I see my Father arriving, and a smile instantly forms on my face.

Uuu... what happiness.

I haven't seen him for 3 weeks, and I missed him terribly.

Dad is the best of fathers, he is my hero in every way, I admire him and I feel so proud to be Alessandro Sandoval's daughter.

Although he has never taken me to his work, I know exactly that Dad is a successful man; yes, He and My Mother are the best of my world. The only bad thing is that he works too much, and is only at home on weekends.

...But now, Dad's face reflects a deep sadness, he looks distressed.

I run towards him, and hug him tightly as I do every time he comes home.

"Beautiful Daddy, you can't imagine how much I missed you.

What's wrong?, you look pale and very worried," I tell him, and he smiles, kisses my forehead with love, but doesn't answer me, instead he takes my hand, and walks with me to the kitchen, where my Mother is.

She turns to look at him, with her eyes glassy.

It is evident that something is not right between them, since he has not come home the previous two weekends, I suppose he is coming now to fix the problem.

The atmosphere between my Parents is tense, although in their eyes, that pure and genuine love with which they always look at each other has not diminished.

That is something that makes me happy and dream of finding someone who loves me as much as my Father loves Mom.

I see them and in Mom's gaze, that one so full of love, there is something else, there is resignation, sadness, pain and I need to know why.

It is obvious that they have to tell me something very delicate.

I know it by their worried faces.

Dad lets go of my hand, and goes to hug Mom, his hug is long, strong and very moving, in the distance I hear him whisper near her ear.

//I love you and I swear I need one last kiss// I see Dad look for her lips to kiss them, but She turns her face, receiving the kiss on her cheek.

Dad takes a deep sigh, directs his sad gaze towards me and moves away from Mom, leaving her standing with her face flushed, as if holding back tears.

I don't understand what is happening, but of course I realize that there is a problem and I need an explanation.

"Ale... Come darling, sit down," Dad tells me, taking my hand.

Many things go through my mind.

For the first time, my parents are fighting, could it be because Dad is going on a trip once again, and that's why Mom is angry, or could it be that my Father has a lover?, and Mom has discovered it.

Nooo that's not it. I must be crazy.

Because that is impossible, if I see the genuine love that my parents have for each other and in such a relationship, a third person could never exist.

I take a seat next to Dad, imagining any nonsense and waiting to hear what he is going to tell me.

"Look darling, I want you to know, that I love you and I love your Mother, as I never loved, nor will I ever love anyone.

You are, my reason for living, the reason why I get up every day, you are my strength, my enthusiasm, you are my joy, my happiness.

And for years, I begged heaven that this day would not come, but it came.

And I must accept it with resignation.

It is ironic that I myself have decided to tell you the truth, that for years I wanted to hide.

Some time ago, your Mother insisted on telling you this truth, but I begged her not to.

Now I insisted on Her, and I made this decision because you are grown up and can understand.

At the same time, I have decided to end the relationship between your Mother and I; but I don't do it because I don't love your Mother, I do it because She doesn't deserve to continue being my "lover".

And it hurts me, it hurts my soul, but even with this pain I must separate from Her." Hearing Dad has left me in shock, my mind cannot assimilate what I have heard, and I only have one word in my head.

Lover!!...

What is he saying?...

I can't believe what my ears are hearing.

It's something impossible to believe.

I have just turned 18, I am very intelligent, everyone talks about my brilliant brain, about my tenacious and perspicacious personality, so as not to let myself be deceived by anyone.

So, this that I am hearing must be a bad joke.

"I don't understand what you are saying Dad.

Is it a joke, right?." I tell him almost without being able to pronounce words.

"Beautiful princess, this is very difficult to explain, but I am going to do it.

Begging heaven that you can understand it.

24 years ago I met your Mother, in my family's company, She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and although she was 4 years older than me, for me she was and is perfect.

She, had already finished her degree in business administration, she worked in the accounting area.

I was a 20-year-old university student, and I was starting to get involved in the company that my grandfather founded in this country.

One day, the most fortunate day of my existence, I saw her by chance, and I was shocked by her beauty, and since that day, I couldn't stop going to the accounting area, because I fell in love with Her at first sight, as I never thought.

It was hard to convince her to go out with me, I think she thought I was a kid, but I was a very mature young man, like you are.

I insisted and got a date, from that day I felt that I could not live without Her, I was not only shocked by her beauty but by her personality, your Mother is a woman full of light, so genuine and transparent and I loved her from that first date.

She became my everything.

