CHAPTER 24
“In our darkest moments, we discover the strength we never knew we had…”
MARIA GAbrIELA
“Tell me what happened, girl, you’re driving me crazy!”
I was at Carol’s place, straight from work.
I let out a deep sigh, trying to organize my thoughts before I spoke. Carol sat beside me on the couch, wide-eyed with worry, a cup of tea in her hand that she gently offered me.
“It went exactly the way I expected,” I finally said, my voice faint. I stared down at my hands, still trembling the way they had when I faced Diego in that office. “He didn’t believe me.”
Carol’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t say anything right away, waiting for me to continue—which was exactly what I needed.
It was hard to put the pain, the frustration, into words.
“He laughed, Carol.” My voice cracked as the memory replayed in my head. “He laughed in my face when I told him the baby was his.”
Carol shook her head, her lips pressed into a thin, angry line.
“What a bastard,” she muttered, her eyes blazing with the anger I wished I could feel—but I was too drained, too numb.
“I knew it would be like this,” I admitted, feeling tears well up again, though I refused to let them fall. “I knew that if something like this ever happened, he’d react exactly this way. But that doesn’t make it hurt any less, you know?”
“Of course it hurts, Gabi. He may be complicated, but that doesn’t mean you have to carry this weight alone.”
I took a deep breath, trying to take in her words, but the truth was, I still felt completely lost. I had the baby now, and that changed everything.
I needed to be strong—for me and for him.
“I’ll be okay,” I said with a weak but honest smile. “It’ll take time, but I’ll be okay. With you, and with the baby… I’ll find my way.”
Carol smiled, that warm, reassuring smile that always made me believe everything would somehow be alright, even when the world felt like it was falling apart.
“And how exactly are you planning to do that?” she asked with a lighter tone, trying to lift the tension in the room.
I let out a short laugh—for the first time that day—feeling the weight on my chest ease just a little.
“Well,” I began, resting a hand on my still-flat stomach, “I’m going to do the only thing I can do right now.”
Carol raised an eyebrow.
“Drink until you pass out?”
“No,” I said, breaking into genuine laughter for the first time in hours. “I’m going to adopt a dog.”
She blinked a few times before bursting into laughter.
“A dog?!”
“Yeah. It’s something I’ve always wanted, but I kept putting it off—too much work, too many responsibilities, never enough time. But now… I’m doing it. I’m getting a dog to keep me company.”
She was still laughing, but her expression softened.
“That’s actually a great idea, Gabi,” she said, wiping away a tear of laughter from the corner of her eye. “You deserve a four-legged friend. And the baby’s going to love having one around, too.”
Warmth spread through my chest. For the first time in days, I felt a spark of excitement.
“It’ll be good company,” I said softly. “And maybe… a fresh start. A new chapter that doesn’t include Diego, his cruel laughter, or his doubts about me. Just me, the baby, and my new furry friend.”
For the first time that day, I felt something that had been missing—hope.
Earlier, I couldn’t think of anything but Diego’s rejection and the pain it caused, but now, something inside me had shifted.
Carol watched me quietly for a few moments, and I knew she was reading my thoughts. She always knew what to say—but sometimes, she didn’t need to say anything at all. The silence between us wasn’t uncomfortable; it was comforting.
Finally, she spoke.
“Gabi, you know it’s going to be hard. But if anyone can handle this, it’s you. That dog’s going to have the best mom in the world. And so will the baby.”
“Thanks, Carol,” I said, truly grateful to have her in my life.
The next day, I wasn’t as sad as I thought I’d be.
In fact, I woke up with a small spark of determination burning in my chest. I had a plan—or at least an idea of what to do with my life from here on out—and that gave me a sense of control I hadn’t felt in days.
At work, everything seemed to flow as usual. Until my boss showed up.
He walked into my office without knocking, the way he always did, but this time there was something different about him.
Diego seemed harder, colder. He dropped a stack of documents on my desk without even looking at me. His tone was clipped, direct, as if I were just another cog in the company.
“I need this for tomorrow,” he said, his voice low but firm. “And organize these reports for Friday’s meeting. I want everything ready before the week’s over.”
I glanced at the papers on my desk and realized immediately the deadline was impossible. But when I lifted my eyes to protest, I saw he was already halfway out the door.
“Diego, that’s a lot to have ready by tomorrow,” I tried, appealing to reason. “I can’t get all this done alone in that time.”
He stopped, turned slowly, and finally his eyes met mine. There was a coldness there that sent a chill down my spine.
This wasn’t the teasing Diego I knew, the one who liked to poke at me now and then. This was the relentless CEO who crushed anything in his way.
“You’ll manage,” he said, with a forced, almost ironic smile. “Because you’re Maria Gabriela—the efficient one. The secretary who never makes mistakes. Or am I wrong?”
I swallowed hard but refused to back down.
“That’s not what I’m saying, Diego, I’m just—”
He raised a hand, cutting me off with an impatient gesture. His brows drew together in a tight line, his jaw flexing as if he were fighting to keep his composure.
“I don’t want excuses,” he said quietly, but his tone was sharp. “You’re going to do what I asked. And you’re going to do it well. Period.”
And with that, he walked out of my office without looking back.
The silence he left behind was deafening. I stood there for a few seconds, trying to process what had just happened. It wasn’t just the workload weighing me down—it was the way he’d treated me.
Diego had been cold, insensitive, distant. I’d expected that, but I wasn’t prepared for how deeply it would hit me.
I stared at the stack of papers in front of me, feeling crushed under an emotional weight I hadn’t anticipated. He wasn’t the same Diego who had hired me—the man who, for all his flaws, could be funny, even oddly tender.
Now he was just the ruthless boss, the CEO who saw me as a piece of the machine. Nothing more.
My fingers tightened around the papers before I let go, trying to steady myself. But when the door closed behind him, it felt like the weight of the entire world landed on my shoulders. My breathing grew heavier, my eyes burning with the threat of tears.
The pain was real.
His rejection, his indifference—it all piled on at once. Now he was treating me like a robot, someone without feelings, without limits.
I turned to the computer screen, trying to focus on work, but all I could think about was how much Diego had changed—how he now seemed like someone I barely knew.
After a few minutes, I finally let out a long sigh and leaned back in my chair, closing my eyes for a moment.
“You’ve got this, Maria Gabriela,” I murmured to myself, trying to summon what little strength I had left.
I had to get the work done, no matter how I felt.
Life went on.
But inside me, a small piece kept breaking—a part he’d helped shatter with his indifference.
It was painful to realize that the man I’d fallen for, the man who held a piece of my soul, wasn’t willing to believe me.
And worse, he wasn’t willing to see me as anything but a tool.