I remained kneeling on the ground, the credential trembling between my fingers.
The room was spinning.
I had to put one hand on the floor to avoid falling hb.
I read the name once.
Then another one.
**Mariana Salvatierra.**
Below the photo, in official lettering, appeared an address in Monterrey.
And further down, that word that had broken me in two:
**Wife.**
I felt something inside me break with a dry, invisible, definitive sound.
Alejandro had not only lied to me.
He had built another life.
Another woman.
Another home.
And I had been sleeping on the test for months.
I took a deep breath, but the air scratched me from the inside.
I looked at the package again.
There was a woman’s blouse with dark stains, stiffened by time.
A gold earring.
A crumpled receipt from a pharmacy in Monterrey.
And a small chain with a medal of the Virgin.
None of that was mine.
Nothing.
I continued to remove the filling with my hands.
I found another package.
Then another one.
One of them had photographs.
I pulled them out with numb fingers.
In the first one, Alejandro was hugging the woman with the ID card in front of a cream-colored house.
In another, she was smiling with one hand on her belly.
Pregnant.
In another, they were both holding a small cake with a candle.
There was no doubt.
It was not a fleeting affair.
It was a full life.
And I was the lie.
I felt like screaming, but no sound came out.
Just a broken moan.
Then I saw something else at the bottom of the mattress.
A thick, yellow envelope, stained in one corner.
I pulled it hard.
There were papers inside.
Minutes.
Receipts.
Copies of transfers.
And a sheet folded in four, handwritten.
I immediately recognized Alejandro’s handwriting.
I opened it.
The first lines made the cold rise up to the back of my neck.
“Mariana, if you’re reading this, it’s because something went wrong. I couldn’t keep supporting both lives much longer. Lucía started to get suspicious. The smell won’t go away, no matter how hard I try. I thought that wrapping everything up and putting it in the mattress would buy me a few days…”
I had to stop reading.
My hands were sweating.
My heart was beating so hard I could hardly see.
I refocused my vision and continued.
“I know you told me to take those things out of the house, but I couldn’t take them in the truck. I’ve had enough trouble cleaning the seat and the trunk. When I sort out the Guadalajara situation, I’ll go with you. I just need time so no one puts two and two together.”
Continued on the next page
