2. Family Betrayal

~Esperanza's POV~

I didn’t know how long I was unconscious, but it was long enough for the people I called my whole world to disappear.

My body was aching and my head was throbbing from the fall.

The stitches burned. But they were nothing compared to the hollow ache inside my chest.

As the memories flood back, something deep moved inside me.

The innocent, trusting woman who had been willing to die for her child was gone, replaced by someone harder, colder.

I knew I was breathing but stillness in my body told me otherwise.

I wanted to let my heart cry out but the tears won't come. The pain was too deep that even crying felt like it wasn't worth it.

Everyone I loved and trusted betrayed me.

Carlos, Juliana, and...

Another horrifying realisation for which I wasn't prepared. My own family.

The way I was still left alone and no one came to check up on me, I realised everyone in my family knew I was being used as nothing more than a surrogate, a tool to be discarded once her purpose was served.

I have no idea how long I stayed there, but I spent hours in a numb state, hoping someone from my family would come looking for me, and at least I would have someone to call mine, but once again, disappointment hit me like a storm.

Nobody cared if I lived or died. Everybody got what they wanted.

Finally, with a pale body that shook with my every movement, I got dressed and left the hospital without speaking to anyone.

The nurses, doctors, or even the security outside the hospital didn't dare to check up on me.

My heart dropped. Again.

What crime did I commit to deserve this?

I carefully called the taxi and during the ride to what I had once called home, I stared out the window feeling like a ghost watching the living world pass by.

I knew what the truth was, but deep inside my heart, I longed to hear that my family wasn't a part of this cruel plan. That they didn't know I was in the hospital.

My heart once again picked up its pace as I closed the distance to the entrance of my house.

But I didn't know I was leading myself to another heartbreak.

The sound of celebration pours from within; laughter, music, and clinking glasses felt like a taunt rather than joy. As if my suffering is a cause for joy.

My legs felt heavy, as if rocks were tied to my legs. My slow steps made their way inside only to find the living room full of people.

As soon as I entered, the laughter, chirping voices, and lively conversations were replaced by utter silence.

In the sudden silence, I asked with eerie calm, "What are we celebrating?"

My stepsister, Evangelina, approached with false concern, "Oh, Esperanza, you should be resting-"

"Did you all know?" I cut her off. "About Carlos and Juliana? About the baby not being mine?"

The drop-dead silence welcomed me, confirming all that I'd already doubted.

My father stepped forward, "Esperanza, you need to calm down-"

"CALM DOWN?" The words exploded from me as the suppressed rage finally surfaced. "I haven't even started yet!"

The numbness was all gone, replaced by fury I couldn't take out earlier.

My hand found the nearest floral vase placed on a beautiful white table and soon it was lying on the ground in pieces that weren't easy to count.

Glasses, picture frames, anything within reach, they all became victims of my rage.

"You all knew! You knew they were using me!"

As my rage continued to surface on every other thing coming to my vision, my father shouted, "Enough! Your mother is dead, and she left everything to you instead of the family that actually cared for this business. We did what we had to do."

'We did what we had to'

These words replayed in my mind over and over again.

They did what they had to...

Even if that meant selling me to a man who never cared about me... Who just wanted to use me as a tool to acquire more money...

I felt like I was being punched straight in the gut. The truth robbed me of my breath and threw me into a state of shock.

"You are my father..."

I stared at the man standing in front of me.

"How could you do this to your own daughter!"

He was the one who brought me to life and once swore to protect me more than anything in this world.

But still, he chose to prioritise the business and his fancy life before me.

How come the love and bond I shared with him fell apart? Or was it for the show only?

"You... you arranged this... You gave me to Carlos knowing what he would do to me," Trembling whisperes came out of my mouth.

"You... You helped him rip my heart and leave me wounded for my whole life... You helped him... Steal my baby!"

I threw another vase across the room, "You always knew how much enthusiasm I carried for motherhood. You know how badly I wanted a family of my own! How could you ruin my life!"

I expected to see some guilt, some remorse on his face but there was none.

"The Mendoza family needed your inheritance to expand their business. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. You were always too naive to understand business," he plainly answered. "And you don't have to worry about this, you can always marry someone else and make as many babies as you want."

I stared at him with wide eyes.

Once, a man I considered my pillar turned out to be the root of my betrayal.

Now, I was seeing them clearly for the first time. None of them denies it. None shows regret.

The tears kept falling, but I refused to wipe them. They didn’t deserve to see me beg.

The strange change I felt earlier had settled in my heart, making me shut off all the feelings and my heart felt like a cold stone.

With a newfound voice that sounded cracked and dangerously quiet, I spoke my last words to the people I once considered family.

"Then we're done. All of us. You are no longer my family, and I have nothing more to do with any of you."

The place I once considered mine, the halls that screamed of security, turned alien after one incident.

My walk was steady. Too firm, too measured to be considered a human walk.

I couldn't feel the bare movements in my body. No unconscious swing of my arms, no rise in my chest as if I wasn't breathing.

I reached my room, but I had no memory in my head that could tell me if I had ever been loved.

It only reminded me of the betrayal I had been living with for months. Or maybe… Years.

I grabbed my ivory duffel bag, gifted by my mother, and stuffed it with a few essentials that I would need to survive.

Money, shoes, clothes, and a few picture frames that reminded me of my mother. After all, she was the only one who loved me unconditionally.

"I wish you hadn't left. Or... Maybe told me that except for yours, everyone's love will come with a price that I have to pay."

My eyes were stuck on the face of the woman who told me what love was, unable to understand why my father couldn't love me the way my mother did.

Without glancing at anything else, I walked straight out of my room, directly to the entrance of the house which was my exit from hell for once and all.

"Mark my words, Esperanza, if you leave, you'll never be allowed back in this house and you will not get a single penny from me."

My father or I should say, Don Ricardo threatened me, but I didn't look back.

"As if this house and money ever belonged to you in the first place," I bitterly chuckled and left.

Standing on the street with nowhere to go, I realised I had to find work and a place to stay.

But how long will I survive with small savings and no family support?

I have to start completely from scratch.

A life where I was only Esperanza, not someone's wife or daughter.

I didn't dare to look back. But I hope they realise it before its late.

They thought I was leaving with nothing. They forgot something.

I was still my mother’s daughter. And I never lose what belongs to me.