Caray, Caray!

Lo Pasado:

 MD is at the helpful rape victim center and is speaking to a counsellor when her rapist Dan calls. The slime calls her "mi amor" and when she doesn't respond in kind, telling him she is reporting him to the authorities, he blackmails her, saying no one will believe her as he sent a text from her phone to his with a sexy picture, so everyone will think their encounter was consensual. Claudio tells Isela that if Orly breaks the restraining order he's in big trouble.

 Lo nuevo:

Judge and Jury

 Max's tricks Baldamero into believing the loan shark ratted him out in the MD family mortgage sale scheme and therefore he's under arrest. Baldy quickly confesses that Daniel Santibañez is behind it all. Baldy realizes the trick and complains to Max who tells him to file a report against him. Max goes to casa Santíbañez to see Dan even as Dan's atrocious blackmail of MD continues.

If you report me, you will lose your house, Max, and poor Esperanza won't be able to stand it. So, tell Max to back off. MD concedes on getting Max to back off, and Dan lets Max hear MD say on speakerphone (altívoz) that she and Dan will negotiate the mortgage issue alone. Max leaves the Santíbañez defeated as Maleny says under her breathe he deserves that embarrassment and much more.



 At the Bustamante's Isela seems to remember the revenge plot she and Josefa had engineered as she plays twenty questions with Claudio at the dinner table. "Being a judge is like being God isn't it? You have the power to change someone's life for good or bad," she asks forthrightly. "I never thought of it that way before," Claudio admits, "but I don't agree with your view." "I can only judge actions and decree a sentence, guilty or innocent." "Besides, people choose their destiny by getting involved in a crime." Isela: "Have you never questioned if you've convicted someone wrongly?" "You don't even have any doubts?" Claudio: "No," on both counts. Isela looks more serious than ever as she responds. "Good for you," Isela opines sarcastically. "It's true what they say, though. If someone is a criminal, you don't determine their destiny, but if they're innocent and you convict them, you can even end their life. And that would weigh on the conscience." Claudio responds sarcastically, "What a beautiful topic for dinner conversation" and gets up from the table suddenly. Isela stops him and they look like they're about to make out.

 Executioner

 After comforting MD, Julian goes with Doris to casa Santíbañez to beat the stuffing out of Dan. Max shows up at MD's and asks why she decided to negotiate the house issue with Dan alone. Max senses that Dan forced her in some way and says as much but he backs off.

Claudio and Isela do the deed at his house while Alma is asleep.

Max returns home to see Leo and Max tells him about their parents.  Julian arrives at Casa Santíbañez, his blood boiling. Pimp Mama Ursula of course opposes Doris and Julian coming into her home but D & J are insistent. Dan is at the top of some stairs and Julian at the bottom of the stairs. Dan casually dares Julian to try and make it up the stairs to get at him, and Julian takes up the challenge. He runs full speed up the stairs to Dan, dropping his cane on the way and starts pummeling at Dan even as he says, "You raped her" repeatedly. Dan foolishly taunts Julian by saying, "You wish you were in my place, but accept it, in your state you'll never be able to be with a woman, much less one like Maria Dolores." They fight and shove until Dan accidentally shoves Julian down the stairs to the horror of all onlookers: Ursula, Maleny, and Doris.

 Aftermath

 MD is in bed wide awake beside a sleeping Clara. MD remembers the day of the rape: Dan accusing her of pretending to be decent for months even as she slept with Max quickly; She telling Dan she had loved him and wanted their first time together to be as a married couple and then him forcing himself on her. She cries quietly and bitterly at the memory.

