Chapter 1
A violent storm pounded the highway outside Toluca, as if it wanted to tear the asphalt apart.
Beyond the city lay nothing but dark trees, empty lots, and flashes of lightning that illuminated the road for only a few seconds at a time.
Suddenly, a young woman burst from a dirt path and ran toward the highway.
Her name was Valeria Cruz.
She was 22 years old, wearing a thin dress torn at the hem. She was barefoot, her legs covered in mud up to her knees, and a fresh bruise darkened her cheek.
She wasn't running toward safety.
She was running because Estela—the woman her father had married before he died—was chasing her.
Ever since his death, Estela had insisted on calling herself Valeria's mother while turning the young woman's life into a living nightmare.
"Valeria!" a voice screamed through the rain. "Come back here right now!"
Valeria glanced over her shoulder.
A flash of lightning revealed Estela's silhouette striding down the muddy path, a leather belt wrapped tightly around one hand.
Valeria felt her chest tighten with panic.
Then...
Two bright headlights appeared.
A long, elegant black sedan sped toward her.
Valeria ran into the middle of the road, raised both hands, and shouted with the last bit of strength she had left.
The driver slammed on the brakes.
The tires skidded across the rain-soaked pavement, stopping less than two meters from where she stood.
Inside the car sat Ignacio Alcázar, the owner of one of Mexico's most powerful technology companies.
He was returning from the cemetery, where every year he left wildflowers on the grave of his younger sister, Amelia.
Ignacio looked through the window at Valeria.
Rainwater mixed with the blood trickling from a small cut on her forehead.
"Please, sir," she begged. "You didn't see me. If that woman asks... you never saw me."
Ignacio lowered the window slightly.
"Who's chasing you?"
"My stepmother. She'll say I'm crazy... that I stole from her... that I'm dangerous. She always convinces people to believe her. Please don't call the police. She knows people. They'll just send me back to her."
The chauffeur turned toward Ignacio.
"What should we do, sir?"
Ignacio didn't answer immediately.
In Valeria's terrified eyes...
He saw the exact same fear he had seen years earlier in Amelia, when his little sister begged him not to leave her with some "respectable relatives."
He had promised her he would come back soon.
He came back...
Too late.
"Open the door," he ordered quietly.
Valeria climbed into the car without waiting for another invitation.
She curled up beside the seat, trembling uncontrollably and whispering over and over that she didn't want to go back.
A few seconds later...
Estela stepped into the glow of the headlights.
"That girl is a thief!" she shouted. "She's my daughter, and she's mentally ill! Hand her over!"
Ignacio stared at her from inside the vehicle.
Estela raised the belt and slammed it against the hood of the car in fury.
"Valeria! Get out of that car, or it'll be even worse for you!"
Valeria let out a frightened whimper and covered her head with both arms.
Something old and deeply buried broke inside Ignacio.
"Drive."
The sedan pulled away, leaving Estela standing alone in the middle of the storm.
But just before she disappeared from view...
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Ignacio noticed a silver pendant hanging around her neck.
It was identical to the one worn by the man who had destroyed Amelia's childhood.
