CHAPTER 1 — THE NIGHT MY OWN PARENTS TRIED TO ERASE ME
"Let's see if Emiliano still wants you when he can't even look at your face."
Those were the last words Renata Vargas heard before the world exploded.
The brick came from her father's hand with terrifying force.
It struck the left side of her face so violently that she heard the sickening crack before she felt the pain.
Then came the warmth.
Blood poured down her cheek, dripping onto the lavender dress she had spent two months saving money to buy.
She collapsed before she could even scream.
Only Emiliano Cruz's arms kept her head from smashing into the concrete steps.
"Renata! Stay with me! Please... open your eyes!"
His voice sounded distant, as if it were underwater.
Her right eye barely remained open.
Her left saw only darkness.
She tried to touch her face, but her fingers came away soaked in blood.
Standing only a few feet away, her father, Octavio Vargas, calmly dropped the broken brick onto the grass.
He looked more annoyed than guilty.
"We warned you," he said coldly.
"You chose him over your family."
Renata stared at him in disbelief.
This couldn't be real.
No father would do this.
Not even the cruelest one.
Yet this wasn't the first time Octavio had sacrificed one daughter to satisfy the other.
It had simply become the most violent.
Only thirty minutes earlier...
Renata had walked toward her childhood home carrying a small white gift box.
Inside was a silver photo frame.
One side held a childhood picture of her with her parents.
The other side was empty.
She planned to place a wedding photo there after marrying Emiliano that October.
She had imagined tears.
Hugs.
Perhaps even forgiveness after years of distance.
Instead...
The front gate wasn't even fully open before Patricia, her mother, folded her arms.
"So..."
"You really came."
Renata forced a smile.
"I wanted to tell everyone the wedding date in person."
Patricia didn't smile back.
Behind her stood Julieta.
Twenty-six years old.
Perfect makeup.
Designer heels.
A crimson dress that looked more suitable for a red-carpet event than a family dinner.
She looked Renata up and down before laughing softly.
"You actually think you're still the bride?"
Emiliano squeezed Renata's hand.
"We're only here because she still loves her family."
Julieta smiled at him.
Not kindly.
Hungrily.
"You deserve better."
Emiliano ignored her completely.
That only made Julieta's smile disappear.
The obsession had started eight months earlier.
Emiliano had sold his industrial construction company for nearly seventy million dollars.
Overnight, magazines called him one of Guanajuato's fastest-rising entrepreneurs.
Investors wanted meetings.
Television stations wanted interviews.
Everyone suddenly wanted to know him.
Including Julieta.
She started appearing everywhere.
At his gym.
At charity events.
Outside his office.
Even inside restaurants where she somehow "accidentally" received the table beside his.
She wore expensive perfume.
Designer dresses.
Bright smiles.
Each encounter became more aggressive.
She invited him for drinks.
He refused.
She offered to introduce wealthy investors.
He declined.
She even sent flowers pretending they were anonymous.
He donated them to a hospital.
Finally...
She walked into his office wearing an engagement ring.
"I'm saving you the trouble," she whispered.
"We'll announce we're together."
Emiliano stood up.
"I would rather stay single forever than betray Renata."
Security escorted Julieta outside.
Instead of feeling humiliated...
She became dangerous.
That same week, Octavio called Renata.
"You've embarrassed your sister enough."
Renata couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Dad..."
"She's trying to steal my fiancé."
Octavio slammed his fist against the table.
"No."
"You're stealing HER future."
Renata froze.
"What?"
"Julieta has more ambition."
"More elegance."
"She understands wealthy people."
"You've always been selfish."
Those words reopened wounds much older than Emiliano.
When they were children...
Every birthday belonged to Julieta.
If relatives brought two dolls...
Julieta chose first.
If only one bicycle arrived...
Renata walked.
When Renata earned the highest grades in school...
Her parents forced her to decline a scholarship because Julieta "would feel inferior."
When Renata won a university exchange program...
Patricia secretly declined it without telling her.
"Your sister needs you here."
Even Renata's first car disappeared.
Octavio handed the keys to Julieta.
"You're older."
"You'll survive."
Every sacrifice carried the same excuse.
"Family comes first."
But somehow...
Family always meant Julieta.
Emiliano knew all of it.
He had watched Renata cry over memories she could never erase.
One rainy night he promised her something.
"I don't care what they think."
"I choose you."
"I'll keep choosing you."
Every day.
For the rest of my life."
She believed him.
That was exactly why Julieta decided beauty had to disappear.
Back in the present...
Octavio stepped closer.
"You still don't understand."
"Once your face heals..."
"You'll thank me."
Patricia nodded calmly.
"Men only stay loyal while women stay beautiful."
Renata felt physically sick.
Her own mother had just justified destroying her daughter's face.
Julieta folded her arms.
"I already told you."
"He'll leave eventually."
"I'll be waiting."
Emiliano suddenly stood between them.
"I have loved Renata since before I had money."
"I loved her when I drove a fifteen-year-old pickup truck."
"I loved her when my company almost went bankrupt."
"And I'll love her whether she has scars or not."
Julieta's expression hardened.
"No."
"You love what she looks like."
"You just don't know it yet."
Octavio exploded.
He lunged toward Emiliano.
The two men slammed into ceramic flower pots that shattered across the patio.
Patricia didn't scream.
She didn't intervene.
She simply watched.
Almost... disappointed.
As if the fight wasn't going according to plan.
Then everything changed.
An electrical maintenance truck stopped abruptly outside the house.
A utility technician jumped out after seeing blood flowing down the front steps.
"My God..."
"What happened here?"
Octavio marched toward him.
"This is private."
"Leave."
Instead...
The technician lifted a heavy steel wrench.
His voice became ice cold.
"Take one more step."
"And I'll tell the police you attacked me too."
For the first time that evening...
Octavio hesitated.
The man immediately dialed 911.
Within minutes...
Police cars.
Ambulances.
Neighbors.
Everyone filled the quiet street.
As paramedics cleaned Renata's face, one of them whispered to another.
"Possible orbital fracture."
"Prepare trauma surgery."
Emiliano climbed into the ambulance beside her.
Holding her trembling hand.
"I'm not leaving."
"I promise."
She tried to smile.
Instead...
She tasted blood.
As the ambulance doors began closing...
Something caught her attention.
A movement upstairs.
Across the street.
Behind an old lace curtain.
An elderly man stood perfectly still.
Perhaps eighty years old.
Thin.
Gray hair.
A polished wooden cane.
He wasn't frightened.
He wasn't confused.
He looked...
Prepared.
Slowly...
He raised an old leather folder thick with yellowed papers.
Then he pointed directly at Octavio Vargas.
Not accusingly.
Confidently.
As if silently saying...
"Your time is finally over."
Hidden inside that weathered folder were twenty-seven years of handwritten letters...
Secret cassette recordings...
Bank documents...
Forgotten birth certificates...
And an untouched $11 million inheritance tied to one impossible condition.
The moment Octavio attacked his own daughter...
He unknowingly destroyed the only future he had spent his entire life trying to protect.
But the most terrifying truth...
Was that the old man had not come to save Renata.
May you like
He had come to make sure her father lost everything.
And before sunrise, the first page of that secret would send one member of the Vargas family running straight to the police—carrying evidence that would change all of their lives forever...
