Chapter 7 - THE RETURN OF THE QUEEN
Barcelona was not just a hiding place; it was a revival.
I spent the next few months working with Dawson to restructure the Salazar holdings.
We launched a new foundation,
focused on children’s literacy and healthcare,
the things Adrian had called "unnecessary expenses."
Noah and Lily were thriving in their new school,
learning Spanish with an ease that amazed me.
They had forgotten the coldness of the Castillo mansion,
replaced by the warmth of our new home.
I was sitting in my office in the Eixample district when Dawson walked in.
“He’s here,” he said,
his face tight.
“Adrian?”
“He’s at the front gate.”
I felt a momentary surge of anxiety,
but it was quickly replaced by a cold,
hard resolve.
“Let him in.”
I stood by the window,
watching as the gates opened.
A taxi pulled up,
and Adrian stepped out.
He looked terrible.
His suit was cheap and ill-fitting,
his hair was graying at the temples,
and he moved with the gait of a man who had been beaten by life.
He walked into my office,
his eyes scanning the luxury and the power he had once thought he deserved.
“Elena,” he said,
his voice a rasp.
I didn't offer him a seat.
“What do you want,
Adrian?”
“I want to see my kids.”
I laughed,
a sound that echoed with years of suppressed anger.
“You called them dead weight,
Adrian.”
“You signed away your rights because you didn't want to pay for Noah’s books.”
“I was wrong,” he whispered,
stepping closer.
“I was blinded by...
everything.”
“You were blinded by your own ego,” I corrected him.
“You thought you could throw us away like trash and start over.”
“How is the heir,
Adrian?”
He flinched as if I had struck him.
“There is no heir.”
“I know.”
“You knew three years ago,
didn't you?”
“I knew you were sterile,
yes,” I said,
my voice cold as ice.
“I tried to tell you after the surgery,
but you were too busy bragging about the company’s growth.”
“You told me to stop talking about ‘medical nonsense’ and focus on the family image.”
Adrian looked down at his shoes,
the same ones he had worn to the divorce.
“I’m broke,
Elena.”
“The company is gone.”
“My mother is in a state-run home,
and Vanessa is living in a studio apartment.”
“Is that why you’re here?” I asked.
“For money?”
He looked up,
his eyes filled with a desperate,
hollow hope.
“I just want a second chance.”
“There are no second chances for men who call their children dead weight,” I said.
I walked over to my desk and picked up a check.
I had already written it.
“This is fifty thousand dollars.”
“It’s the amount of the salary I never took while I was working for you.”
“Take it and leave.”
“If you ever come near this building or my children again,”
“I will have you arrested for the embezzlement you still haven't paid for.”
Adrian looked at the check,
then at me.
He saw the woman who had begged him to stay,
and realized she was truly dead.
He took the check with trembling fingers and walked out.
I watched from the window as he got back into the taxi.
He was a small man in a big world,
a man who had traded everything for nothing.
I turned back to my desk and picked up a photo of Noah and Lily.
They were laughing on a beach,
May you like
their faces full of sun and joy.
They were the only heir I ever needed.