We went out for a few months without any problem and we were very much in love; but my Parents found out about our relationship and although I regret admitting it my Mother was classist and Dad listened to her in everything.

They forbade me to go out with Marlen, but I was of legal age and I was not willing to obey them.

My Mother was sick with high blood pressure, and taking advantage of the illness she suffered, she began to invite Antonia, the daughter of her best friend, (a friend that I never met), to the house to keep her company and help her feel better.

Antonia was a woman of high society, and refined, but what she had of refined, she had of artificial, capricious and manipulative; my Mother didn't care about that, and she began to insist that Antonia was suitable for me as a wife, since her only son should marry someone from high society.

Even so, I did not give Antonia Negrete a place, I was not willing to marry Her; that was crazy; besides I had an owner, Marlen Morelos and with Her my heart was complete, there was no room for anyone else.

We were like that for a while, I did not stop seeing your Mother.

One day I had the most beautiful of engagement rings made, the one that has never been taken off and I proposed marriage to her, She accepted without hesitation for a second.

I was happy, the love we had for each other was so infinite that nothing and no one else mattered. I was willing to marry Her, I told my Mother, that I had already gotten engaged to Marlen and even if she threatened to disinherit me, I was going to marry the woman I loved.

But there the irreparable happened.

On my 21st birthday Antonia in collusion with My Mother, got me drunk and the woman got into my room, in my bed and in my life.

I really don't remember what happened that night, I only know that my own Mother gave me my first drink and I woke up with the unbearable woman in my bed.

A couple of weeks later, Antonia together with my Mother gave me the news.

"I was going to be a Dad"...

(Alessandra)

I keep listening to my Father, but I still have trouble understanding what is happening.

—Oh my daughter, I know this is very complicated, but you must know everything.

Antonia's father arranged everything and within weeks he was married to a woman he didn't know, with whom he had barely exchanged a polite greeting.

The saddest thing is that I am still married to that woman.

You also deserve to know how your Mother has been by my side all this time.

It was 1 year after I got married.

Marlen literally rescued me...

Well, to forget my heartbreak and loneliness, I went out to get drunk almost every day, and the weekend was worse; I did it to avoid being at home, and in one of those drunken episodes, someone ran me over as I left a bar.

I was unconscious and woke up in the hospital.

When I was in that hospital, a young man helped me and called your Mother. I didn't want to go back home, I was in a very bad physical and emotional state; and I knew that only She could heal my soul.

Your Mother agreed to take care of me in her apartment for a few days; but I was never able to leave her care.

A year after my weekend visits to that small but cozy apartment, you were born.

Since then, for me, weekends are the happiest days of my life, and I hate having to leave on Mondays, but I have to.

You may wonder how it is possible that I am still married after so long.

The answer is clear...because I'm an idiot.

A successful and astute man in business, but manipulable and influenceable in my personal life.

Yes, my Mother, who had a heart condition for some time, always manipulated me.

First, because the twins Antonia and Andrea were small, and they needed me, because I am their Father, then with her illness and so time went by.

When I thought I was going to leave Antonia, she got sick, as I understand it she is still sick, and that's why I can't leave her.

And what is happening now, I have been postponing it for a long time, but I can't keep doing this to Marlen.

I know I am a real idiot, I always convinced her to give me time, because I had the hope of getting divorced.

But I couldn't do it and now I am convinced that I will never be able to get divorced.

I think your Mother is too wonderful a woman to continue in this half-life that I give her, as I told you a moment ago, Marlen does not deserve to continue being my Lover.—Hearing Dad is extremely painful.

The most painful truth I never thought I would hear in my 18 years of life.

Mom is crying and watching Dad cry.

I am in shock... I still haven't processed all the information.

And I only have one phrase in my head.

"She doesn't deserve to continue being my lover."

My brilliant brain is on the verge of collapse, and as I understand that phrase and analyze our life, a whirlwind forms in my head.

I am processing so many things and finding an explanation for everything.

It's that we are a strange family, but I didn't realize it until now.

I was like in a bubble, where I couldn't see more than allowed.

Since I can remember, my Father is only there on weekends, and I didn't complain about that, because I grew up like that, it seemed normal to me.

Because the time he spent with me was rewarding, he taught me so many things, he gave me my own private classes in finance and business, he brought important papers home to teach me everything he did, and I thought it was great.

But, we rarely go out to a public place and until today I saw it as normal.

My Mother is a beautiful queen, locked in a beautiful and luxurious house that looks like a palace; in her palace she has everything she wants, but only on weekends she is seen full and truly happy.

