Chapter 1

​The sound of her heels echoed like a verdict in the marble hallway of Blackwood Tower. Valeria Montenegro tightly clutched the folder she held against her chest, as if that paper could hold her broken heart together.

​Three years.

​Three years of a contract marriage, of silently loving the coldest and most powerful man in the city, and today, it was all ending.

​She pushed open the mahogany doors of the executive office without knocking. Inside, Alexander Blackwood stood in front of the enormous floor-to-ceiling window, hands in the pockets of his black Armani suit. His imposing silhouette contrasted with the city that stretched out at his feet like a conquered kingdom.

​And by his side, as always, was Sophia Villarreal. The model with endless legs and a venomous smile, her perfectly manicured hand resting on his arm.

​"Well, well..." Sophia let out a low laugh. "Look who deigned to show up."

​Alexander turned slowly. His gray eyes, cold as steel, scanned her without any emotion. Not even a flicker of recognition. To him, Valeria was already history.

​"I signed the papers," Valeria said, hating how her voice trembled. She took the documents out of the folder and placed them on the glass desk. "I just need your signature and I will disappear from your life, just as you wish."

​Alexander walked toward her with that dangerous elegance that had always intimidated her. He stopped just a step away, so tall that Valeria had to tilt her head up to look at him.

​"So eager to free yourself, Valeria?" His voice was low, mocking. "I thought you would keep playing the devoted wife a little longer."

​Valeria felt something break inside her. She remembered the nights he would seek her out in bed, possessive and burning, only to ignore her completely by dawn. She remembered the public humiliations, the hurtful words in front of his employees, the times he told her she was just an "opportunistic woman" who had been lucky enough to marry him by contract.

​"I never pretended to love you, Alexander," she whispered, her eyes full of tears she refused to let fall. "I was the stupid one who believed that someday you would see me as something more than a mistake."

​Sophia let out a crystalline laugh.

​"How pathetic. Did you really believe a man like Alexander could fall in love with a mediocre secretary?"

Alexander took the gold pen that lay on the desk. Without looking at her, without hesitating for a single second, he signed the divorce papers with a firm and decisive stroke.

"Done," he said, pushing the documents toward her. "You are nothing to me anymore. Get out of my company and out of my life, Valeria. And don't you dare come back asking for money."

Valeria gathered the papers with trembling hands. Her wedding ring, the one she had never taken off, burned on her finger. She took it off slowly and dropped it onto the desk with a metallic clink that seemed to echo throughout the entire office.

"May you be very happy with your choice, Alexander Blackwood."

She turned around and walked toward the door with what little dignity she had left. Before leaving, she heard his voice one last time, cold and cutting:

"Don't ever cross my path again. To me, you are already dead."

The door closed behind her.

In the elevator, alone, Valeria finally let the tears fall. She instinctively hugged her belly, not yet knowing that, at that precise moment, three little hearts were beating inside her.

Alexander Blackwood's triplets.