Chapter 35
The silence in my office at the construction company’s headquarters was deafening, broken only by the distant murmur of the television tuned to the news.
The images of Júlia and Lurdes’s arrest played on a loop.
Maria Rita’s name had been cleared. Justice had been served, but the emptiness inside me was a dark, insurmountable abyss.
The shrill ring of my cell phone cut through the air. The screen displayed Henrique’s number, which made my gut scream even before I answered.
“Eduardo Vasconcelos,” I said, my voice hoarse.
“Eduardo,” the voice on the other end sounded breathless, drowned out by a cacophony of hospital noises and hurried voices. “Maria Rita’s water broke.”
The world stopped spinning.
“What?” The air was sucked out of my lungs. “It’s too soon. She’s still weeks away!”
“Today’s emotional shock triggered labor. We’re at Santa Joana Maternity Hospital. Eduardo, she asked me to call you.”
I didn’t wait to hear anything else. The cell phone slipped from my hand for a second before I grabbed it and ran.
I was no longer the powerful, arrogant, and ruthless businessman, heir to a real estate empire accustomed to controlling everything around him.
I was just a terrified man, racing against time so as not to lose the only things that mattered in my miserable life.
I raced through the company’s hallways like a madman, ignoring secretaries and executives.
I threw myself into the car and slammed my foot on the gas pedal.
The drive through the streets of S?o Paulo was a blur of headlights, honking horns, and red lights I ignored.
With every passing second, panic dug its claws deeper into my throat.
The terror of losing them was suffocating me.
I had all the money in the world, but none of those billions could buy a single minute of breathing room for my daughter or the woman I loved.
I slammed on the brakes at the emergency room entrance, left the key in the ignition for the valet, and stormed into the hospital lobby.
“Maria Rita Vasconcelos!” I shouted at the receptionist, my hands shaking violently on the counter. “Where is she?!”
Before the woman could answer, Henrique appeared at the end of the hallway, wearing a wrinkled shirt, his face etched with tension. I ran toward him.
“Henrique! Where is she? What’s going on?” I grabbed his arms, my eyes pleading for any glimmer of hope.
“She’s in the delivery room, Eduardo. The doctors are assessing fetal distress due to prematurity,” Henrique replied, his voice deep, maintaining the composure I lacked. “She’s in a lot of pain. But she was the one who asked me to call you.”
I looked at the heavy double doors from which Henrique had emerged. My primal instinct told me to break down those doors, to storm into the room, and demand the best surgeons in the country. But my feet wouldn’t move.
The memory of my own catastrophic mistake paralyzed me.
I had kicked her out of the mansion during a storm, without money, documents, or a cell phone.
I had no right to invade her space now. I had promised to respect Maria Rita’s boundaries.
I swore I wouldn’t be the controlling monster I’d been in the past.
I let go of Henrique’s arms and took a step back.
“I’m not going in,” I murmured, my voice unsteady and barely audible. I looked at the closed door, my heart aching. “I can’t scare her, nor will I intrude on her moment. I’ll stay out here.”
The weight of all the pain, the guilt, the fear that my daughter wouldn’t survive and that Maria Rita wouldn’t make it through childbirth came crashing down on me all at once. My legs, which had withstood billion-dollar meetings and my mother’s funeral, simply gave way.
I fell to my knees on the cold, sterile floor of the hospital hallway.
I hid my face in my hands and let the convulsive, heart-wrenching, humiliating sobs take me over completely. There was no pride left. The invincible heir no longer existed. I was a broken man, begging the universe, God, or whatever force might be listening to me.
“Please…” I sobbed, my forehead pressed against the icy floor, praying with utter desperation.
“Take me. Make me pay the price, but save them both. Let them live. Even if she never looks at my face again, even if I can never hold my daughter in my arms… just let them live. I accept the punishment. I accept never having them back. Just don’t take them from this world. ”
Henrique remained there, standing a few steps away.
Through my tears, I could tell he was watching me.
The criminal defense attorney, who had relentlessly challenged me to protect Maria Rita, looked on at my suffering with an attentive and silent expression.
But there was no longer any judgment in his gaze.
What Henrique saw there was not the performance of a man accustomed to using his power to evade consequences.
He was witnessing the complete annihilation of my ego and the agony of a man who had finally understood that true redemption is born in the moment you accept losing everything so that the person you love may live.