“I can’t believe this of you, Valeria. Thank God Mateo is a nice young man and he brought you home safely. But how can you come back like that?” The disapproval in her mother’s voice, the disappointment in her eyes, and the words she said at that moment were all a slap in her face.

“I’m sorry.” Valeria lowered her head. “It won’t happen again.”

Entering her room again without saying another word, she waited until her mother’s steps could no longer be heard, and the silent tears turned into strangled sobs.

She did not mean for any of this to happen, but what was she supposed to say now? Her mother was so mad just because she came back home drunk, what would happen if she told her the rest?

The sweet fantasy of the ideal romance had been broken, all of the dates, the smiles and laughter, were reduced to nothing. Grabbing some clean towels, Valeria headed to the bathroom hoping that a hot shower would help her soothe her sore body and her troubled heart.

[I’m going to stop by your house this afternoon.]

[I love you.]

Valeria snorted when she found these messages in her phone and immediately turned it off. Even if she didn’t know much about the world, or about love, she was certain that a person who loved you wouldn’t do things the way Mateo had. Hiding under the blankets and closing her eyes, maybe it was possible to pretend it had all been just a nightmare.

But it wasn’t.

The memories of last night, when he’d taken her to that stranger’s room and repeatedly ignored her pleads to stop, were tormenting her.

‘I shouldn’t have drunk.’

‘I shouldn’t have gone to that party at all.’

“Vale, Daniel is here asking for you. Don Ricardo is inviting us to have lunch with them today.”

“I’m not feeling well, you can go without me, mom.”

“You’re not feeling well?”

“It’s just a headache. It’ll pass in a couple of hours.”

The last thing she wanted at that moment was to let others see that she was not okay, but she didn’t think she’d be able to put a smile on her face either.

***

“I want to break up.”

Although it was mandatory that her bedroom door remained open the few times he came over, her mother was working at the kitchen and would not be able to see or hear a thing of what she decided to talk about that afternoon. Mateo’s expression of disbelief and confusion would have fooled any outsider looking at the scene.

“What? Why?”

She glared at him. “You took advantage yesterday because I drank too much. I even told you I didn’t want to, but you still…” The words got stuck in her throat and, for a horrible moment, she couldn’t breathe.

“I think you’re overreacting, Valeria.” With a few steps, he erased the distance between them. One of his arms encircled around her waist made her tremble, but the cause of this feeling now was very different from what it used to be. “You are my girlfriend. This is just what couples do, isn’t it?”

“No.” She took a deep breath and pushed him away. “I don’t want to see you again.”

He frowned, and the face that only one day before she’d found handsome transformed in the few seconds that took him to pin her against the wall and slam his fist on the cold clay barrier.

Valeria gasped loudly in shock.

“I think you don’t understand how it works. Who are you to break up with me? I am the only one who decides when this is over.”

“You’re horrible.”

How could she not see him for who he was before?

No, if he did not reveal himself it would be impossible for her to know because Mateo was charming. He was Prince Charming until he wasn’t anymore. 

“I’ll tell my mom.” She told him. “About what you did.”

“Will you?” He smiled, noticing her quivering lips. “Vale, it takes two to have sex. You think your mother is really going to tell you everything is okay?”

The violence in his eyes dissipated. He sighed and removed himself from her, much to her relief.

“We don’t need to fight, princess. Tomorrow you’ll see that you are exaggerating  now.” His right hand caressed her cheek tenderly. 

Next time it’d be better, he told her. However, Mateo did not leave without reminding her that in the case she dared to speak nonsense again, he’d make sure the school did not admit her the next year, and everyone would know how much of a ‘slut’ she actually was.

That night, and all the ones that came after, Valeria couldn’t sleep until dawn.

***

“You don’t look well at all.” Daniel showed concern at her pale expression the day before flying back home.

Camila had told her that her cousin had just made a mistake, and she’d been drinking too so it was normal for those things to happen. Valeria knew that others would think the same.

Even her mother. Thinking of Mateo’s threat, she didn’t have the courage to tell her either. 

Her mother had painstakingly paid her the best school she could afford, this was all she could have good opportunities later on: she had to get into a good university and have the right group of friends. Would all of her mother’s hard work be for nothing? 

In the past, a boyfriend from a privileged family seemed like something in her favor, and now it was the menace that could potentially destroy her life if he wanted to. She’d lose her reputation, her friends, her school (and certainly all other good schools she could try to get into), all because of that person’s whim.

Daniel had been right saying she was a child. He’d been right about everything.

And now that his honey eyes were on her, waiting for her to talk, she wished the words would come out of her mouth because if there was one person who would surely tell her it was not her fault, someone who would help her find a way out of this, that person would be Daniel.

‘But how can I let him know?’

‘I don’t want him to ever know.’

This was her shame, and above all, she wished Daniel continued seeing her the way he had always seen her: an innocent little sister, his dear childhood friend.

So she swallowed up her pain and smiled for the first time in days.

“I’m fine. I just feel we didn’t spend much time together this time around.”

“True. Next year, we definitely have to go to Bocagrande again.”

They would have a good time. 

“Rosa’s baby will also be huge by then.”

“I still can’t believe I’m about to be an uncle!”

A comforting thought lightened up her spirits as Daniel kept talking.

As days and months passed by, nothing ever stayed the same. She hoped, too, that Mateo would be long gone from her life in a year. That way, she could just completely forget about him and the nightmare.