The rain fell softly on the streets of Mexico City that night, while the neon lights reflected on the wet pavement. I, Valeria, 26 years old, stood under the awning of a small café, watching people pass by with a heavy heart.
That night I made a mistake.
A mistake I never imagined would happen in my life: spending the night with the man I both admired and feared… the president of the Imperial Group, Alejandro Castellanos.
He was a powerful, cold, and mysterious man. But that night, his gaze seemed capable of burning away all the boundaries I had built.
I don’t remember exactly why I let things go so far. Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe the loneliness I felt inside. Or perhaps the way he looked at me, as if in that moment I was his whole world.
All I know is that the next morning I woke up in his luxurious apartment, with my clothes scattered on the floor and my heart filled with regret.
I left before he woke up, without giving an explanation, without daring to look back.
Two months later, I discovered I was pregnant.
A mixture of happiness and panic gripped me. I knew the baby was his, but I didn’t have the courage to face him. Alejandro Castellanos wasn’t a man a woman like me could aspire to.
I was just an ordinary employee within his company, a grain of sand lost in the immense desert of the Castellanos empire.
That’s why I chose to run away.
I quit my job without giving reasons or explanations and bought a plane ticket to Japan.
There I started again, raising the baby I carried in my womb alone. I named him Mateo.
Five years passed.
Life in Japan wasn’t easy, but I did everything I could to make it work. Mateo grew up healthy, intelligent, with bright eyes and a smile just like his father’s.
Every time I looked at my son, I remembered Alejandro, even though I tried to bury the past deep in my heart.
I worked in a small company, lived in a simple apartment, and little by little I learned to love myself more.
But deep down she knew she couldn’t keep running away forever.
Making the decision to return to Mexico wasn’t easy. Partly because my mother became seriously ill, and partly because I wanted Mateo to know the land where his mother was born.
When the plane landed at Mexico City International Airport, I immediately felt that warm, familiar air.
Mateo held my hand tightly, observing everything around him with his big, excited eyes.
And then… I saw it.
