All Chapters of He Stole My Love, Heart and My Future—But I’m Taking It Back: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

The morning of the hospital opening, I stood in front of my bedroom mirror. I kept fixing my dress over and over. At four months pregnant, my belly was finally showing. It was a gentle curve that made me feel strong and scared at the same time."You look beautiful," Alejandro said from the doorway. He was already wearing his dark suit."I look nervous.""That too." He walked up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. "But mostly beautiful. And strong. And ready."In the mirror, I could see both of us. He was tall and steady behind me, and I had my growing belly and hands that wouldn't stop shaking since I woke up."What if I mess up my speech?""Then you'll figure it out as you go. Like you always do.""What if the reporters ask about Carlos? About the trial"?"Then you'll tell them the truth. Today isn't about the past. It's about the future."I turned around in his arms. "What if I cry?""Then you cry." He kissed my forehead. "Emily, this hospital exists because you refused to g

The man who said he was Carlos's half-brother looked nothing like him.Javier Reyes sat across from Sofia and me in the meeting room at her law office. His expensive suit fit perfectly, his smile looked practiced and cold. Where Carlos had been tall and wide, Javier was thin and wiry. Where Carlos had dark eyes, Javier's were pale green. The only thing they shared was their cockiness."I know this must be shocking," he said, his voice smooth as silk. "Carlos hardly ever talked about family. Our father had... messy relationships.""Messy how?" Sofia asked, her pen ready over her legal pad."Different mothers. Different countries. He grew up in Mexico with his mother after our father's first marriage ended badly." Javier spread a folder of papers across the table. The afternoon light coming through the office windows made the documents look official and threatening. "These are his birth records, DNA test results proving we're related, and the will naming me as the person who gets his ov

The bright camera lights hurt my eyes like lightning. Each flash made my head hurt worse. The reporters had found our house early in the morning—twenty people with mean looks and nasty questions. They waited outside our gate like hungry birds looking for food.The morning air was cold and sharp. Frost covered the windows, but inside, everything felt hot and scary."Emily! Did you cheat on your husband?""How long have you been with Alejandro?""Are you using your baby to trick him?"I pressed my face against the kitchen window. I watched them ruin the quiet morning that Mateo and I always loved. He sat at the table behind me. His cereal got mushy while he stared at the mess outside."Mom, why are they here?""Just some mixed-up people, baby. Eat your breakfast."But my hands shook as I poured coffee I couldn't drink. Being pregnant already made me feel sick. Now I felt scared too.Alejandro came to the door. His hair was messy from sleeping. His face looked angry and dark like storm c

That night, we searched through my house like police looking for clues. The air felt heavy and strange, like someone had been watching us for weeks. Alejandro found the first listening device under the kitchen table. It was tiny, no bigger than a coin. Sofia found the second one in my office, stuck under my desk drawer."How long have they been listening to us?" I asked. The small devices sat in Sofia's hand like evil little spies."Maybe weeks. Maybe months." She dropped them into a glass of water. They made a fizzing sound and died. "They heard everything we talked about in this house."I sat down on the couch. I felt sick and angry. Someone had been listening to my private life. "Our plans, our secrets, our personal talks—""That's how they always knew what we were going to do," Alejandro said. His voice was dark and upset. "They weren't just lucky. They were cheating."I sat there feeling angry instead of scared. They wanted to play dirty games? Fine. I could play dirty too."Sofi

The rain hit my car window like bullets as I drove toward the ocean. I didn't care that the road was wet and dangerous. I didn't care that my hands were shaking as I held the steering wheel. All I wanted was to get away from my house, away from the phones that kept ringing, away from all the legal papers that made my head hurt.Mentally incompetent. Those words kept playing in my head like a curse.I stopped my car at the same cliff where I had crashed months ago. The dark ocean spread out below me, angry under the storm clouds. The waves crashed against the rocks hard, just like the anger burning in my chest.I got out of the car and walked to the edge. The wind blew my hair across my face, and the rain soaked through my jacket in seconds. But I didn't move. I just stood there, looking down at the place where I almost died.Where maybe I should have died."What's the point?" I yelled at the ocean. The storm swallowed my voice. "What's the point of fighting when they just keep coming