The Cruise: The Last Hope
Then the cruise appeared: five days in the Caribbean, all paid for by Roberto’s company.
I thought: “This will bring us together, we’ll reconnect.”
I planned activities, packed clothes, built up my hopes… while Clara remained distant, as if she were already somewhere else.The phrase that broke everything.
That Tuesday, at work, I received the message that erased me:
“Plans have changed. You’re not coming anymore. Clara really wants her mom.”
Then, the empty house. Clara leaving school early. Roberto gone.
And me, looking at photos on the wall, understanding something brutal: for them, my place was just on loan.
The decision: if they kick me out, I’m leaving… and I mean it
. I didn’t scream. I didn’t beg. I didn’t make a scene.
I did something more dangerous: I thought clearly.
I checked the joint account and transferred exactly my 50%.
I canceled my share of the cruise: if I wasn’t going, I wasn’t financing it.
And the house… the house was in my name.
