The Strange Woman

By Liliana Del Rosso

Legends, superstitions, and mysteries set the stage in Vallée Fleurie, a small town situated between mountains and forests.

A simple breeze caused unexplainable sensations. The flight of a butterfly could change the course of history.

 Envy, hate, ambition and family conflicts are at the center of the events.

Lydia, a skeptical person must try to interpret premonitory dreams and confusing messages from a subtle, yet disturbing, presence.

Flirting with the supernatural. Differentiating the illusory from the real, trying not to lose one’s sanity.

An agnostic, rational person has to deal with apparitions and dark dreams of different realities to protect her daughter from the curse which stalks her family.

In the words of the protagonist:

“A question still echoes in my mind. How did I survive without losing my sanity?”

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Jul 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781507148624

Book preview

The Strange Woman

Liliana Del Rosso

––––––––

Translated by Miriam de la Concepción Delgado 

The Strange Woman

Written By Liliana Del Rosso

Copyright © 2016 Liliana Del Rosso

All rights reserved

Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.

www.babelcube.com

Translated by Miriam de la Concepción Delgado

Cover Design © 2016 Gabriel Ortiz Medina

Babelcube Books and Babelcube are trademarks of Babelcube Inc.

The Strange Woman

licencia.JPG

The Strange Woman by Liliana del Rosso is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Images

Gabriel Ortiz Medina –Venezuelan painter- Abstract - Modern – Surrealist

Lana Acuaterra- photographer

Cover and photography

Lana Acuaterra fotógrafa.

Collaborators

Asociación socio-cultural AMASVE

Asociación de mujeres por la alianza sociocultural Venezuela - Alicante

logos-def1

Index

Contents

Eighteen years ago a strange coincidence changed our lives. Spring 1995.

To Spring 2013. We are fortunate to live in a place that is full of magic.

Secrets kept for 159 years, rushed into the present. The Fall of 2013.

Family conflicts and poorly healed wounds leave innocent victims in their wake.

How much love is necessary in order to forgive?

Curse

O Power! Poison that eats away at our very core.

Your children will die at the hands of ambition.

Generation after generation until the end of time.

The woman grabbed a fistful of ashes; threw them

at the blue eyes of the one who had caused so much pain.

ojos cenizas.jpg

Gabriel Ortiz Medina

Chapter I 

18 years ago a strange coincidence changed our lives.

Spring 1995

A skillfully written work proposal

15:30 hours.  The doctors’ lounge at Clinique Universitaire du Nord. Denis was inside the lounge, holding an envelope in one of his hands that he kept tapping against his leg as he walked nervously back and forth. Outside, we were enjoying some carefree laughter as we approached the lounge. Upon opening the door, we came upon our friend, infuriated, blocking our way, shaking the envelope in our faces as if he wanted to hit us with it.

This morning I received a letter that mentioned you both. In what new mess have you gotten me into? You have to understand that I’m a lawyer, and you two are doctors; you cure people, and I fight with them. Anything having to do with paperwork is my job. He turned on his heel and walked towards the center of the room waiting for an explanation.

Denis, will you relax? Cloé and I also received a letter, and you’re mentioned in it too.

Lydia, you have to stop doing whatever you do; you’re attracting too many weirdos. All of this is because of your nonsense in the ER. You’re both going to kill me. He pulled us away from the door with a roughness that wasn’t like him at all.

He had never been angrier in his life. I would’ve never dared to imagine everything that we would live through after that letter.

Cloé, Denis and I, three good friends, had in our hands a skillfully written work proposal.

The project was very good. Original and very ambitious, a good shaking up for the now lethargic but once adventurous spirit of our student days. With financial compensation much too good to ignore. The only condition was that the three of us had to work together; they wouldn’t accept just one of us.

Nevertheless, what really piqued our curiosity, was the large number of very personal details that they had.

How could they know so much? How much time had they dedicated to collect such precise information? They really had gone through a great deal of trouble.

Why us? We weren’t even looking for work, we had a job, and a good one. We were happy in our own way.

Everything had an air of predestination. It almost seemed as if we were the only ones capable of doing that job.

Denis suffers from boredom

The intense heat had driven everyone away from the city. The outpatient clinics tended to be very slow in the summer. Cloé dedicated her free time to studying for the position of Coordinator of the Outpatient Clinics Department. She dreamt about getting her hands on the promotion and reorganizing everything the way she liked it. I was trying to be supportive of her, but I knew from an excellent source that they would never accept a female doctor under thirty years of age for the position. My father, as a member of the board of directors, had warned us, but Cloé still kept her hope alive since Denis had a management position even though he was as young as we were.

One truly boring afternoon, we were talking about our future at the clinic, trying to make the hours pass quickly.

Hi ladies, I have to talk to you, said Denis, barging into Cloé’s office, I was bored to death at home, and I got the urge to re-read the job proposal, and I don’t think it’s such a crazy thing. He looked at the clock, looked out the window; he touched me on the shoulder saying, Lydia. There’s a mother with a child waiting to see you; they came in with me, take care of them quickly and let’s go have dinner. He approached the computer screen and kept talking, somewhat euphoric now, he seemed like a child with a new toy, Cloé, forget about this; I have something better for you. 

My friend smiled, then gestured to me with her hand, "Go on, I’ll find out what’s going on with Denis, and we’ll wait for you in the parking lot; he probably has that splendid car of his improperly parked and is ready to jump out the window at any second. 

Yes, yes, I’ll try to be quick, and you, find out what this crazy guy wants.

An hour later, at our favorite restaurant, Denis elaborated on his explanations. Not only had he re-read the letter, but he had also done a pretty thorough investigation.

Denis began presenting his findings while he placed, on the table, a large binder containing all of the information he had gathered.

I have almost finished all of my work here at the clinic, and from here on everything will be pretty much routine. You have all of the contacts you need, and the contracts are valid for three more years. You don’t need me anymore.

He took a drink of water and continued with his analysis of our situation, according to his special point of view.

You, Cloé, don’t even dream about the promotion, it’s impossible that they’ll give it to you. And you, Lydia, do you know what’s waiting for you?  Your father’s office and that horrid boyfriend of yours who won’t stop pressuring you to get married, concluded Denis with a very unpleasant gesture.

We broke up two months ago, and that’s none of your business, so let’s get to the point. What do you propose we do?

Lydia, don’t get angry, you enjoy helping people. You have a special strength which is that you don’t stop until you find the ideal solution to each problem. Denis was trying to soften his previous comment which had been so out of place.

"I like my job; I