Chapter 24

• “No, Alejandro,” she said softly. “That is not the reason. She doesn’t remember that night at all. The night her mother died… the night her father betrayed her. She remembers nothing of it. When I brought her home, when she started living under my roof… she was just a frightened girl. What changed her was not the memory of blood, but the memory of betrayal she saw with her own eyes later.”
• Alejandro’s brows furrowed, his body leaning forward, his rage building in his chest. The woman continued, her voice heavy with truth.
• “She saw him,” she whispered. “She saw the man she trusted—Rajveer’s father—sleeping with other women. And from that moment, her innocence cracked. She began to believe all men were the same, that love from a man is always a lie, that betrayal is inevitable. That night did not kill her hope. This did. The sight of a man she respected destroying her faith with his own hands. From then on, she never trusted men again. She built a wall, Alejandro, and behind that wall she hid herself. She created a mask… a façade of being a lesbian… not because she was, but because it was the only way she felt safe. The only way to protect herself from hurt again.”