Freddy—Anne Arbizu

Freddy—Anne Arbizu is an affair that Freddy later describes as both a betrayal of Ros and an attachment that seemed to him to have taken control of his judgment. His account connects Anne’s influence to his estrangement from Ros, his remorse, and his belief that Anne continues to visit him after her death.

The Affair and Ros’s Departure

Freddy admits that Ros had loved him, cared for him, and been faithful. Their relationship broke when she discovered that he was seeing another woman. Freddy identifies that woman as Anne Arbizu and remembers that Ros suspected the affair before she finally left. The departure was therefore not, in his telling, an inexplicable abandonment: it followed the discovery of his infidelity.

When his mother calls Ros undeserving of his regret, Freddy defends her instead. He says that he owes Ros an apology, rejects the insult, and acknowledges that she had treated him well. His defense makes the betrayal harder to excuse: he does not present Ros as a neglectful partner, but as someone he hurt despite loving her.

Freddy’s Account of Anne

Freddy describes falling in love with Anne with the heedlessness of a boy, thinking of no one but himself. He admits that he was impulsive and foolish, but also says that some of the hurt he caused Ros was deliberate. His confession holds remorse and self-indictment together rather than reducing the affair to a mistake beyond his control.

At the same time, Freddy portrays Anne as a force that overwhelmed his agency. He says she clouded his judgment, entered his thoughts, chose him, and manipulated him like a puppet; in his view, her power meant that once she selected someone, resistance was futile. He also suspects that she provoked Víctor and was involved with Amaia Salazar’s sister. These are Freddy’s suspicions and explanations, not independently established facts in the account. His language shifts between accepting responsibility for his conduct and casting Anne as the one who directed it.

Bereavement and the Continuing Bond

Freddy links the news of Anne’s murder to a breaking point: he says he could not bear hearing that she had been killed and alludes to what he then did. Later, he tells Amaia Salazar that Anne has appeared to him—once in the hospital and twice since he has been where he is speaking to her. The reported visits extend the affair beyond its ordinary end, but remain Freddy’s account of what he experiences.

He says that if he could move, he would end his life, and explains this despair through his belief that neither witches nor people who die by suicide can rest. The affair thus remains present not as a renewed relationship but as a source of guilt, fixation, and fear. Freddy’s insistence that Anne still comes to him gives his attachment an unsettling afterlife, while his own confession preserves the injury to Ros as the human consequence of that attachment.