Mia Conde received the pregnancy results with immense joy that flooded every fiber of her being.

Her hands trembled as she held the paper confirming the most anticipated news of her life, while tears of happiness rolled down her rosy cheeks.

She left the hospital radiant with happiness because after two long and agonizing years of trying, of undergoing various treatments and medical procedures, she had finally conceived the child that Ariel Rodriguez so longed for and dreamed of.

She could vividly imagine the immense happiness that Ariel would feel when she confessed that he was going to be a father.

Her mind was already projecting a thousand different scenarios of how to break the news to him, imagining his face, lighting up with surprise and joy, his eyes shining with tears of emotion.

Ariel was an extraordinarily wonderful man, he loved and protected her with a devotion that manifested itself in every small daily gesture, in every whispered word, in every knowing glance.

He really loved her with an intensity that surpassed any romantic expectation she had ever had.

Mia could barely contain her anxiety while waiting for the time to arrive and tell Ariel about her condition, she fervently wanted him to be the first to know, before any family member or friend. Her heart beat faster just thinking about the moment of revealing the news that would change their lives forever.

Thrilled to the core, with trembling hands she took out her latest model cell phone and called him repeatedly, feeling each waiting tone like an eternity.

The call was not answered, but seconds later, which seemed endless, a message illuminated the screen of her device.

"I'm at a very important private banquet, I'll be home soon," said the message that appeared on her phone screen, with that formal and professional tone so characteristic of Ariel.

Mia did not question the brevity or the tone of the message, she simply smiled radiantly with happiness because she was going to have a child with the man she loved and would make him the happiest father in the world.

Her mind was already wandering between baby names and colors for the little one's room.

She arrived at her luxurious house in the exclusive neighborhood, and waited anxiously in the elegant living room decorated with exquisite taste.

She didn't bother to prepare any special dinner or elaborate arrangements, because she didn't want him to suspect that she was going to give him such wonderful news that would change their lives forever.

Ariel arrived wearing his impeccable designer suit, and Mia, considerate as always, hurried to help him remove his expensive branded jacket and carefully hang it on the fine wood rack that adorned the hall.

"How was the business banquet?" Mia questioned with genuine interest, while closely observing her husband's face looking for signs of his day.

Ariel stared at her intently with a disturbing intensity in his eyes, unable to answer more than a monosyllable that fell like a stone in the previously warm atmosphere of the home.

"Fine," the way he answered, with an unusual coldness that he had never shown, made Mia frown worriedly.

However, she convinced herself that this small detail, possibly a product of fatigue or work stress, would not end the immense happiness that bubbled inside her.

"Ari..." she pronounced the diminutive sweetly while he looked at her with an indecipherable expression, waiting in a tense silence for her to say what she was going to say, "I want to tell you something very important."

"I also have something to tell you," he said in a deep, controlled voice, inviting her with a ceremonious gesture to sit on the luxurious Italian leather armchair that decorated their living room.

Mia didn't know what her husband was going to tell her, but in her heart overflowing with joy she was convinced that whatever he was about to reveal to her would not be more exciting than the news of her long-awaited pregnancy. So, with a generosity born of her happiness, she gave him the opportunity to speak first.

"You say it first," she said smiling radiantly, a smile that made Ariel hesitate momentarily, whose face darkened for an instant. However, he seemed to regain an inner strength that she did not understand and pronounced the word that would destroy her world.

"Let's get divorced," the word fell like a lightning bolt in the middle of the elegantly decorated room, shattering the bubble of happiness that enveloped her.

That request froze Mia's heart instantly, leaving her completely in a trance, as if time had stopped at that precise moment.

She remained motionless, with her eyes wide open, while the echo of that word resonated in her mind like a terrible hammer.

Had she heard correctly? Ariel Rodriguez, the man who swore to love her every morning, was asking her for a divorce at this moment that should be the happiest of their lives? The questions swirled in her mind like a devastating whirlwind.

Bitter tears began to accumulate in her honey-colored eyes, which she tried to contain by blinking rapidly before they spilled, not wanting to show her vulnerability in the face of this unexpected cruelty.

"It's a bad joke, right?" her voice came out trembling, almost pleading, desperately seeking an explanation that would make this reality unfolding before her less painful.

Ariel looked at her intently with a determination she had never seen in his brown eyes and shook his head slowly, each movement seemed calculated and definitive.

"It's true, I want us to get divorced. There is no turning back on this decision," he pronounced each word with a devastating clarity that reverberated on the walls of the elegant room.

Mia began to tremble uncontrollably, her hands clinging to the expensive dress she was wearing, because she expected anything on this special day, except that Ariel would request a divorce with such coldness. Her whole world was crumbling as the news of her pregnancy became an unbearable weight in her throat.

He loved her, or didn't he? He showed her every day without fail, in every shared moment. He brought her flowers on Fridays, woke her up with kisses every morning, they planned vacations together, they dreamed of starting a family. It all seemed like a cruel lie now.

