Chapter 17: Alejandro's Void
The morning sunlight filtered through the tall windows of Alejandro's office, casting long shadows across the floor. Yet despite the warmth of the light, a coldness had settled deep within him. He sat at his desk, a stack of paperwork in front of him, but his thoughts were elsewhere—far from the numbers and figures that had always been his domain. His mind kept drifting back to the empty space where Lía used to be.
Her absence was like a quiet storm, a presence in itself, whispering in the corners of his mind even when he tried to drown it out. It had been weeks since she had left, and yet, it felt as though she had been gone for much longer. The house was silent when he came home now, the place they once shared now empty of the warmth she had brought with her. No more laughter. No more small, intimate conversations at dinner. No more quiet moments where her presence alone had been enough.
Alejandro sighed, his fingers gripping the edge of the desk as he stared out the window, but it wasn't the view of the city that held his attention—it was the emptiness inside him.
For days, he had thrown himself into work, trying to distract himself from the gaping hole Lía had left. But it didn't help. Nothing seemed to ease the aching sense of loss. He had convinced himself that her leaving was just a moment of weakness, a passing storm that would blow over. But the longer she stayed away, the more he realized that this wasn't just a phase for her. She was gone, and perhaps, for good.
His phone buzzed, the familiar vibration snapping him back to reality. He glanced at the screen, and for a brief moment, his heart skipped. It was a message from Sofía.
"Do you want to meet up later? I've been thinking about you."
Alejandro felt a pang of frustration twist in his chest. Sofía. She had been there for him during the worst moments of his life, always willing to pick up the pieces. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring himself to feel the same way about her anymore. She was a comfort, yes—a distraction. But she was not Lía.
He typed out a quick response, his fingers feeling heavy as he pressed send: *Maybe later. I'm a bit busy today.*
Alejandro set the phone down, his gaze wandering back to the empty chair across from him. He could almost hear Lía's voice in his mind, the way she would tease him or ask him how his day had gone. He could still remember the way she would sit, legs crossed, arms folded, her eyes full of the warmth he had once taken for granted.
But now, all he had were memories.
It wasn't the first time Alejandro had struggled with loneliness. He had grown up in a household where affection was scarce, where his parents had always been too busy to pay him much attention. The cold, sterile walls of his family's mansion were more familiar than the warmth of a hug, and the silence between him and his parents had been so thick, he had almost forgotten what it felt like to be seen—truly seen.
As a child, he had learned to become self-sufficient, to bury any need for connection deep inside. After all, no one had ever really cared enough to offer him any form of comfort. His parents were always preoccupied with their business ventures, their status, their image. Alejandro had been nothing more than an afterthought—an inconvenience in their perfectly curated lives.
He had never felt like he belonged.
The memory came to him like a flood, a moment from his childhood that had shaped him into the man he had become. He was no older than eight, sitting alone at the grand dining table in the family estate. His mother had been too busy with some meeting, and his father had been away on another business trip. The house was cold, its grandeur oppressive. Alejandro had sat there, the heavy silverware in his small hands, staring at his plate of untouched food. He had waited, hoping—no, yearning—for someone to notice him.
But no one did.
The loneliness had been unbearable. It was then that he realized something that would haunt him for the rest of his life: he was never going to be enough for them. His parents had never asked about his day, never bothered to know what he was feeling. To them, he was just a piece of their legacy, an heir to their fortune. Nothing more.
In that moment, Alejandro had decided that he would never be weak enough to rely on others for emotional support. He would always be self-reliant, detached. To care too much was to make oneself vulnerable, and vulnerability had no place in his world.
He had carried that mentality with him into adulthood. It was how he had survived in a world that demanded perfection. It was how he had climbed to the top of his career, making sacrifices along the way—sacrifices that had cost him relationships, and now, it seemed, his marriage.
He glanced at the clock and stood up, walking to the window. The city stretched out before him, a sea of glass and steel. The world was moving, and Alejandro felt as though he were standing still, caught in a moment of his own making.
He didn't know what to do. Lía was gone, and though he had tried to convince himself that he didn't care, a part of him—one that he had long buried—was screaming in protest. He cared. He cared more than he had ever allowed himself to admit.
His phone buzzed again, pulling him from his thoughts. This time, it was a notification from one of his social media accounts. Without thinking, he opened it. His eyes skimmed the post, and then they froze.
There was a picture of Lía, her arm around a small boy, smiling brightly. And next to her was Diego. The same Diego who had been showing more interest in her than Alejandro could stand.
In that moment, a rush of emotions overwhelmed him—jealousy, anger, and a crushing sense of being replaced. He had thought that maybe, just maybe, Lía would come back to him. But now, seeing her with Diego, with that child, the realization hit him like a punch to the gut.
She had moved on. She had found someone else.
The void that had been growing inside him now felt unbearable, an empty chasm that he didn't know how to fill.
Alejandro's hands clenched into fists as he stared at the photo. A bitter taste rose in his throat. He had lost her, and there was nothing he could do to get her back. The truth settled over him like a heavy weight, suffocating him with its finality.
But even as the weight of it all pressed down on him, something in his chest hardened. He wasn't going to let this go. He wasn't going to let Diego win. Not when he still had so much at stake.
As the realization settled in, Alejandro's mind raced with thoughts of what he could do next. He wasn't finished yet. This wasn't over. But what was the next move? He wasn't sure, but one thing was certain: he would do whatever it took to get her back.