Chapter 15 - The Lowest Point
The tracker changed everything again.
Daniel claimed he had put it inside the rabbit for Camila’s safety.
His attorney called it poor judgment.
Lucía called it evidence of deliberate monitoring.
I called it terrifying.
The court expanded the protective conditions.
Daniel could not approach my hotel, my mother’s home, Camila’s preschool, or my workplace without authorization.
Carmen was furious.
Valeria disappeared from social media.
Ernesto stopped returning calls.
For the first time, their family was cracking from the inside.
Yet I was not winning.
I was exhausted.
Camila had begun crying whenever I put on work clothes.
She asked if I would come back.
She hid bread under her pillow.
One morning, I found three pieces wrapped in napkins.
“Why are these here?”
She looked embarrassed.
“For later.”
My throat closed.
“There will always be food.”
She did not answer.
She was three.
Promises from adults had already failed her.
I took temporary leave from work.
That decision cost me a major campaign.
A client I had spent two years building was reassigned.
When my manager called, he was kind.
That almost made it worse.
“We’ll protect your position as much as we can.”
As much as we can.
For the first time, I understood how carefully Daniel’s strategy had targeted the most vulnerable contradiction in my life.
If I worked, they called me absent.
If I stopped working, the career supporting everyone began to disappear.
One night, after Camila fell asleep, I sat on the bathroom floor and cried until my head hurt.
Not because I wanted Daniel back.
Not because I missed Carmen.
Because I hated that protecting my daughter still required proving I deserved to be her mother.
Lucía found me the next morning looking terrible.
“You need rest.”
“I need this finished.”
“It won’t finish quickly.”
That was not what I wanted to hear.
Then she placed a folder in front of me.
“We received the forensic report from Carmen’s phone backup.”
I looked up.
“There’s more?”
“Yes.”
One audio file.
Recorded accidentally.
The date was three months before the seafood dinner.
Carmen and Daniel were talking in my kitchen.
Carmen said:
“If Mariana ever finds out, she’ll take Camila and stop paying.”
Daniel answered:
“Then make sure she doesn’t find out.”
I closed my eyes.
There was no longer any question.
Daniel had known.
Not every detail.
Not every punishment.
But enough.
May you like
He knew I was being deceived.
And he chose the money.
