“She’s lying,” Carmen said quickly.
“She’s pregnant and emotional.”
Julian’s hands curled into fists.
“You said that when she was crying.”
“I was trying to help.”
“You told me she was hiding something.”
“I was protecting you.”
“No.”
The word came out immediately.
“No, you were protecting yourself.”
The memories started coming faster.
His mother’s phone calls.
The questions.
The accusations.
“She doesn’t respect you.”
“She’s changing.”
“She’s manipulating you.”
“She’s using the pregnancy.”
At the time, he thought his mother was worried.
Now he understood.
She wasn’t warning him about Mariana.
She was poisoning him against her.
Then Mariana whispered something that made the entire room freeze.
“Julian…”
He turned.
“She didn’t just hurt me.”
His heart stopped.
“What?”
Mariana looked down at her stomach.
“She told me if I told you, she would make sure I never saw my baby.”
Julian’s face went pale.
“What did she say?”
Mariana wiped her tears.
“She said you would choose her.”
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Julian walked toward the door.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Doña Carmen immediately stepped back.
“Where are you going?”
He looked at her.
A look she had never seen before.
“I’m calling the police.”
Her expression changed instantly.
“Julian, don’t be ridiculous.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“I was ridiculous.”
A pause.
“I believed the wrong person.”
Doña Carmen’s voice became louder.
“After everything I’ve done for you?”
Julian stopped.
That sentence.
That same sentence she always used.
The one that turned every argument into a debt.
“I gave birth to you.”
“I raised you.”
“I sacrificed for you.”
But Julian finally saw what he had ignored for years.
Sacrifice was not a permission slip to destroy someone else’s life.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He almost ignored it.
But something made him answer.
“Hello?”
A woman’s voice spoke.
