Chapter 2
PART 2:
Three years earlier, Mariana had entered the Alvarez family with love in her heart and no idea she was walking into a war.
Julian Alvarez loved her loudly.
That was what made her believe everything would be okay.
He brought her flowers to work.
Held her hand in public.
Introduced her as “the woman who made me better” to every friend he had.
When he proposed, he did it at a small restaurant where they had shared their first real conversation.
No cameras.
No orchestra.
Just Julian shaking so badly he almost dropped the ring.
Mariana said yes before he finished asking.
But Doña Carmen never said yes.
She smiled at the engagement dinner.
She kissed Mariana’s cheek.
She called her “sweetheart” in front of guests.
Then, in the hallway, when no one was close enough to hear, she said, “My son has a soft heart. Do not mistake that for permission to ruin his life.”
Mariana told herself it was fear.
A mother afraid of losing her son.
A widow holding too tightly to the only child who still lived near her.
She tried to be patient.
She invited Doña Carmen to lunch.
Asked for family recipes.
Wore the gold earrings Julian’s mother gave her, even though she knew they were not a gift.
They were a test.
Doña Carmen corrected everything.
The way Mariana folded napkins.
The way she greeted older relatives.
The way she pronounced certain family names.
The way she stood beside Julian at events.
“Not too close,” Doña Carmen once whispered at a baptism. “People will think you are desperate.”
Mariana learned to smile through it.
Julian noticed some things.
Not enough.
When Mariana told him his mother made small comments, he sighed and rubbed his face.
“She’s intense,” he said. “But she loves hard.”
Mariana wanted to ask him when love was supposed to feel like being slowly erased.
But she did not.
She did what many wives do when they are trying to keep peace.
May you like
She swallowed the hurt and hoped time would soften it.
👉 But when Mariana became pregnant, Doña Carmen’s hatred stopped hiding behind polite smiles…
