"I declare Mr. Carlos Albertos Saenz innocent, and the State must pay compensation in the total amount of 1,200,000 pesos, which must be deposited within 30 days from today. I said!" And the loud sound of the hammer hitting that small wooden platform, ended the hearing.

Santino Rivas had won a new case once again. In twelve years of career he had never lost one, and that led him to be considered the most successful and best paid lawyer of recent times. Therefore, not everyone had the purchasing power to pay for his services, and this was one of those cases.

Mr. Carlos Alberto Sáenz had been accused of murder, but turned out to be innocent, and thanks to Rivas he was not only able to win his freedom, but also a bonus for having been wrongly accused.

"Congratulations, Dr. Rivas," one of his team of lawyers spoke to him.

He just nodded his head in thanks and went on without another word.

Santino was the type of person who only cared about himself and put his own interests above others.

Arrogant, with an air of superiority, he looked down on everyone else. Apathetic, incapable of showing any kind of emotion for anyone, he had no qualms about expressing the only thing that interested him in every person who by necessity fell into his hands.

Although he belonged to a vip law firm, he was not looking to socialise with anyone. In short, he kept to his working hours. He barely answered his colleagues' greetings.

There wasn't a woman in the building who didn't gawk at him as he walked by. The indifference with which he behaved towards them made him more desirable in their eyes.

The years of his successful career at the firm had given him one of the most privileged places in the entire building, and that was the office next to the boss's office. Santino was synonymous with success, but everyone wondered about his personal life; in twelve years he had never even mentioned a partner. In fact, he didn't seem friendly with anyone, he just ignored them. His private life was a mystery. Some believed he was homosexual and others claimed that a woman had broken his heart, and that was why he was frivolous with everyone. The truth only he knew.

I had never been in love before. In fact, I didn't even know what it felt like to love someone or even have any kind of emotion for anything, no matter how insignificant. He wasn't the typical guy who would watch an action movie and imitate the male character. He would even turn on his 57-inch LED. Even though he bought it five years ago, he never took the plastic off, let alone turned it on. Come to think of it, he didn't know if it worked either, he just had it and that was it.

Everywhere he went, women turned to look at it.

At every stoplight where he stopped, there wasn't a person who wasn't intimidated by his presence.

But that morning everything would change.

Six months ago

Abril Evans was preparing to take one more subject of her degree and to be able to pass to the third year at the University of Law. All week she had been reading and re-reading because she dreamed of having that degree in her hands and giving her parents the joy and pride of having a daughter who, despite adversity and the environment of need in which she lived, was able to become a professional with a lot of effort. She wanted to buy them a house, no matter how small it was. A house at last. However, fate had something else in store.

After giving a kiss to Catalina, her 13-year-old sister, and her parents, she entered the building, not knowing that it would be the last time she would see her parents alive and her sister standing.

As the clock struck eleven in the morning, his mobile phone rang. As she looked at the screen, she read Mum. An icy chill ran through her, making her feel uneasy. A dreadful feeling came over her. She dreaded taking the call, but did so because maybe her mother had forgotten to tell her something. Maybe she was just feeling restless because she had spent the last few weeks sleeping so little because of the exam. Without further ado, he took a breath and answered.

"Hello? Mom?"

Even though she kept telling herself that everything was fine, something in her chest was wrong. She could breathe a heavy atmosphere.

"Is this the daughter of Mrs. Susana Cervantes de Evans?" she asked.

At that moment, she felt a pain in her chest and the pen fell out of her hand."

"Yes. And my mom? My dad? My little sister?" she began to become hysterical. At the silence of the person speaking to her, the more nervous she became.

"Please, miss, what has happened to my family?" She turned her attention to the sounds in the background. They were ambulances.

"I regret to inform you that the car in which the lady was traveling with a man and a minor has been involved in an accident. We need you to come to the Argerich Hospital."

The world stopped around him.

"But are they all right?" she asked with her voice cracking. Hearing no answer, he insisted by way of pleading, "Please, what happened to my mother and father?" She could no longer hold back her tears. Her heart was telling her that something bad had happened.

"I'm so sorry, your parents didn't survive."

She couldn't hear what the person on the phone said next, because tears blurred her eyes and a sharp pain shot through her heart and fragmented her body.

Her cry came out accompanied by a piercing scream that caught everyone in the classroom, her 80 classmates, including teachers and aides, by surprise.

"What's wrong with you, Miss Evans?" the teacher asked her, but she merely covered her mouth and screamed into her hands. Meanwhile, she fell to her knees and made involuntary movements back and forth.

At that moment, her best friend, Erika, picked up her cell phone, which was on the floor, and found out why her friend had burst into tears on the floor.

"And where is the little girl hospitalized?".

The doctors told her that she had been admitted to the nearest public hospital an hour ago and that she was in very serious condition, that she needed to be operated on and that they had to go to the clinic to get Abril to sign the authorization papers, since Catalina was a minor.

"Let's go there." Her friend hung up and helped Abril up "Come on, I'm coming with you. We have to go to the Argerich Hospital for you to sign some papers.

They knew each other and had been friends since high school. Although in their junior year they had a confrontation because of their unfortunate boyfriend, who lied to both of them and they took revenge on each other in complicity, which ended up consolidating their friendship.