Just this morning he had behaved like a loving husband, preparing her favorite breakfast, kissing her before leaving for work, promising to arrive early. Nothing foreshadowed this devastating turn in their lives.

Why was he asking her for a divorce now? The question hammered in her mind as she recalled every happy moment, looking for signs she had missed, warnings she had ignored in her happiness.

"I will compensate you generously with 40 million and several properties, you can even keep this house and the service staff," he spoke as if he were closing one of his many businesses, with that calculating coldness that she had only seen him use in his business meetings.

As Ariel continued talking about terms and conditions, Mia felt a deep, dark hole forming in her chest, threatening to swallow her whole. The air became dense and hard to breathe in that room that she once considered her refuge.

Her heart ached with a real physical intensity, her soul hurt as she listened to Ariel talk about divorce as if he were discussing the weather, as if the last two years together meant nothing. Her dreams crumbled with every word that came out of his lips.

They had shared two years of apparent perfect happiness, where he had protected her every second from any pain or worry, where he had avoided making her suffer with almost obsessive care. Why was he now inflicting the greatest pain of all?

"You... don't you love me anymore?" The question came out as a broken whisper, laden with all the anguish that threatened to drown her.

Ariel did not directly answer that question, his eyes darkened as he simply questioned with a calculated coldness:

"Mia, why do you take the divorce petition in such a dramatic way and not in the same pragmatic way that you took it when I asked you to be my wife? You accepted it with surprising ease when you barely knew me, as if it were just another transaction."

Mia recalled with painful clarity that crucial afternoon when Ariel appeared unexpectedly at the modest house of her parents, who did not accept her as a true Conde after she showed up at their house claiming to be the daughter they had lost so long ago.

She had been lost as a five-year-old child, was adopted by good parents who died two years ago, it was then that Mia went to the house of her real parents because she had barely learned that she belonged to the Condes.

However, when she arrived and said she was their daughter, they rejected her because, it turned out, years after Mia was lost, they found a girl identical to Mia and claimed that she was their lost daughter.

Nino Conde performed particular DNA tests which came back positive, and happiness returned to the Conde family.

But it turned out that Mia also carried part of their blood, which left them perplexed, because they had only had one daughter. The family did not accept her because she was a newcomer, although the grandmother allowed her to stay, everyone showed her contempt because they swore that she was an impostor who had pulled strings to make the tests come back positive.

Mia earned more contempt from the Condes when she decided to accept Ariel Rodriguez's marriage proposal, that day they hated and despised her with all their being.

Ariel Rodriguez had treated her with a lot of love all this time, he had been an excellent husband. If Mia wanted him to bring down the moon, he would bring it down for her, if Mia wanted anything impossible, he would do the impossible to give it to her. However, right now he was behaving so coldly that her heart ached because of his attitude.

"Ariel..."

"Please, don't make this more difficult. Accept the divorce, accept the conditions and let's end this."

Mia's chest constricted, as she did not expect him to break her in this way.

She, apparently showed a fragility, but she was stronger than Ariel thought.

Mia was not going to beg, she was not going to beg Ariel to stay with her for her son. So, she dropped the paper that was inside her pocket, and gathering all the strength that characterized her, she stood up and said.

"Okay, I'll give you a divorce." Without further ado, she turned around and set out to leave, but walked so clumsy that she tripped on a piece of furniture.

It was so abrupt that even the furniture moved, which caught Ariel's attention, who immediately got up to help her, but she refused to be touched.

Ariel stood still while he watched her leave. When he saw her walking lame, he hurried to approach her, because he knew that she could not climb the stairs.

"Don't touch me! I can do it myself," she said, however, when trying to raise her leg on the first step, she felt the lump in her thigh.

Mia cried, more than for the internal pain of the heart.

Ariel grabbed her in his arms and carried her to the bedroom, where he laid her down gently and went for the medicine cabinet to heal her.

Upon returning, he saw Mia crying, but she held back her tears and looked away.

Ariel settled down next to her, began to apply ointment gently, trying not to hurt her.

"Ariel, why do you want to get divorced?" Ariel did not answer, he continued applying the cream on Mia's leg. "Have I been a bad wife? Have I not taken good care of you?"

She wanted to understand why he had so suddenly decided to divorce her, if every day she saw him happy.

"You have been a good wife," said Ariel. "The reasons for the divorce have nothing to do with that."

"Then? What's going on?" She thought that maybe the Rodriguezes were bankrupt and he did not want to drag her to ruin.

Ariel had always taken care of her, so much so that she thought her marriage would be eternal, however, now he had asked her for a divorce.

"Are you sick? Are you going to die? Do you have any terminal illness?" Her question frustrated Ariel.

Actually, he was sick, he had diabetes, but it was not that he was going to die at that moment. But the reason for his divorce was because Zoe had returned.

Zoe was the woman Ariel really loved, the woman he married Mia for. Zoe was identical to Mia, and that was why, when she abandoned him for no reason, Ariel decided to marry the sister, since she was identical and reminded him of Zoe.

