Brothers (First Chapter)

First Chapter

Blas and Bautista were brothers. Correction, they had the same father, but their stories and lives had nothing in common.

Their father, Benjamín, was about to turn 50 in a few days. He had married relatively young to Bautista's mother, who was already 23 years old. The name of their common son was in homage to Benjamín's father, Juan Bautista. Both parents were from wealthy families. Everything ended a few years later when Benjamín committed a scandalous adultery, the products of which were Blas, now 19 years old, and a divorce.

Benjamín never remarried and made costly divorce agreements and paid pensions to both children. It never affected his economy or prosperity. His real estate business allowed him to lead a life full of luxuries, inhabit a large house in the best city in the Pacific, maintain another in a cattle ranch, travel, pay the onerous pensions of his children, and have several occasional lovers. He did not skimp on expenses.

Both brothers only shared parents, but nothing else in common. Bautista was reflective, concentrated, educated, discreet, not prone to externalizing his feelings, tall (185 cm), athletic, blonde, and quite similar to his father. He studied Business Sciences and believed he was destined to be the heir to his father's businesses. They did not usually talk much, but the father had a sincere affection for him and had great expectations.

Blas was the opposite of his brother: extroverted, impulsive, shorter (172 cm), black hair, brown eyes, and much darker skin. It was hard to find similarities with his father. He did not study, as he had dropped out of engineering school and enjoyed extreme sports. He had spent the last six months in Hawaii, surfing on a beach.

The brothers did not maintain communication with each other, but the father liked to spend one or two weeks with them, together, in his cattle ranch house. It was a tradition he had established since their adolescence. He liked to see how they had evolved and to form his own opinions about what he could expect from them. Also, to please their mothers and their constant pleas to increase the already substantial pensions. After Blas's university failure, he had threatened not to increase the amount again and was determined to do so when the courts required it.

He paid for his children's university tuition, accommodations, maintenance, and everything necessary, just as he had done with their school tuition.

This time, he would repeat the meeting days. He sent his chauffeur to pick them up at the nearby airport, who first picked up Bautista and then Blas. They arrived with a day's difference.

Bautista enjoyed the stay more: he liked the ranch, the pool, riding horses, seeing the granaries and corrals with the animals, walking through the forest paths, enjoying the afternoons under a large patio, and reviewing all the warehouses on the large ranch.

His brothe...