Chapter 3

Valeria woke up with an aching body on the hard bed of that hellish cheap hotel. She definitely felt as if a truck had run her over. Then she touched her still-flat belly and remembered last night's pregnancy test. A life was growing inside her. Alexander's life.

She got up with difficulty and opened her phone. Notifications bombarded her. Hundreds of hate messages, memes, and articles. The photo of her crying in the rain on the street was a trending topic. "The discarded opportunist," "Valeria Montenegro, the social climber who tried to snare a Blackwood."

"My God..." she whispered, feeling nauseous.

She needed money. The little she had would only last for two weeks in that place. She showered with lukewarm water, put on the least wrinkled clothes she had, and went out into the street. First, she tried a coffee shop near the hotel.

"Good morning, I'm looking for a job as a waitress or anything," she said with a soft voice, handing over her resume.

The owner, a middle-aged woman, looked at her face and then at the name. Her expression changed completely.

"Valeria Montenegro? The same one who was all over the news? The one Alexander Blackwood kicked out onto the street like a whore. No, thank you. I don't want scandals here."

The door closed in her face. Valeria felt the blow to her chest, but kept going.

At a clothing boutique, she tried for a salesgirl position. The manager recognized her instantly.

"Miss, with the scandal hanging over you, no one will want you helping our customers. What would they say if they found out Blackwood's opportunistic ex-wife works here? Leave."

Rejection after rejection. At a telemarketing company, at a restaurant, even at a small supermarket. Everywhere, the same look of contempt.

"Please... I just need to work. I'm not what they say," she begged, her voice cracking.

"Everyone saw the news," replied one of the interviewers, a bald, sweaty man. "Alexander Blackwood doesn't humiliate just anyone. If he threw you out like that, it was for a reason. We don't hire opportunists."

At noon, exhausted and with swollen feet, she walked into a small temp agency. The woman behind the desk looked at her with pity at first, but after googling her name, she let out a sigh.

"Child, with this scandal, it's impossible. Blackwood Group is the biggest employer in the city. No one wants to make an enemy of him by hiring you. They say you are blacklisted. Sophia Villarreal has personally taken charge of calling several companies."

Valeria felt like a dagger had been plunged into her heart. Sophia. The same one who had thrown her clothes on the floor and laughed while Alexander dragged her out of the apartment.

She left the agency and sat on a bench in a nearby park. Tears fell uncontrollably. She hugged her belly, instinctively protecting her baby.

"What am I going to do with you?" she whispered. "Your father destroyed me. Now everyone sees me as trash. I have no money, no job... I only have shame."

She remembered the nights when Alexander possessed her with fury. How he kissed her violently while whispering in her ear that she was just a convenient body. How the next day he would ignore her or humiliate her in front of his friends. And now, when she needed it most, he had turned her into a social pariah.

Her phone rang. It was an unknown number. She answered with hope.

"Valeria Montenegro?" a female voice said. "I'm from El Clarín newspaper. Would you accept an exclusive interview? We pay well. Tell us what it was like to be Alexander Blackwood's trophy wife and how you feel after being publicly humiliated."

Valeria hung up with trembling hands. Even the media wanted to profit from her pain.

She walked aimlessly until the sky grew dark. She went into a pharmacy to buy crackers for her nausea and prenatal vitamins. The cashier looked at her with recognition but said nothing. When paying, Valeria noticed she only had two hundred dollars left.

She returned to the hotel with her soul shattered to pieces. She looked at herself in the broken bathroom mirror and barely recognized herself. She had puffy eyes, pale lips, and lifeless hair.

"Nobody wants me," she murmured. "Not even out of charity. Alexander... what did you do to me?"

She lay in bed and cried until she ran out of tears. The baby inside her was the only thing that gave her the strength not to give up. Tomorrow she would keep looking. She would go to neighborhoods further away, change her appearance, lie about her name if necessary.

But deep down she knew that Alexander Blackwood had been very clear and very effective: he had destroyed her. He had turned her into a woman no one wanted around.

And even so, in the midst of the deepest pain, a small flame of rage began to ignite in her chest.

She wasn't going to stay like this forever.