My family

Ethan

Beatriz then, feeling abandoned, ended up getting involved with another man, and thought she was in love with him, and as she didn't intend to betray me, after all, we had a great love for each other, she asked to end everything between us.

I knew that my girlfriend was just confused, it really wouldn't last, because she loved me, and I tried to convince her to just give me a break so that I could give her more attention.

She, however, was probably being deluded by the jerk she thought she was in love with and did not accept my suggestion and ended things between us and started dating the other man, who studied in the same class as her.

The courtship lasted a short time, and a little after a month, he broke up with her, which left her completely upset, because she called me, asking for forgiveness, saying that she had been deceived by a man who promised her the world, but who in reality had left her completely flat.

I knew Beatriz very well and knew that she didn't know how to handle loss, and that she was upset when things didn't turn out the way she wanted or desired and I was immediately concerned about her call.

I asked her to wait for me wherever she was, that I would come to her, but Bea didn't comply with my request and said she would come to me, that I would wait for her.

I didn't get to see Beatrice that night, for as she was coming to my house, she suffered an accident that took her life and left me completely aimless.

And when, a few years later, I found out from Joshua, my best friend and Beatriz's brother, that the man she had fallen in love with and left me for was the CEO of FERZ, Murilo Fernandes, I took it upon myself to ruin her life, just as he had done to mine.

Although I didn't know Murilo personally, we were investors in some common ventures, and I knew very well who he is, I just didn't know about our common past.

Knowing that he was quietly moving on with his life when he had messed up mine, was something beyond my control, and now, after having done several things to ruin his happiness, I had a trump card up my sleeve that I could use at the best opportunity, and I was sure that it would cause a great commotion in the press.

A scandal like that would never be forgotten, just hushed up for a while, but it would always be remembered, and I was willing to throw Murilo's dirty little secret to the fan, even if first I was going to use it in an extremely pleasurable way, and I would only be satisfied when I had Mariana in my bed.

Mariana

When Ethan demanded that I accompany him back to São Paulo, I believed that this indicated that he intended to spend Sunday with me, which I could hardly refuse, as he would most certainly use my refusal as a source for his blackmail.

So I prepared myself psychologically for what might happen and also did not say anything to my aunt about going back to São Paulo earlier than expected, since I was not going back to my house.

Surprisingly, Ethan did something completely different than I expected, and drove me straight to my house, leaving me quite confused by that attitude of his, still, I considered it nice, after all, I had managed to put it off for another day, maybe that more until the time when I would need to be with him in a way that I didn't feel as prepared as I would like to admit.

I walk into the living room of the small, comfortable house where I have been living with my aunt since I "won" the auction money.

"Are you back already, Mari?" Aunt Cilene asks, visibly surprised at my early arrival.

She was watching TV and as always happens when she sees me arrive, she smiled lovingly, happy with my return home.

"I'm back a little earlier than planned, Auntie," I agree, hugging her and kissing her cheek. "How did you spend last night?

My aunt is a woman in her sixties, a chubby and well-to-do little lady, who despite having gone through a very complex situation in the last few months, was still a happy and well-to-do person, as she always was.

Aunt Cilene raised me since I was just a newborn baby when my mother passed away after complications in childbirth and I loved her as the mother I didn't have, even though she kept a very special place for my biological mother that I didn't get to meet.

My aunt had a serious condition of poor blood circulation, which made her suffer a lot with severe pain, especially in one of her legs, and her doctor had recommended the amputation of the limb at the knee and the placement of an artificial one, the so-called prosthesis.

Since that was the solution found to lessen Aunt Cilene's suffering, we accepted, of course.

My aunt was not overwhelmed, but her adaptation to the artificial limb was slow and delicate, as is the case with most people of her age, and she was not able to fully recover the mobility of her leg, which made it very difficult for her to live in our old house.

Aunt Cilene had lived all her life in a narrow house, where she had vertically increased the space, given the little space that existed.

The house has two floors, and several unevennesses, which implied many steps and stairs, and with the adaptation process so difficult, the structure of the house only increased the problems and for this reason, we decided that the best thing to be done was to sell the house and buy one in which she could move around more easily.

But the highest offer we could get for my aunt's house was not even close to the value of the homes we found in the same neighborhood where we lived that was suitable for my aunt.