I am understanding everything and at the same time, I am feeling so disappointed.

And it is that, I have been educated with so many good customs, not only so that my way of acting is refined, cultured and with impeccable etiquette, but with so many tips, so many lessons to be a worthy woman, given to respect and distinguished wherever I go.

Mom always told me, that no matter how beautiful a person is physically, if their personality and moral values are not beautiful, their physical beauty is useless.

But the absurdity of it all is knowing that those who give me those lessons, and those who instill so many values in me, are precisely the people who have deceived me all my life.

How could they deceive me in that way？

I say to myself, as I look up and see my Mother, the most wonderful woman that exists, the one I thought was Perfect.

She is looking at me with abundant tears in her eyes.

She has her sad look, like I never saw it.

At this moment, that look that has so many times calmed my sadness, does not help me, so I stop looking at her.

I turn around and walk slowly to the living room of this immense house, I stop in front of a beautiful wooden piece of furniture that is near the fireplace. Here are images of the family, of Dad, Mom and me.

Photos of our happy moments, all those photos taken by ourselves, I stop in front of three of those photos.

I see Dad, the man I have most admired, and from whom I always wanted to learn everything, to whom I said, I want to be as smart as you and He would answer me, "you are"

He who always told me, that he only smiled when he was next to mom and me, He who I now feel that I do not know.

My mother, beautiful and elegant, the woman who educated me, making me see how valuable I am as a woman and who always tells me, never let anyone trample your dignity as a woman.

I also see myself, the mixture of Alesandro Sandoval and Marlen Morelos.

I see myself and remember every word of Dad, how proud he is of me, for the character, intelligence and strength that I have, and for how beautiful I am; he always says that I am identical to Him, in a female version and infinitely more beautiful; I always believed that we were the perfect family, now I know that we are not even a family formally established by law.

I am the daughter of my Father's mistress... and that hurts my soul.

And what I don't understand is how I didn't realize it.

I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't know how I'm going to face life from now on, I don't know how I'm going to see my friends again.

Now I feel like an idiot, one who always showed off a perfect family.

Everything is a lie.

I am naive, I felt proud that I was chosen for the graduates' speech.

I felt proud to know that I will study at Princeton University, and that I was accepted for having perfect grades.

I wanted to be the pride of my Parents, just as they were my pride, and my example to follow, that's what I said in the speech, in front of Them.

But now what face will I show on the street, if what I want is for the earth to open and swallow me.

My face is burning, I don't know what I feel, I don't know if it's shame, anger, pain or disappointment; maybe I feel everything at once and I don't know if I can handle it.

I also don't know if I can forgive them for having lied to me in this way...

(Alesandra)

I leave the photographs in the same place, so they continue to portray the perfect family we are not, before the gaze of my Parents, because even though I don't want to lift my eyes, I know they are here, watching me.

"Ale, Princess, tell me something," I hear Dad say, touching my chin to make me lift my face.

"What do you want me to tell you, or what do you want me to do, to hug you and congratulate you for telling me that I am a bastard, do you want me to hug you for telling me after 18 years that you have a wife who is not my mother and I don't know how many more children, do you want me to congratulate you for raising me like a fool, who didn't look beyond her nose?" I tell him with my voice broken, holding back my tears.

"No, no Princess, no Alessandra, you are not a bastard, how can you think that.

You are a legitimate Sandoval, your birth certificate says so, and you have all the rights as my legitimate daughter, you are my daughter... my beloved daughter, my pride, I loved you from the first second I knew you would come to complete my happiness.

When you were born, I was with your Mother in the delivery room, I saw you born and it was the most glorious day of my existence.

I love you so much, but I don't just love you, I feel happy to have you and not only because you are the daughter of the love of my life, I adore you for that character you have, for being the way you are.

And I am sure of something and I feel calm, and that is that you know how to lead your life.

You are the best, most obedient and responsible daughter.

You know how to behave and I am not talking about good manners, I am talking about the value you give yourself, the care you have for yourself," my Father tells me, taking my face in his hands.

"But now, what good is all that to me Dad, what good is everything I am.

If I feel that the castle where I lived has crumbled, it seemed like an ideal life, but I am nothing more than the daughter of Mr. Alessandro Sandoval's lover.

I don't know how they could do this to me...

Why Mom? Why?...

You lied to me, you lied to me my whole life...

You both lied to me, and I don't want to see you anymore," I tell them, getting up to go to my room.

In my mind I tell myself that I would like to leave this house, but I realize that I have no one, I have no grandparents, no uncles, I have nothing but lying Parents.

