“Take it, Isabella. It’s enough to rent a small room in Iztapalapa for a month. Consider it compensation for two years of wasted marriage.”
In the corner of the room, his mistress Camila let out a small laugh, already imagining how she would redecorate Diego’s penthouse in Santa Fe.
They thought Isabella was just a poor, orphaned girl with nowhere to go.
They thought she was trembling with fear.
But they hadn’t noticed the man in the charcoal-colored suit sitting silently at the far end of the conference room.
They didn’t know that this man was Alejandro Mendoza—the owner of the skyscraper they were sitting in.
And they certainly didn’t know that he was also Isabella’s father.
Nor did they realize that signing those papers had just cost Diego his entire future.
The conference room at the law firm Salazar & Associates smelled of expensive leather, cold coffee, and the quiet collapse of a marriage.
It was located on the 38th floor of a tower on Paseo de la Reforma, with a panoramic view of a gray, rainy Mexico City.
Isabella sat on one side of the long polished mahogany table.
Her hands rested neatly on her lap.
She wore a slightly worn cream cardigan and no jewelry—not even her wedding ring, which she had removed three days earlier.
Across from her sat Diego.
He looked exactly like the ambitious tech entrepreneur he claimed to be.
His navy suit was tailored from Italian wool.
The Rolex on his wrist cost more than most people’s cars.
And his smile was so sharp it seemed capable of cutting glass.
“Let’s keep this simple, Isabella,” Diego said as he slid a thick folder of documents toward her.
The papers scraped across the table.
“I’m tired. You’re tired.
We both know this marriage was a miscalculation.”
“A miscalculation…” Isabella repeated softly.
Her voice remained calm, but her eyes stayed fixed on the words Dissolution of Marriage printed in bold at the top of the document.
“Don’t play the victim,” Diego sighed, leaning back in his chair.
“When we met, you were just a waitress at Café La Estrella.
I thought I was rescuing you.
I thought you’d be grateful to be the wife of the CEO of NovaLink.”
He shrugged.
“But let’s be honest… you never really fit into this world.
You don’t know how to dress for galas.
You don’t know how to talk to investors.
You’re just…”
He waved his hand vaguely, searching for a kinder word and failing to find one.
“Boring.”
A voice spoke from the window.
Isabella didn’t move.
She knew Camila was there.
Camila—Diego’s executive assistant—was sitting on the windowsill scrolling through her phone.
She looked about twenty-two, with bleached blond hair and a tight dress completely inappropriate for a legal meeting.
“She is boring, Diego,” Camila said without looking up.
“And she cooks the weirdest things.
Who makes slow-cooked stew for a marketing director?
It’s embarrassing.”
Diego burst out laughing.
“Exactly.
Look, Isabella, it’s simple.
My company is going public next month.
My lawyers and PR team say it’s better to make a clean break now.
It looks better if I’m single when I ring the opening bell at the Mexican Stock Exchange.”
Isabella looked at him.
“So that’s it?
Two years of marriage… and now I’m a risk to your stock price?”
“It’s business, Isabella.
Don’t make it emotional.”
Diego tapped the papers.
“Here’s the deal.
The prenup says you get nothing because you entered this marriage with nothing.
But since I’m a generous man…”
He pulled a black credit card from his wallet and tossed it onto the table.
It spun once before stopping near Isabella’s hand.
“There’s 200,000 pesos on it.
Enough for a deposit on some cheap place in Ecatepec.
And you can keep the old Nissan.”
The lawyer beside Diego—a sweating man named Licenciado Robles—cleared his throat.
“Señor Ramírez, technically the Nissan is leased through the company—”
“Let her keep the damn car, Robles!” Diego interrupted.
“I’m feeling generous today.”
He looked at Isabella with a smug grin.
“See?
I’m a good guy.
So sign the papers.
I’ve got a lunch reservation at Pujol at one.”
Isabella looked at the documents.
Then at the credit card.
Two hundred thousand pesos.
Two years earlier she had met Diego when NovaLink was just beginning.
Back then he had been the one who seemed uncertain.
Back then he had been the one asking for faith.
“What?”
“We can cancel this divorce.”
Camila turned her head sharply.
“What?”
“It was a mistake, Isabella!” Diego said quickly.
“I was under a lot of stress with the company.”
He tried to laugh.
“You know how it is.”
Isabella remained silent.
Then she picked up the black Amex card from the table.
For a moment Diego thought she might keep it.
But she gently placed it back in front of him.
“Keep your money, Diego.”
Then she picked up the signed papers and handed them to the lawyer.
“The divorce is official, correct?”
Robles nodded nervously.
“Y-yes.”
Isabella smiled.
A calm smile.
A free smile.
She turned toward her father.
“Shall we go?”
Alejandro nodded.
“Of course.”
They walked toward the door.
But just before leaving, Isabella stopped.
She looked at Diego one last time.
“Do you know what the real miscalculation you made was?”
Diego didn’t answer.
His voice was barely a whisper.
“What?”
Isabella tilted her head slightly.
“You thought I was a woman without value.”
She opened the door.
“When in reality, I was simply a woman who loved you.”
Then she walked out.
The door closed softly behind her.
And in the silent conference room, Diego stared at the divorce papers.
For the first time in his life…
he understood how expensive a single signature could be.
