For a moment, I could not breathe.
The crowd began whispering at once. Businessmen, politicians, relatives, trusted employees—everyone turned toward me as if I had committed a crime.
“That’s a lie,” I managed to say, but my voice broke.
Doña Teresa gave a low laugh.
“My son died, but he was not a fool. We already knew what you were. An opportunist. A nobody trying to trap him with another man’s child.”
Fernanda stepped closer. Before I could move, she grabbed my left hand. Her nails pressed into my skin.
“And this doesn’t belong to you either.”
She yanked my wedding ring so hard that it scraped my finger. The ring dropped into her palm like a prize.
“Look at you,” Fernanda said, showing it to everyone. “A widow, poor, and pregnant with a bastard child.”
My legs trembled. I felt my son move inside me, as if even he could hear their cruelty.
