♥ PROLOGUE ♥
Good morning, readers! I want to apologize for the mistakes in the story. The problem is that I don't speak English. I'm from Brazil, and I'm trying to learn English, but it's challenging.
I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I hope you will give the story a chance.
If you come across the word "Tesoro" in the story, it means "treasure." The word "Tesoro" is Italian.
18:00: Carter Residence, New York, USA.
Friday.
Hilary Carter.
I can't believe it. I've been married for fifteen years, and I've just discovered that my husband has a mistress. I've always tried to be a good wife and companion to him, but it's meant nothing - I was never special to him. How many nights have I cared for him? I've always been by his side, and in his worst moments, it was me who cared for him, not his mistress.
"How can you do this to me, Arthur?" I scream for the second time. "Have these fifteen years meant nothing to you!!!? Haven't I been enough?"
At this very moment, he's packing his clothes to leave.
"I've had enough of you, Hilary!!! You're always complaining; every time I come home, you look such awful. I can't be attracted to someone like that anymore!!!" he shouted back. "The point is, you've gained a lot of weight; I can't look at you the way I used to."
I can't believe what he just said. My tears kept falling, the pain in my chest became too suffocating, and I couldn't breathe properly.
"And also," he turned to face me, "I've always wanted a child." He touched upon my deepest wound.
No! That's not how he used to say it!
"Are you blaming me? I've always wanted children too! But it's not my fault that I'm sterile! I always said we could adopt a child, but you never wanted to!"
He closed his suitcase.
"I don't want someone else's children! If my wife can't have children, why should I stay with her? I don't love you anymore, Hilary. I've found another woman who is much more beautiful than you, and what's more, she's young and has a beautiful body that you'll never have."
Without thinking twice, I slapped him across the face.
"I'll never let you humiliate me like that, Arthur!" He put his hand over the spot where I slapped him.
"I feel sorry for you, Hilary. I confess that I used to love you when you weren't like this," he looked at me with disgust. "I wonder what man would accept a woman of thirty-five," he laughed. "Besides being that age, you're overweight."
The anger and humiliation I'm feeling are too immense, but I refuse to be humiliated like this.
"And do you think that when you're forty or fifty, this new woman of yours will still want you? She's only after your money, but when you don't have anymore, she'll run into the arms of another man!" He slapped me across the face, leaving me in shock.
"Shut the fuck up!" He pointed his finger in my face. "Don't you ever dare talk about Carina like that! She loves me and cares for me like you never did!"
I was still in shock from that slap. I looked at him, tears streaming down my cheeks.
"I never took care of you? You liar! When you were ill, I always cared for you! When you were fired from your last job, who was by your side? Now you're telling me I didn't care for you? You bastard!" I shouted angrily.
"I don't care about anything else! Wait for my lawyer; he'll bring the divorce papers tomorrow. I want you out of this house. I never want to see you again, Hilary." He stormed past me, causing me to fall to the ground.
I started crying uncontrollably. The pain I'm feeling is so suffocating - this humiliation that I'll never forget. How could he be so cruel? He ended everything we had built for a younger girl, as if age would never catch up with him. He's already thirty-eight, thinking he'll stay that age forever.
I should have listened to my parents and friends when they told me he wasn't a good man to marry. I endured so much and faced so many humiliations to stay by his side. But he abandoned me for a younger woman.
And he still had the nerve to bring up a subject that is very sensitive to me: I've always wanted children, but unfortunately, I can't have them. And he always threw it in my face, but I endured it because I loved him.
What am I going to do with my life now?