They knock on the door of the neglected mansion, which in its best days was an icon in majestic Versailles. Adelaida, with tired steps, heads to the door to find two police officers.

"Mrs. Adelaida DuPont?" one of them says in a low voice.

"Yes, what's wrong, officer?" Adelaida puts her hand to her chest fearing the worst.

"We need you to come with us to forensic medicine. We found a body in a car accident on the road between Paris and Versailles, and in their belongings we found these documents with your name and address." One of the officers hands her some papers.

Adelaida receives them with a trembling hand and the first thing she reads when opening the envelope is: "Divorce decree between citizens Francois Pinault and Adelaida DuPont." Her eyes fill with tears, incredulous.

"Yes, apparently it's my ex-husband," she replies ironically.

"In that case, it is necessary for you to go and identify the body at the forensic medicine headquarters." An agent hands her a document with the address to which she must go, "or if you prefer, we can take you in the patrol car."

"Don't bother, officer, I'll go on my own," she says, thinking of buying time to process the information and see how to notify her family.

She closes the door and immediately leans her back against it. She tries to remember when she signed the divorce petition, until she remembers that a week ago her now deceased ex-husband had come, after a month of absence from the mansion, and made her sign a document arguing that it was to authorize a new treatment for her son Francis, who doesn't even bear his last name.

Yes, that is the reality, a reality that Adelaida wanted to ignore, but now she must face it, forced by the sudden death of her son's father.

She enters the office and looks among Francois's few documents for a paper with his lawyer's phone number. After a while, she finds it and calls from the landline in the office. After two rings, the lawyer answers hurriedly.

"Did you deliver the annulment of the marriage to Mrs. DuPont? What did she say?"

"Yes, I have it in my hand, but your client didn't give it to me, the police did, because, apparently, Francois died in a car accident while coming to bring it to me."

"Oh, Mrs. Adelaida, I'm so sorry."

"But I'm not. Lawyer, I was calling you because we have to go and identify the body, since since I am divorced, I have nothing to do with him. And it is necessary to notify his family."

"Of course, madam, I will."

Upon ending the call, Adelaida goes to the mansion's housekeeper, Dona Josefina, and tells her that she has to go out to run an errand, entrusting her with the care of her son.

Upon arriving at the forensic medicine department, the lawyer is already waiting for her and together, in silence, without even greeting each other, they enter where the corpse of her, until a week ago, husband lies.

There, on a cold and somber metal slab, is the one who promised her heaven and after isolating her from the world and locking her in a golden cage, simply forgot that she existed. Cold as always, and with his face disfigured by the blow he suffered in the accident. They show her the birthmarks and a tattoo he has on his right hand, which he got when he graduated from the Sorbonne University, the most elitist in all of France.

"Yes, it's him," is all she answers, as she is not even able to show any feeling upon seeing the man for whom she once gave her life, ironically lifeless.

She fills out the legal documents as if she were the widow, without being the widow, and leaves that place with the certainty that for the first time in many years she knows where her husband is going to be.

The lawyer stays with the documents to initiate the funeral arrangements and the reading of the will a few days later.

She walks through the streets of a solitary Versailles, arriving in front of its famous palace and there, before its majesty, she feels lost. What will become of her life now that Francois has died? It was clear that the renowned Pinault family never accepted her, much less will they now that he is gone and even divorced without her knowing it.

Her son is the only thing she has in her life and it is for him that she endures the abandonment and oblivion to which her husband subjected her. For although it hurts her to admit it, her illness did not allow her to break away from her child and look for other ways to earn a living without waiting for the crumbs that her own husband and father of her son gave her.

Now all that remains is to wait for time to indicate what fate holds for her and her little Francis.

She has no idea in what position Francois left her, but what she does know is that she will never stop fighting for her son and finding a cure for his illness.

She continues her way to the mansion that is her prison and there she prepares to go to her ex-husband's funeral. She is not going to give that nefarious family the reason that she is nobody in Francois's life, because whether they like it or not, she was legally his wife and is the mother of his only son. A son he set aside for being born sick, and did not even authorize giving him his last name. Being hospitalized since he was born, he argued that if the press found out that he was his son, they would tear him apart for being famous and he did not want his wife and son to suffer harassment for his media shows and what it entailed.

How considerate of him! Adelaida understood a long time ago why he didn't give him his last name, but nothing can be done now.

Upon learning through her ex-husband's lawyer where the funeral will take place, she dresses in her best black suit. Elegantly and with her alabaster beauty, she walks with firm step towards the funeral home where he is being mourned. Until an irritating scream breaks the sepulchral silence in the room.

"What is this slut doing at my son's funeral?"

"What is this bitch doing at my son's funeral?"

Adelaida recognized that voice that she had heard few and unpleasant times. She looked haughtily towards the person who said it: her dear ex-mother-in-law, but her gaze remained fixed on the tearful woman next to her. She was surprised to notice that she looked a lot like her ten years ago when she met Francois, and she also noticed her large pregnant belly.

