**PART 1**
Sofia stared at the pregnancy test on the marble sink. The two pink lines glowed under the bathroom’s cold light, confirming what her body had already told her. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but they were not tears of joy from a happy marriage celebrating its greatest dream. She cried because, in her innocence, she had believed the arrival of a baby would be the miracle that would save her relationship.
She and Alejandro Salgado had shared a luxurious home in one of Guadalajara’s most exclusive neighborhoods for ten years. To Guadalajara’s high society, they were the perfect couple. Yet behind closed doors, they lived like complete strangers under the same roof. They shared expenses and attended social events at the Country Club together, but they had long stopped sharing dreams. Even so, when Sofía came out of the bathroom and showed her husband the test, he managed a smile. It was not a smile filled with love or tenderness. It was an expression of pure, cold relief.
“Maybe this will finally sort things out for us,” said Alejandro, adjusting his designer watch before heading out to the office.
Sofia clung to that phrase with all her strength. What a huge mistake. Exactly three weeks later, the glass bubble burst in the cruelest way possible. Alejandro was seeing another woman. The revelation did not come through a hidden text or a rumor spread by envious friends. It came as a direct and devastating photograph. In the picture, Alejandro was leaving a luxurious restaurant in the Andares area, holding the hand of a young woman with perfect blonde hair, dressed in designer clothes… and with an undeniable baby bump.
When Sofia showed him the photo that same night, he did not even flinch to deny it. He poured himself a glass of tequila, sighed in annoyance, and looked at her with blood-curdling coldness.
“Don’t start making a scene, Sofia,” he replied, taking a sip of his drink. “Things have been pretty bad between us for a while now.”
Sofia did not shed a single tear at that moment. What truly broke her heart was discovering, shortly afterward, that Alejandro’s prestigious family had known about this woman for several months. The betrayal was not just her husband’s; it was a family conspiracy.
Two days later, Sofía was summoned to the imposing family mansion in the heart of Zapopan. The pretext was “to talk like civilized adults.” Sofía can still remember the aroma of coffee brewed in a clay pot and freshly baked sweet bread wafting through the air as she crossed the threshold. The enormous mahogany dining room table was elegantly set, as if it were any ordinary family Sunday.
There sat Doña Mercedes, the matriarch of the Salgado Group, with her impeccable posture and eagle-like gaze. To her right sat Alejandro, his eyes fixed on his cup. And directly across from Sofía’s empty chair… sat Valeria. The mistress. She wore a light silk dress that proudly accentuated her pregnancy. Valeria offered her a compassionate and condescending smile, as if Sofía were the intruder in that house.
Doña Mercedes tapped her silver spoon gently on the table to demand attention and spoke first.
“We’re not going to allow this to become a scandal. The Salgado name is worth far too much money and prestige to drag it through the mud,” the mother-in-law began, fixing her dark eyes directly on Sofia’s. “Both of you are pregnant with my child. So the solution will be quite simple. Whoever has a son will be the only one who stays in this family.”
Sofia’s heart lurched violently, hitting against her ribs.
“If the result is a girl,” Doña Mercedes continued, without showing a hint of remorse, “you’ll perfectly understand that we can’t allow our empire to fall into weak hands. We’re not going to risk the legacy of three generations for absurd sentimentality. Women come and go, my dear. The family name is the only thing that remains.”
Sofia turned her face toward Alejandro. She expected him to react. To slam his fist on the table. To defend the dignity of the woman who had given him ten years of absolute loyalty. Instead, the Salgado heir simply shrugged and uttered one damning sentence:
—It’s the most practical thing to do.
A deathly silence descended upon the enormous dining room. In that same instant, the atmosphere became unbearably dark and suffocating. While Valeria caressed her belly with a smile of anticipated victory and Doña Mercedes sipped her coffee with astonishing tranquility, the fate of two women and two innocent children hung by a thread of ambition. It was utterly impossible to believe what was about to unfold.
