Chapter 1
Sofia...
“Sofia, I can’t believe you’re still insisting on this nonsense about going to that conference?” Jo?o Luís, my fiancé, snapped, his voice rising in irritation.
“What’s wrong with me going?” I asked, incredulous. “I graduated last year from the best journalism school in the country. It’s my profession.”
“You graduated because you wanted to. You don’t need to work,” he argued. “At thirty, I’m already a successful businessman. I run the family business. I have more than enough money for us to live comfortably. We’re getting married soon, and you won’t need to work.”
“Is it so hard for you to understand that I didn’t go to college just for the sake of it?” I asked, exasperated. “I want to work in the profession I chose, and I will. I don’t want to spend my entire life depending on a husband.”
“We’ll see about that.” He fixed me with a defiant stare.
“I’m sure your father will agree with me, and we’ll discuss this after the wedding.
” He smiled cynically. “If you want to keep playing journalist so badly, you can go to that conference. But I’m warning you now that everything is over between us, and I’m not going with you since I have an important business trip the same week.
So go alone and don’t count on me for anything else.
” He smirked as he walked to my front door.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go.
I have an important meeting at the office shortly.
” He left, slamming the door, ending our engagement without giving me a chance to respond.
It was always like this. Jo?o Luís, my fiancé—or ex, I don’t know—never supported me or showed any interest in my dream of becoming a renowned journalist. Quite the opposite, actually.
He criticized it and said it was a waste of time.
But I wasn’t going to give up. I’d keep fighting.
If he didn’t want to come with me, I’d find a way to go alone.
Our families had been friends for a long time, and I’d known Jo?o since childhood.
He was seven years older than me. You know that childhood crush on your best friend’s older brother?
Well, that’s what happened to me. He didn’t pay much attention to me and thought I was a brat.
But time passed, and I blossomed into a beautiful woman who managed to catch Prince Charming’s attention.
We started dating when I was eighteen and he was twenty-five.
Our engagement happened about a year ago, after I finished college.
At the beginning of our relationship, he was completely different—a loving, incredibly affectionate man.
We made plans for the future, including my career.
But after his father suffered a stroke that left him with serious lasting effects, Jo?o had to take over the family business alone since he was the oldest son, and he started to change.
He became arrogant, impatient, snobbish, and even sexist. Unfortunately, he stopped supporting my dreams. Or maybe he’d always been like this, and I, being so in love, just hadn’t realized it yet. It’s hard to know which is true.
You must be wondering why I didn’t end our relationship and let the engagement happen.
Simple: he was my first and only boyfriend.
I feel like I still care about him, although sometimes I catch myself wondering if I’m just comfortable by his side.
And finally, because I prefer to believe that his change was due to the weight of increased responsibilities in the family business, and that after this adjustment period, he’ll go back to the way he was before.
The worst part was that time kept passing and he stayed the same.
Was I trying to justify him and, in doing so, deceiving myself?