She laughed, “Fine. But don’t think I won’t fight for custody. I’ll hire the best lawyers money can buy. You think a deadbeat like you stands a chance?”
Then her tone turned mocking. “Unless you want to lose Claudia too, you’d better get on your knees and apologize right now.”
That was it. I pulled out the document I’d been holding and threw it at her.
“You want to talk about Claudia? She's dead! Read this!”
Regina picked it up, confused, then froze. It was Claudia’s death certificate. Her name—“Claudia Andino”—stared back in stark black ink on white paper.
Regina staggered back like she’d been physically struck. “No... That’s not possible…”
Before I could speak, Hector suddenly chimed in, glancing at his phone. “Wait, that’s weird. Claudia’s nanny just texted me—she says Claudia’s been crying nonstop, looking for you.”
“My assistant said you went to the hospital this morning,” Regina snapped. “Don’t tell me you went there to get someone to fake a death certificate.”
Before I could answer, her palm struck my face—hard. The force sent me tumbling down the stairs, landing in a heap at the bottom.
Above me, her voice thundered in fury.
“Luciano! Just because you’re jealous of Hector, you went so far to wish your own daughter's death? You actually bribed a hospital to forge a death certificate?”
“You don’t deserve to be a father,” she spat. “Even a wild animal doesn’t turn on its own child. You’re worse than a beast.”
I pushed myself up, pain searing through my body. “You’re an absolute idiot, Regina,” I muttered through clenched teeth.
I reached out to grab the photo album on the floor, but her high heel came down on my hand before I could.
“Get lost!” she screamed. “You filthy piece of trash! You'd use a child to manipulate me! Don’t even think about stepping foot in the Seco estate again. Everything that belongs to our family—our child, our home—you’re not taking any of it!”
Under her orders, the bodyguards smashed Claudia’s and my luggage, tossing the pieces into the trash bins outside. The photo album Claudia and I had lovingly made together was torn to shreds and thrown out like garbage.
Eyes red, I knelt down, trying to gather the scattered fragments of the last memories I had of my daughter. But the more I tried, the more they slipped through my fingers.