I arrive at my huge room, I look around and think that it is useless to have so much luxury, a dream bed, exclusive designer clothes, shoes and bags, jewelry, makeup and everything you could wish for.

At this moment, I would leave everything, I would rather have nothing and have a normal family.

Impeccable Parents, who no one can point at...

I stay crying without comfort, for hours, until I fall asleep.

I wake up abruptly, thinking that I had a terrible nightmare, when I hear the door.

I hear them knock again, I get out of my bed feeling my nose so strange and my eyes burning; I see myself in the mirror and I am with my eyes swollen, there I realize that it is a nightmare, but it is real.

The sound of the door calls my attention again.

I go and there is my Mother...

She also has swollen eyes, she has also cried, She is living the same nightmare, She is part of this dream that seemed like a fairy tale, but now it has become a terrible nightmare.

"Ale, my girl... What a relief that you woke up, come darling, let's go downstairs you must eat something, it has been more than 6 hours since you came to your room."

"I'm not hungry, I don't want to eat, leave me alone please," I tell my Mother, in a tone of voice with which I had never spoken to her.

"Look Alessandra, I know that what you are feeling now is very difficult to bear, I know that it hurts a lot; it hurts me too.

But there are things in life that must be faced, so You and I are going to have a conversation like we have never had before.

We need to talk, woman to woman." I see and listen to my Mother with so much determination, that I have no choice but to let her into my room.

Besides, it is a conversation that we must have and I am not going to postpone it any longer.

I walk to my bed and sit on the edge with my eyes on the carpet.

Mom pulls the stool from my dressing table and sits in front of me.

"Now I will tell you the other part of this painful truth," my Mother tells me with her voice muffled...

Her hands are trembling and her eyes reflect a lot of sadness, it is evident that she is suffering just like me.

Because this, which for many people is irrelevant, for me is the biggest disaster of my life.

"Your Father already told you how we met, now I will talk to you about me.

I was 24 years old when I saw him for the first time, Alessandro was the most handsome man I had ever seen, he had been frequenting the office, and he always went straight to talk to me, I couldn't believe that he would invite me out so insistently, I didn't know who he was, because his Mother always kept him away from everyone, although his bearing and elegance told me that he was from a world different from mine, I never imagined that he was practically my boss.

I also didn't realize that he was younger than me, because you see how his bearing is.

I accepted a date, and that first date was great, your Father was so gentlemanly, so gallant and he made me feel so good, that I was very excited about Him.

With the days, I realized that he was a very good man, but very lonely, a few weeks after our date, he confessed to me that he was an only child, and that his Father was the owner of Sand-Logistics, and that his Mother was very obsessive in knowing about the people he surrounded himself with; that was why he was a loner, he had no friends, all he had was employees and people at his orders.

Alessandro was so in need of company, I felt that in me he had found his refuge, that made me love him like no one else in the world, everything was going so well, I felt like the happiest woman on the planet, because your Father truly loved me.

A few months later, Mrs. Andrea Sandoval, went to see me at the office, she did it to fire me without any justification.

I didn't understand why, until she mentioned Him, there I realized, that he was not only the son of the owner of the most important maritime transport company in the United States; but that he had a manipulative Mother, who had already engaged him in marriage, with a woman of his same social class and that Mother, was a very cold woman.

That day I left the company under a threat, to stay away from Alessandro.

I suffered a lot, believing that I would never see your Dad again, but he looked for me, he told me that he didn't care about losing everything, that we would get married and that he was going to become independent because he was a responsible man and he knew how to do it. That day we made a plan.

A few weeks later, when we were about to start with our plan to get married and leave New York, instead of starting with our new life, your Father gave me the saddest news of my life.

The woman that his Mother had chosen to be his wife, was pregnant, it hurt my soul, and I suffered like never before, because now I had lost him, I had lost everything.

Your Father explained to me how things had happened, He felt like a fool who had been easily used and I believed him, I knew that your Father was not capable of deceiving me, because I learned to see how transparent his soul was, but even so I told him that we would not see each other again.

I moved away completely and erased all contact with Him, I blocked his number, so as not to receive his calls or messages, I had already made a decision.

But a love as great as ours, can never be taken out of the heart.

1 year later I received the call...

I never answered unknown numbers, but that call was very insistent; so I answered.

It was the voice of a young man, he told me that Alessandro was in the hospital and that on his deathbed he was calling me.

My heart stopped, I felt like my life was leaving me.

If He died, I would die with Him...