I felt blood buzzing in my ears.
When I faced him,
he didn’t even bother to deny anything.
He sat on the edge of the bed,
she looked at me as if I were the uncomfortable one
and said:
—With her I feel at peace.
He doesn’t complain to me,
she doesn’t live bitter
and yes, he is going to give me the child I want.
I froze.
But the worst came later.
Ophelia,
that he had heard everything from the hallway,
he entered the bedroom
as if the conversation also belonged to him.
—Stop acting offended
—told me—.
The other girl is pregnant
and it needs care.
If you were smart,
you would accept that I came to live here.
This is how the two of them take care of the house
and it’s cheaper.
I don’t remember feeling so ashamed
in my entire life.
That same morning,
while Ximena slept with her mouth half open
and a closed fist on the blanket,
I made the most painful decision
and more worthy of my life:
ask for a divorce.
The day of the hearing,
Rodrigo signed without even looking at his daughter.
Ofelia waited until the end to get closer,
look me up and down
and spit that sentence on me in front of the court:
—Starting today,
whatever happens with your life
and that girl’s
it’s no longer our business.
I left there with a diaper bag,
a two year old girl
and the broken heart.
Without your own house,
without a peso of pension
and without anyone to extend their hand to me.
The only thing I had was my daughter.
