The affair

“What time is it”? - Matheus asked his wife. “It is ten to midnight” - Margareth answered. “But, why are you so worried about asking me the time every single minute”? – she added. She didn’t know what was going on in her husband’s mind. Matheus and Margareth had been married for fifteen years. Both of them worked for the federal government of Brazil. He worked as a federal agent and she worked as a professor. They had two beautiful girls who were at High School. Each one of them spoke five languages. Matheus and Margareth were very educated people. Kathryn and Carolyn, since their infancy, were taught to speak in five languages. It explains why they were good at languages. Beyond English, Matheus spoke Spanish and Italian. Margareth spoke German and Portuguese. Their daughters, Kathryn and Carolyn, were able to read and speak in the five languages their parents spoke, altogether. The family had everything to be happy and everyone could feel envy of them. While at school, Margareth constantly used to boast about her daughters’ advantages at languages. She was kind of happy but couldn’t escape from her mind: during the fifteen year she had been living with her husband, she suffered all sort of humiliation, encompassing verbal and physical aggressions. She was helplessly, carrying inside her suicidal feelings, every now and then. The daughters had never been permitted having good time with their friends. They lived all alone, locked at home, being permitted going out only if at the presence of Matheus. Every time they disobeyed, Kathryn and Carolyn would receive a hard beating and would get ground for several days. They were only permitted reading books in those occasions. But the supposed happiness of the family was about to become an even worse drama: Matheus had a secret: an affair with one colleague of his. They had been together for more than five years. The woman was all in love with him and told that she could do everything to stay by him, forever, even if it was to (…). Matheus tried to dissuade her from doing such an evil act, not in one occasion only, but in several ones. Unfortunately, it was in vain. She was out of her mind. Matheus found no alternative, but breaking up with her. He left her broken down, crying all alone in her flat, which was situated four blocks away from where he lived with his family. The following day, the federal agent received a phone call: it was a voice of a man informing him that he and his family would pay for what he did. The man told him that by midnight something unexpected would happen to him and his family. From the moment Matheus received the call, he couldn’t stop thinking about what could happen. To prevent his family from something unexpected, he got not one but two revolvers and waited for the worst. Knowing that it was ten to midnight, he got up of bed, went to his daughters' bedroom. It seemed to be ok. At that time, Matheus was sweating too much and his heart was beating hard and fast. Went to the kitchen, got a cup of coffee and drank it all up in a sip. All of a sudden, his phone rang. It was his lover telling him that she was about to kill herself. Immediately it was heard a noise of a gunshot. “My God” – Matheus shouted – “what have I done”? - he whispered in great despair. At the same time, his wife and daughters arrived at the kitchen, staring at him in utter bewilderment. “What are you all doing here”? – He shouted at them, completely out of his mind. He was holding a gun which was hidden under the kitchen table in his left hand and some bullets in the right hand (…). There was a moment of complete silence, then (…).