“You wanted the amusement park? Fine. Hector and I had gave up our time for you. Your kid was bleeding? I had sent over some band-aids. But if you come up with one more excuse to interrupt me and Hector today, I swear I won’t let it slide.”
Regina was still yelling through the phone, but I wasn’t listening anymore.
I just held my daughter tighter, calling her name, gently rubbing her little hands that had already gone cold and stiff.
“Regina,” I said quietly, “It doesn't matter if you want to believe me or not, but I never did anything to harm your baby with Hector. I didn’t even know you had one.”
I felt like the life had been drained from me. “Fact remains that you killed my daughter. I want a divorce.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line before I heard Regina scoff coldly.
“Still trying to play the victim, huh? Luciano, your performance is getting old.”
Then she hung up.
I stood there in a daze, still cradling my daughter’s body and walked over to Gloria.
The moment she saw us, she knew. Her eyes welled with tears. There was no saving Claudia now.
“This is my fault,” she whispered. “I should’ve never forced you to marry Regina just because I once saved your life. I used that debt to make you save the Seco Enterprises when we were drowning.”
Then she looked at me, her voice shaking.
“But Luciano… for the sake of everything we’ve been through, please… give Gina one more chance. Before Hector came back, you three were happy. She did love you. It’s just… she’s been blinded by him all over again.”
Her words stirred up memories I’d buried.
Ten years ago, Hector had left Regina in the hospital after a car crash, stole 300 million from the company and vanished. The Seco Enterprises collapsed overnight. They couldn’t even afford Regina’s hospital bills.
That’s when Gloria came to me. I was already a rising executive at a rival firm. She was an old woman then, but she still knelt in front of me, begging me to marry Regina and take over the failing Seco Enterprises.
And I said yes.
I had never forgotten how, when I was just a boy, Gloria had saved my mother’s life by finding a specialist when no one else could. She had paid for my schooling all the way through college.
I agreed to marry Regina out of gratitude.
Over the next three years, I rebuilt Seco Enterprises from the ground up. I stayed by Regina’s side through her stroke recovery, from her hospital bed to the wheelchair and eventually to her feet again.
After she gave birth to our daughter, I stepped away from work and devoted myself entirely to raising Claudia, so Regina could return to the career she loved.
For ten years, I gave everything I had to Regina and the Seco family. Now… I had lost my daughter. The only gift the Secos ever gave me was gone.
I looked at Gloria, tears streaming down her face and slowly shook my head.
“I gave her ten years of my life. My marriage. She didn’t deserve to throw that away like it meant nothing.”
“I repaid my debt to the Secos ten years ago. Now it’s time Regina repaid hers, to me.”
With burning eyes, I carried Claudia to the morgue.
The moment the mortuary attendant left after returning Claudia’s personal belongings, my whole body trembled.
“Claudia,” I whispered, “Daddy will make this right. I swear I’ll get justice for you.”
Gloria couldn’t stop crying.
“I’ve caused you so much pain... I have no right to stop you now. But Luciano, if Gina ever comes to her senses — if she truly changes — could you find it in your heart to give her another chance?”
I wiped away the last tear from my cheek and looked her straight in the eyes.
“When Claudia was crying and begged Regina to come, why couldn’t she give her daughter one more chance?”
Then I turned and walked out, Claudia’s death certificate clenched tightly in my hand.
I went home to pack up our things, mine and Claudia’s.
The moment I opened the door, I was hit by a thick, sickening scent... and the floor was littered with Smurf toys scattered on the floor.
Hector looked up at me, eyes glinting with smug satisfaction. He didn’t even stop. In fact, he moved harder, more deliberate.
“Gina,” he said mockingly, “your husband’s back. Should I get going? Or are you gonna make him watch? You know how he gets. Poor Claudia… had to start faking tears and playing games just to keep her daddy from losing it. Kid was a real little actress.”
