Chapter 19
The first week at Aline and Henrique’s house was a protective cocoon, but also a constant reminder that the war outside was raging fiercely.
Henrique spent hours in his office at the end of the hall, analyzing reports leaked to the press, putting together timelines, and laying the groundwork for when the right moment came to bring my case to court.
I was safe, hidden away, but all the terror I had endured began to take its toll on my body.
At first, I thought it was just the weight of the trauma—the physical and mental exhaustion of having been evicted, of sleeping on the street, and of spending days in the shelter in constant fear.
But the symptoms changed.
The deep, paralyzing fatigue was now accompanied by dizziness that made the floor of my room spin whenever I stood up too quickly.
Then came the nausea. On those first few mornings, I’d wake up with a queasy stomach and rush to the bathroom, blaming it on the change in my diet or accumulated stress.
However, on Thursday morning, when the smell of fresh coffee that Henrique was brewing in the kitchen wafted into the hallway, my stomach didn’t just churn—it churned violently.
I ran to the bathroom, locked the door behind me, and fell to my knees in front of the toilet, vomiting up the little water I’d drunk.
I rested my forehead against the cold tile, breathing deeply, my eyes welling up and my body trembling.
Two soft knocks sounded on the door.
“Maria Rita?” Aline’s voice was gentle, full of concern. “Are you okay? Do you want me to come in?”
I unlocked the door with weak hands and sat back down on the cold floor. Aline came in, holding a clean towel. She dampened the corner with water from the sink and gently wiped the back of my neck, brushing my sweaty hair away from my face.
“This is the third time this week alone, Maria,” she observed, her dark eyes studying my pale face.
“It’s the stress, Aline,” I murmured, resting my head against the wall. “My body is expelling everything. The fear, the adrenaline…”
Aline didn’t answer right away. She sat down on the floor beside me, crossing her legs. Her gaze—experienced and maternal—drifted down to my stomach before returning to my eyes.
“Maria… when was your last period?”
The question hit me like an electric shock. The world around me fell suddenly silent.
I tried to calculate it in my head. With the wedding preparations, the anxiety of moving into the mansion, the arguments with Dona Eleonora… the days had blurred together. The calendar had lost all meaning.
My mouth went dry as panic froze the blood in my veins.
“I… I don’t know,” I stammered, my hands instinctively going to my own belly. “It’s late. But it’s normal for it to be late when you’re nervous, isn’t it? Women stop menstruating under extreme stress—I’ve read about that!”
“It’s normal,” Aline agreed, her voice very calm, as she stroked my shoulder. “But we can’t take any chances. I’ll run to the pharmacy on the corner. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
She didn’t give me time to argue. She stood up, left the bathroom, and I heard the front door slam shut right after.
I stayed there, sitting on the floor, feeling as if I couldn’t breathe.
A child…
The possibility swirled in my mind, blending the dream I’d cherished with the nightmare I was living.
A child of Eduardo’s. An heir to the Vasconcelos empire.
A baby carrying the blood of the woman who died at my feet, of the man who threw me out into the rain, of the family that wanted to see me rot in a prison cell.
Ten minutes later, Aline was back. She handed me a small rectangular box and smiled encouragingly.
“I’ll wait outside. Take the test. Try to calm down.”
I was alone again. My hands were shaking so much that I could barely tear open the cardboard box. I followed the instructions on the package insert with my heart pounding in my throat, drowning out my thoughts. When I placed the small plastic stick over the sink, I closed my eyes.
The minutes that followed were the longest of my life. The silence in the bathroom was absolute, broken only by my irregular breathing.
Slowly, I opened my eyes and leaned over the sink…
Two pink lines, clear and unmistakable, appeared on the test strip.
The air was knocked out of my lungs. My legs gave way, and I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the floor again; the test slipped from my fingers and hit the floor with a hollow click.
Pregnant…
I was pregnant with Eduardo’s child. At the very moment he was trying to drive me crazy.
Aline opened the door when she heard the noise. She looked at me, then at the test on the floor. No words were needed. She knelt down beside me and opened her arms.
I broke down. The sobs that tore at my throat weren’t just from despair; they were from a primal terror. I buried my face in her shoulder, clutching her wool sweater with both hands, sobbing until I couldn’t breathe.
“How am I going to do this, Aline?” I murmured through my tears, my voice breaking with desperation.
“How am I going to protect a child? They own everything! If they find out I’m carrying a Vasconcelos, they’ll take this baby away from me and throw me in jail forever!
They’ll grow up thinking their mother is a murderer! ”
“Shh… calm down, Maria. Calm down.” Aline stroked my hair in slow, steady motions. “No one’s going to take this baby away from you.”
“You don’t understand how much power they have!” I looked up, my eyes brimming with panic. “Eduardo can buy whatever he wants. He’ll use the police, judges, lawyers… I have nothing to offer my own child except a life on the run!”
Aline cupped my face with both hands, forcing me to look directly into her eyes. The steadiness and strength that radiated from that woman silenced me.
“Maria Rita, listen carefully to what I’m about to tell you,” she said, her voice laden with a calm and unshakable authority.
“The power of money is great, yes. But it isn’t absolute.
When I got pregnant with Kelly, I was alone, terrified, and had a family that didn’t support me.
My father was powerful, too. He also thought he could crush me like a bug. ”
She wiped a tear running down my cheek with her thumb.
“I thought it was the end and considered giving up on everything. Then, the Senhora das Cartas network embraced me.” Aline’s eyes shone with fierce gratitude.
“Don’t think this mailbox is just a friendly shoulder to lean on.
Maria, we are a legion—women who have bled at the hands of men like Eduardo and who have sworn that none of us would ever fall alone again. ”
Her words seeped into my despair, calming the trembling in my body.
“Henrique isn’t working alone on your case,” Aline revealed, flashing a small but determined smile.
“We have people digging into Lurdes’s background, we have independent experts analyzing the leaked photos from the report, and we have safe houses in three different states in case you need to go into hiding. ”
I looked at her, in shock. The scale of it all was something I couldn’t even begin to fathom. I, who had always seen myself alone fighting giants, suddenly realized there was an invisible army marching by my side.
“They messed with the wrong woman, Maria. And now they’ve messed with the child of the wrong woman,” Aline concluded, squeezing my hands. “You’re no longer prey. Now you’re going to become a mother, and we’re going to fight tooth and nail for this baby, together. You’ll never be alone again.”
Aline pulled me into another hug. And, leaning against her, the terror that had been consuming me shifted.
I looked down at the pregnancy test on the bathroom floor.
That little piece of plastic contained the life I’d conceived with the man I loved, before hatred corrupted everything.
Eduardo might have tried to destroy my life, but, ironically, he’d given me the greatest reason of all to keep breathing.
I touched my still-flat belly, feeling an unprecedented warmth fill my chest. A strength I didn’t know I possessed awoke deep within me.
Fear still lingered, but a fierce, primal, and invincible instinct took the lead.
I would fight. For the women who had reached out to me, for my own honor, and, above all, for the innocent life growing inside me.
The Vasconcelos empire was about to discover that a mother’s love is far more relentless than all the money in S?o Paulo.