But even so, she disguised her astonishment and continued towards the coffin.

"Stop right there, Adelaida DuPont, you have no business here. Go away with your bastard away from our family, respect Francois's real wife in her pain" - There she found out that this woman is the real widow.

"Parents-in-law, who is she?" asks the woman, staring at her.

"A social climber and fortune hunter who wanted to ensnare our son. But I'm going to have her kicked out, she has no business here" - her ex-mother-in-law finished spewing her venom and went to call her guards.

"Relax, 'parents-in-law', I just wanted to verify that my dear 'ex-husband' is indeed in that coffin, because one could expect anything from him, even playing dead. With how much of a liar he was, who knows if it was true" - she glanced at the deceased and left in the same manner as she entered, radiating gallantry and with her head held high.

Once outside the premises, she got into her car with her driver, who took her to her golden cage. On the way, she remembered what her life was like before meeting Francois, and although she thought he was the love of her life, it was the opposite. A being who only loves himself, an egomaniac, a being who only thinks he is perfect, the others are just beings who only take away his oxygen and are not even worth what he is worth.

She remembered her childhood in a miserable orphanage run by Capuchin nuns. An old building with high walls and cold rooms, where being a good Catholic was the premise of her caregivers. Therefore, to escape the boredom of her rigid chair, with strict schedules and thousands of rosaries, coronillas, prayers and chants, she enrolled in the performing arts workshops that a B-movie film director came to teach at the orphanage one day.

Upon turning 18 and, thank God, no longer being able to stay in the convent-like orphanage, she took her few belongings and looked for work in a small theater in the bohemian neighborhood of "Les Hayes".

Although she didn't earn much, she added to her salary what the tourists gave her as tips. In this way, she paid for a small 3x3 room in a rickety pension from the time of Napoleon, and did her studies of contemporary literature at the public university of Paris.

She lived like this for two years until a film director discovered her one afternoon in the theater playing the role of "Heloise" in the romantic drama "Letters of Abelard and Heloise" and took her to play a secondary role in the famous French film "Oh la la".

It was there that she met Francois Pinault, son of the magnates of the film industry in France and owners of television channels around the world. For her, it was love at first sight, for him it was the glimpse of the goddess "Venus de Milo". He could not believe that he had seen again that young woman he once met in the dramatic role of "Heloise" and whom his father did not let him approach to start a conversation and, who knows, propose to work with them.

"It is noticeable that she is one of those who, if given the opportunity, will leave you with nothing".

"A fortune hunter," he thought, but if he now had the opportunity to be with her, he was not going to miss it.

And so, some time later, a romance began where he excused himself for not introducing her to his prestigious family, as he was waiting to inherit his conglomerate and in this way, he could be free to present her to them and to the world as the woman he loved.

Two years after starting their hidden romance, they married in a clandestine ceremony where, in front of a judge, he made her sign a prenuptial agreement renouncing everything and she, like a stupid lovesick woman, signed.

Two years after the wedding, Adelaida announced her pregnancy, which he took with too much enthusiasm, he took care of her during the gestation with longing and overwhelming care. His heir was going to be born, he would be named after him "Francois Pinault" and he would be his stronghold, his prolongation, his pride and when his firstborn was born he would obviously make public his marriage with Adelaida DuPont.

But all this fell apart the day the baby was born. An unforeseen complication in the multiple consultations and ultrasounds performed on Adelaida gave a devastating diagnosis. The baby was born sick and this, Francois and much less Adelaida expected, but unfortunately the man she loved blamed her without being so.

"Beta Thalassemia" was the diagnosis, and the baby was born with severe anemia that required an urgent blood transfusion and admission to the neonatal intensive care unit. The day after his birth, Francois registered his baby, without Adelaida's permission, with the name of Francis DuPont.

Adelaida did not even have time to get angry about Francois's daring to register her baby with that name and without his parent's last name, and given the stress of the situation her offspring was going through, she accepted the meager excuse he gave her for having registered him that way.

"My little Heloise, I did it to protect you. If the press finds out that our baby was born sick, they will eat us alive and my family will not inherit me as promised when I turn 35. There is little left my dove, only five years and we can shout our love to the four winds" - was the excuse that Francois gave her, and after that, if she saw him once a month, it was a lot.

And as if it were a premonition of the epithet with which he wooed her by calling her Heloise, her tragic romance resembled the idyllic French couple of the Middle Ages, with the difference that her Abelard would not give his most precious virility for love of her, not even crazy.

Months of hospitalization administering transfusions and treatments to Francis was the life Adelaida had. She was keen to take care of her son, she dedicated herself to him body and soul, losing her glow and joy. She only lived for her son, since she never heard from the father again, although she made sure that the two of them lacked nothing in terms of economics. But of affection, nothing.

Francois kept his relationship with Adelaida a secret, arguing that he had to wait until he turned 35, the age at which he would inherit the Pinault film empire. But Francois's plans had already changed; it didn't suit his status to have a sick child and a wife who was no longer a shadow of what she once was. He understood what his father told him when they met her at the "Les Hayes" theater, that this woman would leave him with nothing. So he blocked his desire for her to be recognized as his wife and dedicated himself to working tirelessly with his father to further grow their empire.

