“I don’t want a son of a wh:o:re like you,” Eduardo cut short, shoving a wad of bills into her hands. He had no idea that fate had already prepared a cruel revenge for him…

The air outside was cold, damp, permeated with the smell of approaching rain, but inside the luxury limousine, a different atmosphere reigned: a suffocating mix of the accumulated heat of the leather seats and the thick, almost suffocating scent of Eduardo’s perfume. Elisa sat next to him, clutching her purse to her chest, a growing unease in her heart, like a premonition of disaster.

The journey passed in oppressive silence, and when the car stopped at a deserted dock, shrouded in shadows, Eduardo finally turned to her. There was no trace of tenderness in his gaze: only a cold, almost animal-like smile.

“Well, Elisa, we’re here,” he said in a calm voice, devoid of the slightest emotion. “Our relationship is over.” Consider it over.

Elisa fell silent. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The night before, he’d still been planning a weekend together. He’d promised to take her on a yacht and introduced her as the woman by his side. How could everything change overnight?

“Eduardo… what are you saying? Are you joking?” Her voice trembled like a string in the wind.

His smile widened, but his eyes shone with nothing but contempt.

“Joking? Do you really think I’m naive? Did you think I wouldn’t realize why you got pregnant? Did you think you’d force me to marry you? Naive, Elisa. So naive.”

Her world crumbled in an instant. It didn’t just stagger, it shattered. Her breath caught in her throat. The accusation was monstrous and unjust, but the words stuck in her throat.

“No… it’s not true…” she whispered, tears running down her cheeks, blurring the distant lights. “It’s a gift… a gift from God, Eduardo! How can you think like that?”

“Don’t talk to me about God,” he interrupted her abruptly. “You can manage with God. I’ve already made it clear to you: I don’t need this.”

He leaned back in his seat, looking at her with disgust, as if she were something dirty and useless.

“Did you really think that I, Eduardo Montoro, would marry you? A girl from the provinces, with no connections, no position? I don’t want a child from someone like you. Do you understand?”

Eduardo stared out the window, completely ignoring Elisa’s tears, as if the woman beside him didn’t exist. Outside, the waves crashed against the stone pier and the leaden clouds descended ever lower, like a heavy curtain ready to fall on the scene. Elisa wiped her tears with the back of her hand, and for the first time, her eyes weren’t just filled with pain: they shone with a new light, a serene determination.

“You know, Eduardo,” she said slowly, her tone surprisingly calm, “you always tell me that I’m nobody. But that very ‘nobody’ is going to change your life.”

Eduardo turned his head toward her, surprised by the anger in her voice.

“What do you mean?”

Elisa placed her hands on her stomach, feeling the life inside her give her strength.

“This child is not just mine. And whether you accept it or not, fate will hold you accountable.”

You humiliated me, you mocked me, but the day will come when you understand that true strength isn’t in money or surnames.

Eduardo let out a dry laugh.

“Fate? Pure fantasies. I make my own way. Nothing affects me.”

At that same moment, his phone vibrated insistently. He picked it up nervously and answered. It took only a few seconds for the smile to freeze on his lips.

“What do you mean, the agreement’s off?!” he shouted hoarsely. “That’s impossible!”

But the voice on the other end of the line left no room for doubt: the Montoro family company had just lost the most important contract in recent years, investors were withdrawing their money, and Eduardo’s reputation was crumbling like a sandcastle on the beach in Valencia.

Elisa watched him silently. Panic appeared in her eyes for the first time. The man who for years had treated her like a shadow had now become a shadow himself.

“No… it can’t be true…” he murmured, livid.

“You see? Fate always knows when to strike,” Elisa replied in a low voice. “It wasn’t me who destroyed you, Eduardo. Your greed, your arrogance… that’s what brought you here.”

She opened the car door and stepped out onto the windswept pier. The cold air stirred her dress, but her steps were firm.

For the first time in a long time, she felt the weight lift from her shoulders.

Eduardo remained in the car, clutching the wad of bills that no longer meant anything.

In a world crumbling around him, that money was nothing more than worthless paper.

Elisa, her hand on her stomach, looked up at the gray Barcelona sky. She knew trouble awaited her, but she also knew she was no longer alone.

That son gave him a strength that Eduardo would never understand.

And deep in his heart, he understood that his true life was beginning right at that moment.