Chapter 10 - The Transaction of Love
The absolute magnitude of their deception crashed over me like a tidal wave.
I looked at Alejandro, remembering the day we officially met. The intense, magnetic way he had looked at me. His endless patience as he courted me. The way he insisted, against the protests of high society, that he wanted to marry me. I had thought it was a fairy tale. I had thought it was a miracle.
Now, the entire foundation of our life together was painted in the sickly colors of a corporate transaction.
"Did our marriage serve a purpose?" I asked, my voice deadly calm.
Alejandro’s head snapped up. "At the very beginning... yes."
The words pierced straight through my chest, a fatal wound.
Valeria, who had been listening in stunned silence, suddenly let out a cruel, mocking laugh. "Oh, how incredibly romantic. He married you out of pity and corporate liability."
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Alejandro turned on her with the ferocity of a wild animal. "But you have no idea how this story ends, Valeria."
He turned back to me, ignoring the hundreds of people watching our marriage implode. "Clara, please listen to me. I accepted the arrangement initially because my father demanded it. Because I owed you my life, even though you didn't know it. Because your mother died so I could breathe. But then... then I actually met you."
