CHAPTER 02

TWO YEARS LATER

"Come on, come on, faster, faster!" That woman, no more than forty-five years old, was hurrying.

Precisely that day she felt so stressed, and how could she not, if one of the most important dates of the entire year was going to take place? Autumn-winter catwalk.

Everything had to go perfectly well. None of the people involved should have made a single mistake.

"Enough, don't be so apprehensive, Romina. Everything is going to be fine," Paula said with a smile on her face.

Everything around her were designers, clothes, models, makeup, hairstyles, the women there were going to go crazy, she was sure of that. The only one who seemed to be really calm was Paula, and how could she not if she was the wife of the president of the company? But even if everyone thought that, it was enough to look at that woman's reality to know what her life was like.

Anyone who heard about Mr. Vidal's wife would imagine a woman full of luxuries, a woman who wore the best clothes, a tall, blonde woman who looked at people over her shoulder when the reality is that Mr. Vidal's wife was nothing more than a simple young woman who dressed in an even simpler way. Very little makeup on her face with her hair half up.

"You say it because you are Vidal's wife.”

"And in my world that doesn't mean much," she said, looking down.

The reality was that it had been two years since she had married one of the most important men in the country only to end up being like his secretary, his right hand, they could walk all over her and she would never say anything.

But who was Paula Garza at the end of the day? Paula Garza, maybe that wasn't even her name.

"Oh, Paula," said the woman who had been Paula's best friend for so many years and who knew all her secrets except one. The most important perhaps. "I can't believe you decided to marry a man like him. He is young, handsome and very rich, but what is wealthy is also rude and irresponsible. You are his wife, I have never seen any loving treatment towards you on his part. He always has you working, he never takes you into account as the wife you are. Oh, I don't know, but I don't like that man at all for you. There are so many good men in the world.”

Paula just smiled. She didn't know what she could say to that. She knew better than anyone about her husband's treatments.

"Anyway, we'd better hurry because the walkway is already in place.”

"Come on, come on," she said with a smile on her face.

What she didn't know was that that smile was about to be erased from her face. Someday she was going to get tired of that life, someday she was going to get tired of everything her friend who realized everything had said.

While she had to pretend to the world that she was the happiest wife in the world, at home reality emerged. She was nothing more than a woman who served her husband in whatever he wanted, who tolerated him humiliating her for her way of dressing, speaking and being. Always seeing how all the models approached him, they made moves at him so that in the end, he would not know how to stop them. In front of Paula's eyes, her husband was unfaithful to her.

But why was Paula like this, why was such a beautiful and powerful woman so insecure? Probably because she thought that was real love. Surely because she saw her mother being treated that way and seeing more men come into her life who decided who she really was, that's why Paula made that decision. She wanted to marry for love, not for the last name that really gave her power.      

But everything that began was destined to end, everything to give ends up tiring in the same way that everything that hurts ends up tiring when it is decided to strike the final blow.

The celebration of the Vital company was about to begin, the places had already been occupied by the most important people and designers in the country and some foreigners.

Paula couldn't feel happier, all the participating models were already ready. And seeing everything with pride, Paula imagined she was one of those models who were waiting to come out. And everything had been prepared with great care that nothing could go wrong.

"One, two, three, four..." Paula's friend told the models, "nine and... One is missing here. Oh my God, one is missing here!" Romina said, putting her hands to her head.

She had always been like this. The slightest carelessness, the slightest accident, the slightest concern was reason to make it one of the biggest problems.

And finally, there was the person out there who could take care of that better than anyone else, not because she was the wife of Alexander, the president, but because she was extremely intelligent.

"Who is missing, who is missing?" She began to think. "Julia, Violeta, Isfel, Romina…. Paula's sister, Emma, ​​is missing!" She declared.

Just at the moment when she was going to pick up Paula, she arrived with more swimsuits for the models who were going to go on the catwalk.

"Paula, Paula, Paula," the lady said.

"Tell me, what's wrong, Romina?”

"There is a model missing, we are about to star.  The women are not ready.”

"Don't worry, tell me who's missing," Paula smiled.

"Emma, ​​your sister, is missing.”

"Emma, ​​Emma. Let me look for her.” Paula said, being as patient as ever.

Paula, being the same naive woman, moved all over the place looking for her stepsister. The show was about to start and she didn't appear.

Having searched everywhere, Paula only had one left. The same one which, for some reason, felt she didn't want to go.  

Paula's heart had been broken so many times, whether with speculation, gossip where she was made to look like the wife of a man who did whatever he wanted with her while deceiving her to her face, what difference did it make? And maybe with her luck this time she was going to get out of that hell.

Just at the moment when she saw two shadows approaching in the hallway, at the same time she heard her husband's voice, she decided to enter that dressing room and hide among the clothes that the models were going to wear for the catwalk.

From that pile of clothes, she could see everything.

A man she knew well entered hand in hand with a woman. A woman she knew very well because that woman was her stepsister, Emma, ​​the model they were looking for upstairs.

Paula's tears began to fall silently, she had to put both hands over her mouth to drown out the cry of pain. She always knew that her husband was cheating on her, she always heard it said by other people but hearing it was never the same as seeing it.     

"What will we do tonight?” Alexander asked, smiling at the woman he had in his arms wearing a red swimsuit that she was going to present to the world outside.

"I don't know, it's just a matter of getting rid of the ugly duckling idiot and we can be happy.”

And without further ado, laughing at her without knowing that she had seen and heard everything, betrayal had taken part.

They just betrayed her in the worst way. Just as he had been doing in those two years of marriage.