CATALINAAfter giving serious thought to what Gabriella said, I decided to do something different a week after.Carlos and I had just wrapped up an important meeting when I asked him to stick around for a more private discussion.Since our last conversation, Carlos had behaved as if nothing had happened, it was like it had been wiped from his memory.Even now, as he stood waiting to hear why I wanted to speak with him, his face remained unreadable, the same composed look he always wore when expecting instructions from me.“So uhm..,” I started. “Gabriella talked some sense into me and I realized that truly I've been so hard on Alejandro. I don't treat him like a normal kid and it might affect him later in life when he grows up.”Carlos blinked. “Okay…”I cleared my throat. “I was thinking of taking him to a park or a playground, any one of those. And I wanted to ask if you'd like to come with us, Alejandro likes you a lot and I'm sure he'll be happy if you're there too.”Carlos was qu
MIGUELDarkness.Endless, suffocating darkness.For what felt like an eternity, I floated in nothing. No sound, no pain… just a ghost of a voice whispering through the void. Catalina. Her name clung to the corners of my mind like a lifeline. I held on. Always.Then…Light.A flash. Blinding. My eyes twitched beneath heavy lids. My chest ached like someone had set it on fire, and when I tried to breathe, it felt like knives were lodged in my ribs.I groaned.The sound surprised me. Was that… me?Then I heard movement. A chair scraping the floor, footsteps rushing closer."Doctor! He moved! I think he’s waking up!"I forced my eyes open, blinking against the dim, flickering light. I wasn't in a hospital, I noticed....though the place looked like one.The machines beeped erratically beside me. IVs, wires, pain. My mouth was dry as a desert.I tried to speak, but it came out as a whisper.“Catalina…”A face leaned over me…a woman. Her face looked familiar but my brain couldn't fully rec
CATALINA My son was asleep in my arms, his little arms wrapped around me.“Alejandro?” Gabriella called out.“Shh…he's asleep.”Gabriella tiptoed quietly into the room. “I thought he would be awake by now, I wanted to play with him,” her lips pouted. “But as expected, Alejandro doesn't leave his mother's side.”I smiled proudly. “I did give birth to him.”As I flipped the pages of the file I was going through, Gabriella gave me a serious judging look. “You're working and taking care of your son at the same time?”I shrugged. “I have no choice, I have to be a leader and a mother.”She carefully carried Alejandro Jnr. from my arms. “So tell me, what's the reason you're starving my godson of the full attention he deserves?”I chuckled. “I give my son all my attention, and these are just a few work files I have to sort.”She sighed. “It's either that, or you're obsessing over Pablo.”“I don't obsess over Pablo.”She laid Alejandro on the bed and sat beside him. “It's been two years now
CATALINAI became the ghost queen.Running things from the background with my new ‘Face.’ A guy I employed after a deep background search and loyalty tests carried out to avoid what happened with Andrés repeating itself.He became my eyes and ears in the outside world, while I called the shots from the inside.People said I was still mourning my dead husband, but the truth was that I was hiding my pregnancy from everyone.If people knew Miguel had a child, I feared Pablo or other enemies might come out to eliminate me and the Alejandro bloodline.As for the Viperas, they didn't have any problems accepting me as their new leader. They were skeptical at first when they heard of Miguel's death, but apparently, they liked the way I dealt with Andrés. They said I proved that I could be a ruthless leader like Miguel if the need be.I made sure the rumors about what I did to Pablo and Olivia spread in the underworld like wildfire. No one should think they could come for us because Miguel was
CATALINAGabriella stopped me as I tried to open the door.“You can't just barge in!”“Of course I can, that's exactly why we planned this operation. He may not be with Pablo now but I'll learn something if I go in there.”“It's dangerous.”“It will be dangerous for them, not me. They killed my husband, they should be scared…of me.”I grabbed a gun. “Are you coming?”“Yes.”I went in with Gabriella and three men while the rest surrounded the house. One of the men broke the door and we rushed in and my eyes saw what I never imagined it would see.Andrés and Olivia, kissing. They got startled when they saw us and immediately disentangled from each other.Andrés laughed. “I should have known it was too good to be true when you left me with a knife and the door open.”“You should have known, I thought you were smart.”I weighed Olivia from head to toe. If I was being honest with myself, she was beautiful and pretty hot. “We finally meet, Olivia.”She held her stance with confidence. “I c
CATALINAThe air in the basement was cold and damp, heavy with the scent of sweat, iron, and fear. A rusted table stood in the center of the room, littered with tools like pliers, knives, and other cruel instruments arranged carefully. A lot had happened in the space of a few hours.Andrés sat sprawled to the ground, tied up and bleeding. He hadn't even been there for a full 24 hours but I made sure he got tortured to the bones, and even then, he refused to say a word…not a single word.His eyes, filled with hate, stared at me as I walked in. He didn't regard me, I could tell. And I knew he wouldn't tell me a thing, but still…“Hello Andrés,” I greeted, squatting down to meet his eyes.Silence hung in the air.“It's already noon,” I said quietly. “Right now, I should be off somewhere, enjoying my honeymoon with Miguel. He never told me the destination, he said it was a surprise. But I know Miguel would have taken me somewhere nice, somewhere I'd like. It's impossible now, isn't it? B