I laughed bitterly.
“There is no advance inheritance, Mariana. There is a living mother who needs her money to grow old with dignity.”
She called me selfish.
That night, I understood my children had not come to protect me. They had come to divide what I still needed to survive.
The next day, I reclaimed the guest room Valeria had turned into a walk-in closet. I packed her clothes carefully, placed them in her room, cleaned the space, opened the windows, and set up my old paints.
Before marriage, I used to paint.
That day, I took back not only a room, but a part of myself.
When Valeria saw her things removed, she screamed. Mauricio accused me of destroying his marriage.
I looked at him and said:
“No, son. I removed the money, the car, the house, and the comfort. If your marriage collapses without those things, then it was never a marriage. It was sponsorship.”
