THE EMPIRE OF LIES

Valentina opened her eyes with difficulty. The hospital’s white ceiling seemed to be collapsing on top of her. Panic came quickly, an electric shock racing down her spine. She sat up abruptly, ignoring the sharp pain in her side.

“Luz?!” Her voice came out as a broken thread. “My angel! Where is my daughter?”

The nurse in the room, checking that everything was under control, tried to hold her by the shoulders so she wouldn’t pull the IV out of her arm.

“Please, calm down, ma’am. You can’t get up like that,” the woman said softly, trying to convey a calm Valentina couldn’t feel.

“I want my baby! Tell me where Luz is!” Valentina shouted, and tears began to blur her vision. Images bombarded her mind in flashes: the coffin, the confrontation, and then darkness. “I have to get out of here!”

“Ma’am, listen to me carefully.” The nurse gently took her face in her hands. “You fell down the stairs at home. You have several bruises, but nothing serious. You need to stay under observation as a precaution. Your body needs rest.”

Valentina went cold. A fall? Was that what Héctor had said? Panic turned into a searing rage that burned in her gut.

“It wasn’t a fall...” Valentina whispered, trembling. “My husband, Héctor... he pushed me. He tried to kill me.”

“The painkillers are confusing you,” the nurse replied, ignoring her words. “Please don’t worry anymore. I’ll go get your husband so he can stay with you. He’s very worried outside.”

“No!” Valentina grabbed her wrist with desperate strength. “Please, whatever you do, don’t call him. Don’t let him come near me. He did it. He tried to murder me!”

The nurse frowned, clearly uncomfortable. She thought the head injury was causing the patient to hallucinate. Without another word, she freed herself from Valentina’s grasp and left the room. Seconds later, the door opened again, but it wasn’t Héctor. It was Clarisa. Her mother entered with elegant steps and closed the door behind her with a sharp click that sounded like a sentence being passed.

“Mom...” Valentina sobbed, searching for a refuge she had never had. “Héctor tried to kill me. He threw me down the stairs. I saw him; he wanted to...”

“Shut your mouth, Valentina.” Clarisa’s voice cut through the air like a blade. “Not another word about that nonsense.”

Valentina fell silent. The tears that had once poured from her in a torrent of anguish now rolled down heavily, laden with an exhaustion that bent her soul. Before her, Clarisa was no mother; she was an icy judge savoring a sentence. There was no trace of humanity in her eyes, only a coldness determined to shatter what little remained of Valentina.

“Why do you hate me so much?” Valentina whispered, and the question hung in the air of the white room. “Just tell me that. What did I do to make you look at me as if I were trash?”

Clarisa took a step toward the bed. There was not a hint of pity in her. She leaned over her daughter, invading her personal space with the expensive perfume Valentina had always associated with abandonment.

“You disgust me, Valentina,” Clarisa said with a calm that cut like a scalpel. “Your birth was the worst mistake of my life. You ruined my plans, my body, and my freedom. You are a constant reminder of a failure I never asked for. Having you was a sentence, and every day you spend breathing in this house is a burden I don’t want to carry.”

Valentina felt her chest burn.

“Then why did you have me?” she asked in a thread of a voice. “If I disgust you so much, why didn’t you let me go?”

Clarisa opened her mouth to strike another blow, but the sound of the door bursting open stopped her. Federico entered first, his face arranged into a mask of false anguish, followed by Héctor and, finally, Leónidas. In the blink of an eye, the monstrous Clarisa disappeared. She straightened up, put a hand to her chest, and pretended to be comforting her daughter.

“My God, darling!” Federico exclaimed, approaching with feigned concern. “We were desperate to find out how you were.”

Héctor stood on the other side of the bed, watching Valentina with a predator’s eyes. He tried to take her hand, but she pulled it away as if his touch burned her skin.

“Easy, Valentina,” Héctor said in a honeyed voice. “The worst is over. We’re here to take care of you.”

“Liar! You’re a...” she tried to shout, but the words caught in her throat.

That was when Leónidas pushed his way through. His mere presence changed the entire atmosphere in the room. He wasn’t pretending. His pain was quiet and real. He firmly moved Federico and Héctor aside without asking permission and sat on the edge of the bed. Ignoring everyone else’s stares, he wrapped Valentina in a protective embrace.

“Forgive me, my little one,” Leónidas whispered in her ear, and Valentina felt she could finally breathe. “Forgive me for not being at Luz’s funeral. The weather in Spain was complete chaos, the flights were canceled, and I couldn’t get here sooner. I’m so sorry I let you down when you needed me most.”

At the sound of Luz’s name, Valentina completely fell apart. She clung to Leonidas’s shirt, burying her face in his shoulder. Her sobs burst out, a heartbreaking sound that filled the room. Suddenly, anger overwhelmed her grief, and she began pounding Leonidas’s chest with her weak fists, releasing all the frustration of those lonely days.

“You left me alone!” she sobbed between blows. “Why did you leave? You left me with them, and they’re killing me! I can’t take it anymore, Leónidas!”

Leónidas didn’t move. He patiently took every blow, keeping her close to his heart. Since they had married, he was the only one who had treated her with a tenderness she no longer believed possible. The only one who wanted nothing from her, but simply wanted to give her a little peace.

“My life has been hell,” Valentina said, pulling back to look him in the eyes, her face soaked with tears. “The only thing keeping me alive was Luz. She was my only refuge. But now that she’s gone, I have nothing left to lose. I don’t care about anything anymore!”

Seeing the intensity in Valentina’s eyes, Héctor felt a chill. He knew she was about to speak, to reveal the truth about the abuse and threats. He stepped forward to intervene, but Leónidas rose to his feet, standing between them like a wall of steel.

“Get out,” Leónidas ordered. His voice wasn’t a shout; it was a command that allowed no argument.

“But Leónidas,” Federico tried to say, “her mother and I want to...”

“I said get out,” Leónidas repeated, fixing his gaze first on Federico and then on Héctor. “All of you. I need to be alone with her. Right now.”

No one dared utter a word. Leonidas’s authority was absolute, and although rage consumed them, their fear was greater. One by one, Clarisa, Federico, and Héctor left the room with their heads bowed, like scolded dogs.

Once the door closed, the atmosphere in the hallway turned toxic. Clarisa paced back and forth; fists clenched. Héctor leaned against the wall, his jaw tight, while Federico wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“If that girl opens her mouth, we’re dead,” Clarisa whispered, her voice trembling with panic. “Leónidas will destroy us if he finds out what we’ve done.”

“Shut up,” Héctor snapped, glancing at the closed door. “All we can do is hope the fear we’ve instilled in her is stronger than her pain. If Valentina talks, our world will collapse today.”

Anxiety gnawed at them from within. They knew they had pushed things too far and that Valentina, who had always kept quiet, was no longer afraid of breaking. Their entire empire, built on lies and contempt, was just one scream away from collapsing completely.