Alejandro turned his gaze away and rubbed the back of his neck. “It was a relationship. Yes.”
A sharp pain moved through Mariana’s chest, but there was no shock left in her. “And last night? When you told me you were in meetings with Sergio?”
“We had dinner!” he snapped. “I wasn’t going to tell you I was meeting her!”
“Of course not. Lying was easier.”
Alejandro flung his jacket onto a chair. “What do you want me to say, Mariana?! Our marriage has been dead for years!”
“Then you should have asked for a divorce.”
“When?!” he shouted, stepping closer. “Right after Lucía died?! So your family and all our friends could say I abandoned my grieving wife when she was at rock bottom?!”
The words remained hanging in the silent living room.
Mariana looked at him and, for the first time in ten years, truly saw him. “So you stayed to protect your reputation.”