It was at one of the many meetings and galas he attended in the company of some single lady of Parisian high society that he met the beautiful Madeleine Gibrault, presented by his business rival, Mr. Kento Kimura, as his fiancee.

Something attracted him to her like a moth to a flame, without caring if he was going to get burned. This woman would be Adelaida's replacement, and indeed she would, as they had a great resemblance.

She was his Eloisa from ten years ago when he saw her in the theater and fell in love with her. She would serve to cover up the rumors that he had an abandoned wife in a mansion in Versailles, where he took her to live when they married to isolate her from the public eye.

His mission was to conquer that woman and take her away from Kimura to then marry her.

That's how he achieved his goal; he separated Madeleine from Kento, and he, with lies, divorced Adelaida to marry her, who was already six months pregnant. But thanks to an inexplicable divine intervention, he could not enjoy his new marriage, as he died on the way from Paris to Versailles, where he was going to take the divorce decree to Adelaida and ask her to remove her belongings from the mansion, as it now belonged to his new wife.

Adelaida is now calmer; she knows the whole truth. Her husband exchanged her for a younger woman, who ironically looks like her, and they are expecting a child. This will be the true heir to the Pinault fortune.

A week later, she is notified by the Pinault family lawyer for the reading of her deceased ex-husband's will. She arrived at the office at the agreed time, and the distinguished family was already there.

"Good morning," she greeted out of politeness, but the buzzing of a fly was heard more than the response to her decency.

"Mrs. Adelaida, please sit down, we are about to begin reading the will left by Mr. Pinault," the lawyer indicated.

Adelaida, with her innate elegance, sat where the lawyer indicated, and he proceeded to read the will.

I, Francois Pinault, in the use of all my mental faculties and in the presence of my lawyer, sign this will in which I leave ten percent of my assets to my parents, and the rest of the percentage, that is, ninety percent, to my beloved wife Madeleine Gibraud and my heir Francois Pinault Gibraud.

To my ex-wife, Adelaida DuPont, I leave a check for one hundred thousand euros in compensation for the years of marriage. Without the right to challenge this will due to the existence of a bastard child, for proof of her infidelity in these eight years of marriage, I attach the paternity test where there is no kinship with the minor Francis DuPont. In addition, the prenuptial agreements signed in the marriage are validated.

Adelaida stood up immediately upon hearing such a lie.

"That's false, Francis is Francois's son! I never cheated on my marriage," she shouted full of impotence at the lawyer.

"I always knew it, you're a slut," her ex-mother-in-law's contemptuous voice is heard loudly.

"I warned Francois, beware of that gold digger," Francois's father replied to his wife.

"Mrs. Adelaida, take the check that your deceased ex-husband left you." The lawyer took the check out of the folder, and Adelaida took it, tearing it into a thousand pieces, throwing them afterward at those present in the face as if it were party confetti.

"I don't want anything from this nefarious family; it's a good thing that supposedly my son is nothing to you. But one day Karma will come to you, and I hope it pays you worse than what you did to me and my son. If not, look, it already started with your son. I hope he suffered a slow and painful death, it's the least he deserved for being a liar, traitorous, and evil." No one answered her; they felt the anger and power of her words making their skin crawl.

Upon leaving the lawyer's office, the driver was waiting for her with a look of shame. He opened the car door for her to get in, and once inside, she burst into tears. She couldn't believe that he had denied his own son, his blood. That's what broke her, neither the abandonment nor the deception of the man she loved hurt her as much as what he did to her baby; not with her son. The tears flowed incessantly, and all the crying she had retained this week gave free rein to the baseness of her ex-husband, and she could not bear the pain.

She felt her chest opening, and she didn't care that her driver was listening to her. In eight years, it is the first time she has allowed herself to be seen in that state; not even when her son has been on the verge of death has she allowed herself to be seen vulnerable, but she couldn't take it anymore. She felt a hand touching her shoulder, and that's when she noticed that her driver had parked the car on the road and was extending a disposable tissue to her. Adelaida looked at him strangely through the mirror.

"I'm sorry, it's just that I'm very disappointed and I couldn't take it anymore," she excused herself to her driver.

"Don't worry, ma'am, cry all you need to; tears cleanse the pain." The man tried to give her comfort with his words.

"Thank you." Then she noticed that he was not starting the car and was looking at her with compassion. "Is something wrong, Mr. Dimas?" she asked, looking at him through the rearview mirror.

"Mrs. Adelaida, this is the last time I'm transporting you. I've already been ordered to take you to the mansion and not provide you with my services anymore," he hesitated with sorrow what his new bosses told him.

"Don't worry, Dimas; I imagined that was going to happen after the reading of the will. They left us with nothing." Dimas sighed in impotence, as he had affection for Adelaida, and started the car to the mansion. But nothing prepared her for what she found upon arriving.