2

Simón tossed the inhaler at her contemptuously. Natalia caught it with trembling hands, struggling to breathe as he watched her with a look of disgust.

“Isabella is staying here,” Simón said coldly, folding his arms. “And you… you’re leaving. You have no business being in this house.”

Natalia looked at him in disbelief, her eyes wide and moist from the lack of air and the pain. She finally managed to inhale, and though she was still gasping, she found the courage to reply.

“This is… my home…” her voice was barely audible. “I’m still your wife. I deserve… respect.”

Simón let out a short, cruel laugh.

“My wife? Please, Natalia!” He leaned toward her with a look of disdain and a sarcastic smile. “You were never my wife. You have no right to demand respect.”

Natalia felt a lump form in her throat, but not from sorrow, but from rage. She stared at him, gathering every ounce of courage she had left.

“We were already together… intimately,” she said in a trembling but firm voice.

Simón’s smile vanished instantly. His face tensed, and his gaze darkened with a mixture of disbelief and contempt.

“Don’t repeat that lie again,” he growled, moving dangerously close to her. You know very well that never happened! What are you trying to gain from this, huh? Stop making things up!

Natalia blinked, and tears finally escaped her eyes. She didn’t understand how he could deny it so blatantly.

That night, when he was drunk, she had given him her virginity. She remembered it perfectly, even if he had forgotten. 

“How can you deny what happened?” she whispered, more to herself than to him.

“Because it didn’t happen, Natalia,” Simón rubbed his temples as if trying to hold back something worse. “Isabella is a real woman, not like you. She’s given me what you never could, and I don’t need you tying me down with your pathetic lies.”

Those words hit Natalia like a slap in the face. She felt something inside her break irreparably. 

So the only reason he was denying everything was because he’d already been with Isabella? The pain she felt in that moment was unbearable. 

He didn’t just despise her… he’d betrayed her.

“You’re despicable,” she managed to say through clenched teeth, still on her knees.

Simón laughed again, letting out a bitter chuckle.

“The only despicable one here is you,” he replied coldly. “You’ve always been a gold digger. You married me just for my money, nothing more.”

Natalia closed her eyes for a second, trying to hold back the tears that were choking her. How could he not see the truth? 

Everything she had done—every sacrifice, every sleepless night—had been out of love, not for money.

“You’re wrong…” she said in a trembling voice. “I never wanted your money. I loved you from the start, Simón... but you were too blind to see it.

Simón didn’t respond right away, and in that brief silence, she felt her love for him fade away.

“Clean up Isabella’s bloodstain,” Simón finally ordered, as if he hadn’t heard a word of what she’d just said. And when you’re done, get out of my sight.

Natalia, kneeling, stared at the red stains on the floor as she scrubbed with a damp rag. Pain consumed her, but as the crimson color faded beneath her hands, something inside her faded too.

 

She had been wrong. All those years, she had hoped Simón would realize her love, what she truly felt for him, but now she knew that would never happen.

As the floor became clean, Natalia felt she was also cleansing her heart of that love that had bound her for so long. 

No more. Simón didn’t deserve a single tear, even though they fell silently onto the floor she continued to scrub.

Her heart, once shattered, now felt only empty.

“I’m done,” she murmured, slowly rising from the floor.

Simón didn’t even bother to look at her.

“Good. Get out now,” his voice was cold, distant.

Natalia watched him for a second longer, hoping something in him would change, that there would be a spark of regret, but there was nothing. Finally, she turned on her heel and walked out of the room without looking back.

As she walked through the room where she had slept alone for two years, Natalia felt a new resolve growing within her. She no longer cared what Simón thought, nor what Isabella was plotting. 

For the first time in a long time, she felt free.

Her love for Simón had vanished, just like the bloodstains on the floor she had cleaned so carefully.