 At casa Santíbañez, Dan is horrified at what he did to Julian-and it was an accident-even as Doris screams that they call an ambulance, which Pimp Mama Ursula delays as she tries to tell Dan what to say when the authorities show up. Dan says to himself and no one in particular, "How quickly I've gone from rapist to murderer" and Ursula quickly tries to squash the thought in Dan's head. "It was an accident and he did it to himself," she insists. Maleny accuses Ursula of machinating even as they aren't sure if Julian is dead or alive. She insists that she did the same for Maleny and will defend Dan as well especially since "he didn't do anything." Isidro, the evil faithful servant lets Ursula know Julian is still breathing and then she approves calling an ambulance. She cuts to the chase what they will do. She'll call Arango and let him deal with the legal blow back. All Dan and Mal are to say is "El llegó, te agredió, se cayó." He came here, he assaulted you, he fell. (Which is true. Dan does have a good self defense case here since he only insulted Julian and barely touched him.) Meanwhile, at the bottom of the stairs, Doris is with an unconscious Julian calling Jenny to let her and Julian's parents know Julian fell. Why didn't she call the ambulance?

 MD continues to quietly cry and mourn so convincingly, it breaks my heart.

 At the hospital are Doris, along with Jenny, Honoria and Fermin, who are waiting for news about Julian. They flag a nurse down who tells them Julian is conscious but in observation.

 As Ari and Doris walk in broad daylight together, they encounter Orly and he explains to them that he has to report to the police to testify in his case with Isela. Though he was the one injured, he tried to force himself on Isela, which is why she has a restraining order against him, which he deserves. Even as Doris and Ari shake their heads in disapproval against Isela, she had called him last night and Ari told him not to answer, Orly takes responsibility and says he won't be stuck on stupid anymore with Isela. "If she doesn't want me to go near her, I won't go near her."

 Isela comes down for breakfast at Casa Bustamante  looking as guilty as homemade sin as she sees Alma and Claudio and the table. Alma graciously asks the servant to put a place at the table for Isela. They start to gossip immediately about MD and the barrio crowd. Isela says her mother told her it seems MD and Julian had something going on but Isela says Julian loves MD but she has never reciprocated.

Max and Leo show up at MD's and Clara's for them to explain the jewelry robbery. They explain that the jewelry appeared in Clara's bag when they left it in Maleny's presence and  they broke up with them so Alma wouldn't file charges against Clara. Max comments bitterly that he once believed and commented to MD that their families had a lot in common since they shared the same good values, but he now realizes his family does not.

We get a mercifully short scene of Susana and Ivana fighting about the Santíbañez and how Ivana has to prove they haven't broken her.

Leo and Clara make up. Max comments how in love they seem and he hopes he and MD can get back to their relationship as well. MD cringes as Max touches her and they are mercifully interrupted by Espy and Doris who tells them there's news at the hospital about Julian.

Arango is at the breakfast table advising a stressed-looking Ursula drinking some tea. "As long as this young man isn't dead or anything else serious doesn't happen to him, there's no need to get the police involved,"  he notes calmly. He mentions Julian's sickness as contributing to his fall. "He is also sick in his bones. It's logical that this young man accidentally fall," Arango continues reassuringly. Urusula doesn't look so convinced and Maleny's words entering the room doesn't ease the tension. "You are forgetting one small detail, the obese lady (Doris) saw everything that happened yesterday." "And she saw the same thing we did," says Ursula.

As Max drives MD to the hospital, he asks MD why she is so cold and distant from him. "You don't want me to even touch you," he wonders. He also asks what Daniel did to her since he knows when he came by to pick up his things Dan was there too. "Nothing,"  MD says, looking trapped. "Do you think I'm seeing him again?" she asks. "No. I think he's following you."  She insists they go to the hospital to see about Julian and Max drops the subject.

At the hospital, all the people who hold Julian dear are gathered thinking he's fine. Jenny even had an orthopedic made for him and presents it to Hon and Ferm. Sadly, the doctor bursts their bubble. Although Julian tried to break his fall in the best way possible, since his disease was so advanced and he hadn't been using any support, he will never walk again and will be confined to a wheelchair. Caras de impactado all around.

End of capitulo

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