business back on its feet when his father ran it into bankruptcy? Dam cuts her short. Any problems with his mother are his to solve. Raq decides this is the perfect time to discuss family finances. She wants to know exactly where she stands. What exactly is she to him? Dam says he hasn’t involved her because he doesn’t want her and his mother to fight. Oh, Raquel sees clearly now, she’s just left on the margin, a bed partner, baby incubator, a piece of furniture? She wants to know their economic status, something about their finances, in case—she knocks on wood—he were to have an accident. Dam doesn’t answer, but is visibly annoyed. He pulls the covers up and scoots down in bed. Raq is verbally annoyed. She gets into her side of the bed and turns off the light, facing away from him. Dam turns out the light, arranges his pillows and faces away from her. No snuggling tonight and definitely no sex.
Next morning, Mia is welcomed back to her old school. Raq has accompanied her. While the counselor steps away for some papers that need to be signed, Mia wants to know what she and her dad were arguing about. Mia wants to know if the two are going to separate. Before Raq has time to give her a real explanation, Fede comes to get Mia for class. Raquel immediately calls Carolina. The convo goes such that Caro is sure she and Dam, the cheatin’ duo, have been found out. She agrees to meet Raq at the banquet office so no one will know.
Carolina lies to Santi saying the phone call was to Lisa who wasn’t answering. He volunteers to take her to Lisa's, but she declines. He sees she’s distant, nervous and wants to help her. Caro admits it’s her fault, but it’s all going to change. Santi wants her to keep in mind he loves her and will always be here for her. He sends her away with a kiss and a hug, which she accepts perfunctorily.
There’s a three-way going on in the company offices, but officially there are only two playing the game. Dam and his mother are arguing about who he hired to do the repairs on the filtration systems and other renovations. Dam holds firm. He makes the decisions here. If they don’t like it, he’ll resign. Mama backs down, but clearly is unhappy doing so. Andrés, meanwhile, has been fuming inwardly at being treated as a subordinate to Damián, which Dam reminds him he is.
Nico runs into Mia and Fede outside the school. He lets them know he saw they were the culprits who smashed the windows on Joaquín’s dad’s car. He’s disappointed they didn’t trust him and left him out. He walks away. Fede thinks he has a point, but Mia shuts him down. There are certain things that are only between siblings.
Caro reaches the banquet office, full of trepidation and fear, not really wanting to face the showdown. Without changing her demeanor, she approaches Raq, who says that for all the reasons in the world, this catering business has to succeed. It’s all about financial independence, she says. She thinks it’s unjust for men to shut them out and ignore women when it comes to finances. Caro smiles, relieved to be able to live another day and becomes quite animated. She assures Raq that their business will be successful. Then she asks Raq if she was able to resolve that little problem of the advance, to which Raq assures her she did. They agree to a pact and Caro says she’ll never abandon Raq. Raq gets a phone call about a crisis with her sister. Sister? Caro didn’t know Raq had a sister and wants to know more. Raq says she’ll fill her in later—Dam has a problem with her, but now she has to hurry. They hug goodbye.
Dam assures Santi at the office the job is his. There’ll be no more problems with Andrés. Santi thanks him for all he’s done and is doing for his family.
Santi is still begging Lola, demanding she tell him what went on, whatever it was that Antonio was hinting at. She insists nothing happened and to believe her. This is repeated several times. They hug and she leaves for work.
Raquel calls Santi. She’s at the hospital, sitting next to Damián. She tells Santi she needs to see him. She explains, as she leans closer to Dam, that not only did Dam cheat on her, but he left her in his mother’s hands, with no recourse to recuperate what’s hers. She tells Santi she wants both of them to hear what she has to say, telling the prostrate Dam that he continues to harm her.
Nando is interrogating Lisa. Yes, she has a son. He’s in school. She insists Vicente knows more than she does about Caro and she doesn’t know if Vic knew whether Caro had a lover. When Nando asks if she knew about a lover, Lisa denies any knowledge. Ditto when he inquires about gossip or whether she had any enemies, all of which Nando takes with a grain of salt. Lisa does finally cough up a nugget of valuable information. About 2 ½ or 3 years ago, she went to see a local nurse who was known to perform abortions.
Santi comes into the ICU. Raquel is still sitting next to Dam’s bed. They are both in scrubs. She takes Santi’s hand and brings him closer. She seems to be in a trance. She wants the three of them to have a “talk.” She wants Dam to know how he hurt Santi, how he destroyed him, how he destroyed two families. She addresses Santi. Did he know that Dam’s mother took everything away from them, while Dam bought a cottage for himself and Carolina? To Damian she says, “You don’t know how much I hate you.” She repeats this, zombie-like, until Santi pulls her away and into him, one arm holding her close. She’s shaking with wrath. He holds her tight and as she puts her arm around his waist, the two become one blue blur.
Lola runs into Andrés in the hall of the factory offices. He fires her. He gloats that Dam isn’t there to defend her.
Standing outside the ICU, Raq tells Santi she has nothing left to her name. Santi assures her she has him. Raq reminds him this is about money. He insists he can help, if she’ll let him. They’re in this together and he tells her they’ll fight for what’s hers, legally. She fears it will be difficult. They hug each other, unafraid of having those undercurrents of emotion they have for each other surface at an inopportune time.
Lola is standing outside the factory doors when Fede comes along. When he finds out what Andrés did, he marches in to fix things—and Lola ought to know he can.
