My mother-in-law, Ofelia, came to see me in the hospital with a bouquet of white flowers and a face that didn’t match the occasion. He looked at the baby for just a few seconds and let go, shamelessly:
—What a pity… Rodrigo needed a child.
I thought that was a cruel and isolated comment. I made a mistake. Since that day, nothing he did seemed to him was enough. If I was cooking, I would say I couldn’t season “like a real woman”. If I cleaned, I found dust even in the air. If I carried my child too much, she said I was going to spoil her. If I left her in the crib, it was because I didn’t have instincts.
Rodrigo, instead of defending me, started walking away. He was late, he replied to messages with a smile that never dedicated to me and, when I asked him what was going on, he replied with practiced fatigue:
—Don’t be dramatic, Mariana. I’m working.
Lie fell alone one night, when she left her cell phone in the living room while bathing. I didn’t go looking for anything. The message appeared on the screen as a slap.
“My love, your son doesn’t stop moving. I think she looks like you.”
Felt the blood buzzing in my ears.
When I confronted him, he didn’t even bother to deny anything. He sat on the edge of the bed, looked at me as if I were the uncomfortable one and said:
—With her I feel at peace. He doesn’t claim me, he doesn’t live bitter and he’s going to give me the son I want.
I stayed frozen. But the worst came after.
Ofelia, who had heard everything from the hallway, walked into the bedroom as if the conversation belonged to her too.
—Stop being offended — he told me—. The other girl is pregnant and needs grooming. If you were smart, would you accept me to come and live here. This way between the two they take care of the house and it comes out cheaper.
I don’t remember being so ashamed in my entire life.
That same morning, while Ximena slept with her mouth wide open and a fist closed on the blanket, I made the most painful and most worthy decision of my life: to ask for a divorce.
On the day of the hearing, Rodrigo signed without even looking at his daughter. Ofelia waited until the end to come closer, look me upside down and spit that sentence in front of the courtroom:
—From today on, whatever happens to your life and that girl’s life is no longer our business.
Walked out of there with a diaper, a two year old and a broken heart. No own house, no pension burden and no one to lend me a hand.
All I had was my daughter.
And I still didn’t know that the same family that despised us would come back ten years later to beg me on my knees something I never imagined…
(A desperate knock on the door changes everything! Click “Next Page” to continue reading…)