Even the way Ariel always treated Mia was because he saw her as Zoe. Mia Conde was just a substitute healing his wounded heart.

Ariel slowly caressed Mia's wound with his trembling fingers, while she watched him with eyes illuminated by tears. The soft sunset light filtering through the window made her eyes shine like broken crystals, reflecting all the pain she felt in her heart.

Why was he behaving like this? Why did he keep showing that he cared when his requests said otherwise? His gestures of concern only served to confuse her more, to deepen the abyss that was opening between them with each passing second.

"Don't continue," Mia asked, her voice broken by painful emotion, as her hands clung tightly to the white cotton sheets that covered the bed they had shared for so long.

He was supposed to have just asked her for a divorce, which meant that he no longer loved her and didn't care in the slightest what might happen to her. Why did he keep behaving in such a contradictory way? He was confusing her more than she already was, making her heart waver between hope and resignation.

"Silly, let me heal you," he replied in a sweet voice, as he continued to apply the ointment delicately to the injured skin, "you are very clumsy, you should watch where you walk. Remember that I won't be here to take care of you when this is all over." His words, although spoken sweetly, pierced Mia's heart like daggers.

That saddened Mia even more, who felt tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to overflow at any moment. She felt like crying, crying very hard until she was out of breath, until the pain in her chest became so intense that it left her numb.

"I don't want you to heal me! Just go. Get out of here, Ariel," she exclaimed with all the strength she could muster, although her voice sounded more like a desperate plea than an order.

Ariel frowned, as his hands stopped dead on Mia's injured skin. How dare she kick him out so abruptly? This was also his room, his house, the home they had built together during two years of marriage, had she forgotten that he was her husband and that they had shared the same bed for so long?

Mia turned abruptly, turning her back to Ariel, in a desperate attempt to hide the tears she could no longer contain. As she turned, she complained involuntarily, because the blow to her thigh had been stronger than she thought, and had left a large purple bruise that, when touched, hurt seriously, as if a thousand needles were piercing her skin.

A pained moan escaped from Mia, she was crying uncontrollably, and Ariel immediately noticed it, clenching his fists in helplessness as he watched her suffer in that way.

He left the room without saying a word, his footsteps echoing in the silence of the house, and Mia cried even harder, muffling her sobs in the pillow that still retained their scent, mixed with the salty taste of her tears.

At another time, in happier days, Ariel would not have left her like this, even if she asked him a thousand times to leave, he would have stubbornly stayed by her side until she was completely healed. But now he had left without further ado, leaving her alone with her pain, not caring about anything. He definitely no longer loved her as before, and that thought hurt her more than any physical wound.

Ariel returned after a minute that seemed eternal, he had hurriedly gone for medicine downstairs, crossing the corridor and going down the stairs two at a time. Mia's heart skipped a beat of joy when she heard his footsteps returning.

In reality, he had not abandoned her as she feared, he had gone for medicine, he wanted to give her a pill so that she would not suffer more pain. That small gesture of concern made her heart swell with hope again.

Remembering the results of her pregnancy test that she had seen that morning, Mia's joy at Ariel's return dissipated as quickly as it had come. She couldn't take pills, she was six weeks pregnant, carrying in her womb a secret that would change everything.

Ariel didn't know, and if he did, he certainly wouldn't think of giving her medication that could harm the baby. The irony of the situation hit her hard: she was about to divorce her child's father, and he didn't even know it.

"This pill will help you get better, drink it," he said, extending his hand with the medicine and a glass of water that he had brought from the kitchen.

"I don't want to," she replied, turning her face away to avoid looking him in the eyes, fearing that he might read the truth in her gaze.

"Mia, are you going to be rude to me in these last moments?" he asked with a hint of sadness in his voice that did not go unnoticed.

She shouldn't behave that way with him, she knew it perfectly well. He had been a good husband to her throughout their marriage, he had cared for her with devotion in those two years, protecting her from everything and everyone. Shouldn't she be grateful to him for being so good to her, even now that everything was ending?

"You shouldn't worry about me anymore, you should leave and leave me alone with my pain. What's more, we should discuss the terms of the divorce once and for all, to sign it and end this agony," she said almost with her voice breaking, while her hands unconsciously rested on her belly, protecting the secret she was guarding.

"Discuss the terms?" he inquired with a frown, the confusion evident on his face, "Aren't they enough?" Did she want more than he had offered? He wondered to himself, without understanding that all Mia wanted was his love, not his material possessions.

Mia was going to tell him that she didn't need anything from him, that his money and his properties would never compensate for his absence in her life, but Ariel's cell phone rang interrupting her thoughts, and at his evident nervousness, which was noticeable since he never behaved so anxiously for a call, Mia's words choked in her throat as if they were heavy stones.

"I'll go out for a moment, but before I leave I want to make sure you take the pain pill," he declared firmly, holding the bottle in his hand as if it were a weapon.

"I won't take it," she replied with determination.