Lisa and Nando go see the nurse and after assuring her there won’t be any repercussions if she cooperates, she admits Caro came to her for an abortion, but at the last minute changed her mind and didn’t go through with it.
Fede confronts his grandmother. She assures him he and his sister won’t lack for anything. Fede says that has to include his mother. Andrés hears the dust-up and Fede lights into him, too, harassing young girls, then firing them, like he did to Lola. The look on Miriam’s face indicates either she didn’t know of Andrés’ proclivities or was shocked Fede knew about such things.
Lola arrives home and tells Santi she was fired. Raq, who was there, steps up and tells them that woman wants to ruin both families.
When Nando tells Antonio about the near-abortion, Tonio wants to dismiss it as irrelevant information. Nando begs to differ. The age of the child correlates with her visit to the nurse and she was accompanied by Damián. Tonio doesn’t want this discussed any further. Nando insists that, if the child is Dam’s, shouldn’t Santi be told? And, if he already knew, wouldn’t that be the motive they’ve been looking for? Besides, the judge will no doubt ask for a test.
Lola doesn’t know why she was fired, but Santi thinks it was a blessing in disguise. Raq assumes the fault for this and everything else. Santi takes charge: No, it’s not Raq’s fault; Lola doesn’t HAVE to work; His work is going well; Everything is going to be all right. Nando calls Santi interrupting the flow. Raq and Lola seem to disappear as Santi asks him please can they talk some other time.
The factory confrontation continues. Miriam says they’ll of course investigate the harassment allegations, but she’s the one that ordered Lola’s dismissal. Can’t Fede see that all their problems have been caused by that family? Fede doesn’t buy that, especially about Lola. He declares he’s going to start working there—no, not to maintain his mother, but to take charge of what belongs to them, the part belonging to his father.
Laura is lying in wait for Juan. She wants to talk to him. She’s a reporter investigating the death of Carolina Rivas. He’s seeing her daughter, correct? Juan says that’s in the past. He starts to walk away when Laura mentions Patricia, Lola’s dead friend. He whirls around to face her and returns.
Mike cuts a check for Caro for the reception they catered for him. Caro ruins the moment and for any potential new clients by telling him she never wants to see him again and he’s never to come near her daughter again. She knows what he did and reminds him Lola is a minor. She threatens him that if he ever lays eyes on her, he has no idea the lengths she’ll go to for her daughter. She leaves and Mike immediately calls Andrés to let him know that Caro came for the check for the money they lent them. Andrés says it’s ok, he’s stopped payment on it. Mike tells him that’s not the point. She threatened him. He’s backing out of any deals. Andrés calms him. Caro can’t do anything more than threaten. Then he asks about the check they gave Raquel. Mike check a ledger and sees it was handed over to a rehab clinic. Andrés takes down the name of the clinic.
Raquel is at the bedside of her catatonic Sissy. Raq wants her to be happy, get well, etc., etc., then she mumbles almost inaudibly to please forgive her (for interning her or dun-de-dum-dum, something else).
Nico and Fede are arguing together about betrayals or non-betrayals when they run into Mia coming up the stairs at school. She wants to talk to Nico but his pride won’t let him. She moves past them. Fede urges Nico to lose his pride and go after her. They halt together, then she reaches up and kisses him. He starts to get into it, but she ends it. That was for protecting her and to ask his forgiveness, she explains. Only that, he asks? Yes, and she walks away. A wee smile appears on Nico’s face.
Santi finds a snag in the repair work that will have to wait for Damián. Santi is discussing it with his crew when Lola appears. Obvio, she didn’t discuss taking the job with Santi ahead of time. He gets pretty steamed up about it, but nothing seems to have been resolved.
Last scene—Carolina, Damian and the Bed the Lying Cheaters Lie in (lying as in fibs and lie as in stretch out to do the horizontal mambo interruptus) and the one Raquel may or may not want to lie in later.
How the stars misaligned.
1. Caro comes to Raq and Dam’s house looking for Raquel. Jovita lets her in. She asks to use the bathroom and just happens to be directed upstairs to the one in milady’s bedroom, as the guest bathroom is under renovation.
2. Dam just happened to come home in the middle of the day and enters the bedroom.
3. Raquel returns home and Jovita tells her Caro has come to see her, but is still upstairs. Raq just happens to head up the stairs.
Backing up a bit to follow the action, Caro enters the inner sanctum where Dam and Raq had made passionate love just two days ago. Is her fragrance still hanging low? Is his scent still perceptible? Dam walks in to find Caro in the bedroom looking here and there. Dam finally gets the opportunity to continue their unfinished conversation. He says, “It’s absurd that you question that I would sleep with her. Don’t you sleep with Santiago?” “Yes, it is absurd to question.” “Well, answer me. Don’t you have relations with your husband?” “No, not any more and you know why.” That’s it. No need for any more conversation. He puts his hands on her and he starts his pleading--he's crazy about her, can't live without her. She responds. She stops long enough to say this is wrong. He repeats it, then they go back to mouth sucking.
He takes her and lifts her up onto the bed. There is contact. An earring is dislodged and rolls onto the carpet. Things are getting to the point of no return. Raquel takes a call from Gabriela as she comes down the hall, approaching her bedroom.
The two miscreants hear her voice, stop, frozen en delicto, followed by panic. Re-energized, they pull apart----as Raquel hangs up on Gabriela, stops at the door, puts her hand on the door handle and opens it. To Be Continued---
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