But there were no arrests, no charges were filed. Everything was silenced under the pretext of a “mental crisis.”
Mateo asked me not to overthink it, to concentrate on the baby.
“My love, Sofia is sick. She doesn’t know what she’s doing. Forget about it. Let’s think about us, about our future.”
But I couldn’t forget. Sofia’s words, Doña Clara’s gaze, Mateo’s evasion.
Everything told me there was a hidden truth, one they were desperate to keep under lock and key.
One afternoon, while Mateo had gone to the cafeteria, Doña Clara entered the room.
His face was gaunt, his eyes swollen, as if he hadn’t slept in days.
He sat down in the chair, took my hands and squeezed them tightly.
“Elena, I can’t take it anymore,” he said, his voice breaking. “I can’t keep hiding this. Not from you.”
My heart began to beat strongly, an icy premonition.
“Sofia isn’t crazy, Elena. Well, not entirely. She’s hurt. And what she told you… is true.”
The air left my lungs. “What is the truth, Doña Clara? Please, tell me.”
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She closed her eyes, a single tear rolled down her cheek.
“Matthew… Matthew is married. And he has a daughter.”
The world stopped. My mind went blank.
“What?” I managed to whisper, my voice barely a thread. “No… it can’t be.”
“Yes, Elena. I’m so sorry. He married Laura, a childhood friend of Sofia’s, five years ago. They have a three-year-old daughter, Camila.”
The information hit me like a freight train.
Mateo. My Mateo. The father of my baby. Married. With a daughter.
“Why? Why did he do this to me? Why did he never tell me anything?” the questions erupted uncontrollably.
“Mateo and Laura had problems. He felt trapped. He fell in love with you, Elena. He wanted a new life.”
“But he didn’t divorce me,” I interrupted, anger beginning to boil inside me. “He used me. He deceived me. He made me believe in a future that never existed!”
Doña Clara nodded, tears now running freely down her face.
“I know. He was a coward. I always knew it. Sofia… Sofia found out months ago. She tried to get Mateo to tell Laura the truth, to get a divorce.”
“She couldn’t bear the thought of Mateo cheating on you, of him starting another family while his own was secretly falling apart.”
“And I… I begged him not to tell you anything. For Mateo’s sake, for the family’s sake. Because of the shame.”
“Sofia tried to warn you in other ways, but you didn’t understand. And when she found out about your pregnancy, she went crazy with rage. She felt that Mateo had crossed an unforgivable line.”
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“She attacked Elena because she felt you were a victim of her brother, but also of the destruction of another family, Laura and Camila’s.”
“When she saw that she didn’t understand you, that you weren’t reacting, desperation led her to do what she did. She wanted the truth to come out, at any cost.”
Everything fit together. Sofia’s fury, her cryptic words, Doña Clara’s silence, Mateo’s evasion.
It was a monstrous lie, a facade built on my innocence and my love.
Just then, Mateo returned to the room, with a bag of sandwiches in his hand.
When he saw the two of us, Doña Clara crying and me with my face contorted by pain, he knew instantly.
The bag fell to the ground with a thud.
“Elena…”, she began, her voice trembling.
“Don’t call me Elena!” I screamed, rage erupting inside me like a volcano. “Liar! You wretch! How could you do this to me!”
The nurses approached, alarmed by my screams.
“You’re married, Mateo! You have a daughter! And you cheated on me! You made me believe we were a family!”
Mateo tried to approach, but I backed away, my hands protecting my belly, protecting my baby from his betrayal.
“Elena, please let me explain. I love you. I really do.”
“Love me? Love me while you were living a double life? Love me while you were destroying other people’s lives, and now mine?”
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The nurses pulled him away. My blood pressure spiked. The doctor rushed in.
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