She barely looked at me.
Her eyes went straight to my stomach.
Then she sighed.
“How shameful, Laura.”
My eyes burned.
“I didn’t cheat on your son.”
She gave me a small, pitying smile.
“They all say that.”
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I stepped aside.
“Take whatever belongs to him.”
She walked through the house as though I wasn’t there.
By the end of the week, the story had spread throughout the neighborhood.
Everyone had an opinion.
The cheating wife.
The shameless woman.
The woman who became pregnant only two months after her husband’s vasectomy.
People stopped talking when I walked past.
Some stared at my stomach.
Others whispered behind my back.
I stopped going to the little grocery store around the corner because I couldn’t bear the looks.
Then Diego made everything worse.
He posted a photograph on social media.
He was sitting in an expensive restaurant in Polanco.
Paola was beside him, holding his arm.
Her smile was subtle.
His caption read:
“Sometimes life removes a lie to give you peace.”
I stared at the screen for several minutes.
Then I locked my phone.
I walked into the bathroom.
Closed the door.
And slid down onto the floor.
I cried until my chest hurt.
Not because I wanted Diego back.
Because I couldn’t understand how the man I’d loved for eight years could destroy my reputation so easily.
And because I was terrified.
I had no idea what would happen to me.
Or my baby.
Two weeks later, Diego contacted me.
He wanted to meet.
We agreed to meet at a café.
When I arrived, he was already there.
With Paola.
She was sitting beside him.
On the table was a thick folder.
My stomach tightened.