Ros—Freddy

Ros and Freddy’s relationship, as it emerges in Freddy’s conversation with Amaia, is a bond broken by his affair with Anne Arbizu but not erased by separation. Ros has left their home and no longer visits him; Freddy remembers her care and fidelity, acknowledges the harm he caused, and still hopes that she does not believe he had anything to do with Anne’s murder. His account holds affection and betrayal together, making remorse inseparable from the damage he recognizes he inflicted.

Separation and the Question of Ros

When Amaia arrives alone to speak with Freddy, he looks toward the entrance and asks whether she has come by herself, evidently wondering whether Ros might be with her. He does not seem to take in Amaia’s answer that she needs to talk to him. Instead, his concern turns immediately to Ros: he asks whether she is well, notes that she has not come to see him, and says he would like her to visit, while acknowledging that she may understandably not want to.

Freddy’s mother, who has been watching Amaia from the doorway with hostility, rejects his description of Ros’s absence as normal. Her angry response frames Ros’s refusal to visit as a moral injury to Freddy. Freddy does not accept that defense. He tells his mother not to insult Ros, insisting that Ros loved him, cared for him, and had been faithful to him. His defense matters because it places the separation in a different light from his mother’s: Ros did not abandon him without reason; she left after discovering his disloyalty.

The Affair and Freddy’s Admission

When his mother disputes the existence of another woman, Freddy names Anne Arbizu. The name is spoken quietly, but Amaia can see that it still hurts him despite the months that have passed. The scene briefly exposes how the affair’s consequences persist in the present: Anne is absent, yet naming her brings pain into the conversation and prompts Freddy to explain the choices that ended his relationship with Ros.

Freddy describes falling in love with Anne as an impulsive, self-absorbed fixation. Ros suspected what was happening and left when she could no longer endure it. Freddy accepts responsibility for the breach rather than presenting Ros’s departure as inexplicable or cruel. He says he hurt her through both thoughtlessness and conscious behavior. His confession is not a claim that the relationship with Ros meant nothing: he insists that he loved Ros and had been well with her, while distinguishing that attachment from what he felt for Anne.

His account also reveals a stark imbalance in how he experienced the two relationships. He portrays Anne as having taken over his judgment and says that, when she chose someone, there was nothing that person could do. This explanation conveys the intensity with which he remembers Anne, but it does not undo his own admission that he acted selfishly and harmed Ros. His words keep both facts in view: he regrets the damage, and he describes himself as having been unable to resist the force he attributed to Anne.

Grief, Guilt, and the Unresolved Bond

Anne’s murder becomes another source of anguish. Freddy says that when he learned she had been killed, he could not bear it and refers obliquely to what he did afterward, without specifying the act in this exchange. His mother, surprised that he had not told her, leaves the room in tears. Freddy treats her reaction calmly, expecting that she will get over it because she has always indulged him. The moment sets his mother’s hurt alongside the older injury to Ros, which he regards as the more consequential wound.

Freddy says that he is sorry for Ros and hopes she did not think he had anything to do with Anne’s death. This is his fear about Ros’s possible judgment, not evidence that she accused him or that he was involved. He acknowledges that his conduct damaged Ros, yet remains concerned about what she thinks of him. Their separation therefore persists as more than physical distance: Ros is absent from the encounter, but Freddy’s questions, defense of her, regret, and anxiety about her interpretation organize what he says. The scene establishes no reconciliation; it leaves their bond suspended between his continuing attachment and the consequences of his betrayal.