RT 3 — THE FALL
By the time Diego stormed out of the clinic, the news was already spreading.
His mother had called half the family in hysterics. Someone had leaked a blurry video of the ultrasound room. By evening, it was all over their social circles.
“The Rivera heir was fake.”
“Poor Diego got played.”
“Allison was never pregnant.”
Diego drove straight to the empty condo — the one he thought he would share with his new “real” family. The keys Catalina had left on the clerk’s desk were still there.
He opened the door and found nothing.
No furniture. No clothes. No trace of the life he had planned.
Only an envelope on the kitchen counter with his name on it, written in Catalina’s neat handwriting.
Inside were three things:
- A single ultrasound photo — of their real son Alex at twelve weeks, eight years ago.
- A note: “You traded real children for a fantasy. I hope it was worth it.”
- Divorce settlement papers he had signed without reading carefully — the ones that gave Catalina full custody, the children’s trust funds, and the right to relocate them out of the country.
Diego dropped to his knees in the empty living room.
His phone wouldn’t stop ringing. Creditors. His mother screaming. Sophia crying that their reputation was ruined. The family business partners asking why the “future heir” announcement had been posted everywhere and now looked like a cruel joke.
But the worst call came from his lawyer.
“Catalina’s team just filed for emergency relocation approval. She’s already in London with the kids. She had everything prepared weeks ago. You have no legal grounds to stop her.”
Diego laughed. A broken, ugly sound.
He had spent months planning his “fresh start.”
Catalina had spent months planning her escape.
And she had won without saying a single angry word.