Erika had the hard task of telling him what was going on with her sister.

The teachers allowed her to leave and gave her all their support in case they needed anything, but Abril only had a million questions in her head, among them: how did it happen? Who was the guilty party, if there was one?

When they arrived at the destination, and after checking with the Guard, he signed the operation papers and had the painful task of recognizing the bodies of his parents at the morgue. Although Erika told him not to do it, he felt strong enough, in spite of everything, to see them in that state and for the last time.

The doctor had explained to her in detail the severity of the injuries to her sister's spine and head. Sadly, if she survived, it was very likely that she would never walk again. Hearing this made everything in the girl collapse, because from one second to the next she would lose everything. In the morning she was the happiest woman in the world and hours later she was thinking about where she would get the money to bury her dead parents.

When she saw some policemen, she started bombarding them with questions, but they didn't answer a single one. She was desperate and needed answers.

Suddenly, she saw her parents' accident on Crónica TV news.

Witnesses said that it was a heartless guy traveling at full speed and apparently drunk, against his will and at more than a hundred kilometers per hour. The worst part of the case was that the guy is a national deputy. What were the chances that a powerful personality like him would be convicted for the crime of poor and humble people without putting his influence at stake? None. It was a losing battle. However, that was not all he had to face because in two months he lost his house, as it was mortgaged; his parents were the only ones who could pay for it and, even so, they owed because his mother works as a maid and his father as a master baker in the neighborhood bakery. So, when they died and they had nothing to pay, the bank started to auction the house, so, besides being orphans, they were now in the street, but, luckily, Erika, who lived alone, lent them part of her apartment. They lived there.

She helped her with Catalina, who used a wheelchair, which she got because her boyfriend's grandmother had died a year ago and had given it to her as a gift, and despite having to go to a special school because of her condition, the reality was that the girl had no will to live. Her dreams of one day becoming a dancer had been shattered. On the other hand, Abril could barely cover her and her sister's expenses with the paltry salary she earned at the health food store. To make matters worse, the doctor had given Cathy the hope of walking again with the help of spinal cord stimulation implants, but the whole treatment, which lasted about a year, had to be done in the United States and cost 200 thousand dollars, an amount impossible to raise, since in pesos it was more than 40 million. She did not want to break the child's illusion, but she could never afford the treatment. But one morning, six months later, her life would change completely.

Today

Santino was selflessly driving his white Mercedes-Benz C-Class 2022, one of the brand's newest and best, through the streets of Buenos Aires, never imagining what fate had in store for him.

Due to her need, Abril was forced to take a part-time job and make fast food deliveries on a bicycle that, from time to time, would puncture a tire and leave her on foot cursing the guy who had sold it to her.

She was so frustrated that she had to give up her studies so she could give her sister the operation she so desperately needed, the one she had dreamed of, that she overexerted herself so that the girl could use her legs again, even though she was sinking into a hole she knew she couldn't get out of so easily. In fact, she doubted she ever would, but that morning things were going to turn her life around.

When the light turned red, and he gave Santino the pass to move forward, he didn't see a young woman on a bicycle coming, who was hurrying across so she could get on the schedule, and ended up ramming her. Thank God, he barely hit her front wheel, but still knocked her to the ground. A small scratch appeared on her knees, which were bare because she was wearing shorts due to the heat.

"But are you an idiot?" she shouted as she realized that the contents of the trays were strewn all over the street. "Are you going to stand there or are you going to help me?"

As soon as his car hit the bicycle, he immediately got out, but seeing that the girl was fine and that nothing had happened to her, he turned his attention to the trunk of the car, which apparently had a scratch on it. When he realized what she had called him, he stared at her. It wasn't his fault, she had crossed wrong, why did he have to help her and get his suit dirty? After all, her bike had scratched his expensive car and he would have to take over.

"Oh, God, these guys don't know what humility is," Santino heard her say in an angry tone. He sensed that comment was directed at him.

"I'm sorry, did you just refer to me as 'these guys'?".

When April managed to gather all the trays and, as best she could, get the bike upright, she placed the packages in the basket and gave it her full attention.

"Yeah, any problems?" she asked him defiantly. If there was one thing he detested it was disrespect from people, especially if it came from individuals like him.

And for him there were two things that bothered him more than anything else:

1. being addressed with the terms she used, because he maintained that it was utterly disrespectful.

2. That they would mess with his most precious asset: his car.

"You need to apologize," he told her seriously and curtly. She began to look both ways. Noticing that his expression didn't change at all, she asked him who he was talking to. You. You must apologize immediately.

She put her hands on her hips and burst out laughing.

"You really are out of your mind."

He took offense at her comments and insisted she apologize.

April hated men like him, arrogant, overbearing, with pretensions to be lord and supreme over the world and everyone in it, but she wouldn't be part of that "everyone" just like that. She moved closer to him.

He held out his hand and she stopped short.

"You are invading my personal space. I demand an apology immediately."

Then, tired of the man's arrogance, she ended the conversation.

"You know what?" she smiled. In the meantime, she waited patiently for that apology, which in her wildest dreams would never come. "V, asshole!" and she left to get on with her work.

He, for his part, stood there, uncomprehending.

It was the first time he had ever been told "no" to something he proposed.