Prologue

Today was supposed to be a good day. It was Saturday. Monday would be her birthday. And María loved her birthday — she always had high hopes for her birthday month.

Who knows? Maybe tomorrow her boyfriend would finally take her to dinner and give her that long-awaited ring.

But sometimes, reality makes science fiction look like a children’s book.

María was a lawyer — the courts worked Monday to Friday. So Friday night, she came home late, like always. Overtime. Deadlines. Clients that sucked her dry.

She didn’t tell her boyfriend anything about work. Didn’t want to sound pathetic. She had a decent title, though not the salary to match.

One more year — that’s what she told herself. Just twelve more months to strengthen her résumé.

She was two weeks away from surviving that year.

But the recent merger between two branches had turned her life into hell. There can’t be two leaders in one place — and even if that branch had been hers, she was the youngest, the least experienced.

They buried her work. Undermined her. Turned her own team against her. And they just fired her boss, and the new one was a jerk, only good to pretty ladies. Every day she woke up asking herself why she still went.

And still, she did, the debts were the reason.

She fought. Because that’s who María was — a fighter.

But lately her strength felt like an empty word, she felt like a shell of her old self.

She hated how her clothes didn’t fit anymore. She hated how tired she was to clean, to cook, to fix anything. She hated that stress made her eat, and eating made her hate herself more.

So she sank into the couch every weekend, sweatpants, TV, or her beloved webnovels — at least they were interesting her.

She didn’t tell her boyfriend any of this, either. He wouldn’t get it. And lately, he didn’t come home at time, always working, always on the phone.

On Friday night, María, the lawyer with a mind sharp enough to tear holes through airtight cases, finally let herself see it:

The hours didn’t add up. The smiles didn’t add up. The empty bed didn’t add up.

She looked. She found.

No ring. Just like the Chinese said, a green hat. She was cheated.

She didn’t sleep that night.

On Saturday, she got in her car to see her friends — to beg for advice like she hadn’t done in years.

The rain came down hard. Summer rain, heavy and mocking, like the tears streaming down her face.

“July. Damn rain in July,” she laughed to no one. “Even the weather’s laughing at me.”

She pulled off the freeway when she couldn’t see the road anymore, everything was gray for the rain. Hands white on the wheel. One part of her wondered how it would feel to just… let go. Let the car do what the world wanted to do anyway — break her.

But she didn’t.

She was María Morales Velasco. And she didn’t die for anyone.

Sunday. It ended, the relationship, the lie.

She didn’t sleep. The pain didn’t stop. She cried so much she thought she’d turn to salt.

“What is this? It’s just a stupid relationship. Why does it hurt like this? What the hell am I supposed to do with all this pain?”

The novels that once comforted her mocked her now — happily-ever-afters, everlasting love. She threw her phone across the room.

“Wouldn’t it be nice? To just… reincarnate in one of these dumb stories. Start fresh.”

She curled up tight. Made plans she knew she’d break — diet, job hunt, cancel the streaming. She hated herself for still caring.

She hated that she still wanted a tomorrow.

She fell asleep with the dawn scratching at her window.

And when she woke up — the carpet wasn’t hers.

Soft velvet under her fingers. No dirty dishes in the sink. No broken promises.

A room seven times bigger than her apartment. Cherrywood furniture. Crimson drapes.

A bed she didn’t remember buying.

She moved — almost tripped on her own dress.

A dress?

“What the—?”

She didn’t own silk nightgowns. She slept in old t-shirts and shorts. This wasn’t hers.

Maybe the job finally broke me.

María Morales Velasco, lawyer, thirty, thirty one, tired.

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Thanks to everyone who ends here for whatever reason, I tried to enter 2 other contests in other years, but the first my uncle died so yeah I was sad, and the other one I had so much work I just managed the 1st chapter, hope the 3rd is the lucky charm