BILIONARIO WAS TAKING HIS FIANCÉE HOME, UNTIL HE SAW HIS EX CROSSING THE PEDESTRIAN CROSSING WITH TWINS

 

Alejandro Cruz adjusted the knot of his tie with an automatic gesture and glanced sideways at the reflection of his Rolex on the dark glass of the dashboard. The traffic on Paseo de la Reforma was leaping forward, bright and slow, as if the city were waking up before rush hour. Next to her, Renata Villarreal checked her lipstick with the tranquility of someone who is used to the world making room for her.

“I really don’t understand how you got a table today,” she said, adjusting her designer glasses. The place is always full. I swear my friend has been trying for two months.

Alejandro smiled without taking his eyes off the road.

When you sign energy contracts for half the country, suddenly tables appear… and miracles,” he joked, although the joke sounded more tired than he wanted.

Renata let out a light chuckle. She was just that: light. Pretty, successful, independent. And, above all, “without complications”. It was the kind of relationship Alejandro had promised himself to have after the emotional disaster of a year ago. By forty, with an empire of solar and wind farms to his name, he had learned to shield his private life as he shielded his investments.

No more promises. No more discussions about “how do we look in ten years.” No more baby nuggets and family dinners that made him feel trapped.

The light changed to red and Alejandro braked gently. The engine of the luxury SUV purred like a happy feline. Renata took his hand.

“I love that you don’t live with that eternal stress anymore. At first, when we were dating, you seemed… I do not know… a hurricane.

“Hurricane”. Lucia had also told him so.

And just thinking about that name, his chest tightened.

Lucía Hernández: his ex-fiancée. The woman he was about to marry, the one who smelled of freshly brewed coffee and sang without realizing it when she cooked. The one who, one night, looking at him with a mixture of fear and tenderness, told him that she wanted a family. And he, brutally honest, answered no.

“I wasn’t born for that.”

It was a clean break. No shouting. No dramas. Two adults accepting that they wanted different things… and even so, Alejandro had felt a strange emptiness the first months. Like when you leave a house that was yours and suddenly you don’t know what to do with silence.

He looked up to distract himself… and then he saw her.

At the pedestrian crossing, among a river of people, a woman advanced with a careful step. Her copper hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail, without glamour, without pose. She was carrying two babies: one in a blue baby carrier and the other in a pink blanket. He arranged them with such natural dexterity that Alexander’s mouth went dry.

I didn’t need to see her in the face. I knew her by the way she shrugged her shoulders when she was tired. Because of how he tilted his head to hear better. Because of that way of walking as if he were always taking care of something fragile.

Lucia.

In the middle of the crossing, one of the babies began to complain. Lucia stopped his step, cooed to him with her free hand and murmured a song to him. It wasn’t just any song: it was the same melody she hummed when she was nervous. The same one that Alejandro had heard in his apartment a thousand times without giving it importance… until now, when that sound went through traffic and hit his heart.

The crying died down. Lucia kept walking. A second later, he was lost in the crowd.

The light changed to green.

The cars behind Alejandro began to honk their horns.

Renata spoke to him, but her voice came from afar.

“Alejandro?… Is everything okay?”

He blinked, as if waking from a dream. He accelerated without thinking too much, feeling an absurd tremor in his fingers.

“Yes… sorry. Work stuff,” he lied.

But he wasn’t thinking about contracts.

I was thinking about those babies.

And in the inevitable calculation: the time since he and Lucía broke up… It was exactly long enough for those twins to be that age.

Renata watched him carefully, like someone taking a mental photo.

“It changed your face.” Who was that?

“No one,” he replied too quickly. Only… I got distracted.

Renata did not insist. She was mature, and Alejandro liked that. Or he thought he liked it. Because, inside, something was collapsing like a poorly founded building.

That night, in the expensive restaurant, the meat tasted like cardboard. The wine did not warm him at all. Renata was talking about her upcoming exhibition and a trip to Valle de Bravo, but Alejandro only saw a pedestrian crossing, a woman humming, two blankets: blue and pink.

When he dropped Renata off at his apartment in Santa Fe, she kissed him on the cheek.

“Don’t let anything eat you alive,” he said softly.

Alejandro nodded, but as soon as he closed the elevator door, he knew he wasn’t going to sleep.

In his penthouse, the view was perfect: lights of Reforma like a luminous snake, the city at his feet. And yet, the place felt empty. Too tidy. Too cold.

At two in the morning, he dialed the number of Tomás, his lawyer and trusted friend.

“I need to locate someone,” he said, bluntly. No gossip, no press, no … crap. Only… I need to talk to her.

Tomás took a second.

—¿Lucía Hernández?

Alejandro closed his eyes.

“Yes.

“I’ll send you an address.” And, Alejandro… If you’re going to open a door, enter with respect. Not with pride.

The next morning, under a fine drizzle, Alejandro stood for forty minutes in front of a modest building in Roma Sur, looking at the bell of 3B as if it were a detonation button.

Finally it was time.

Lucía opened with one baby in her arms and the other leaning on her shoulder. She had dark circles under her eyes, her sweater stained with milk, her hair tied back with some kind of rubber band. And yet, Alejandro found it more beautiful than ever, because that image was not to impress anyone: it was real.

He stood motionless at the sight of him.

—… Alejandro,” he said, without raising his voice, as if he were afraid of waking the children.

The baby with the pink blanket let out a whimper. Lucia calmed him down with an automatic “shhh.”

Alejandro swallowed.

“I saw you yesterday. In Reforma.

Lucia looked at him with a tense calm.

“I didn’t think you recognized me.

“Who are they?” he asked, and he hated the way his voice trembled. Lucia… tell me the truth.

She held his gaze for a few seconds that seemed eternal. Then, carefully, he stepped aside.

“Come in. But he speaks softly.

The apartment was small, warm, full of life. There was a carpet with toys, bottles in the kitchen, a list attached to the fridge with vaccines and schedules. Nothing luxurious. All about love and survival.

Lucia left the babies in a double bassinet. The boy—blue—looked at Alejandro with gray eyes that gave him a direct blow to the stomach. The girl—pink—pursed her mouth, as if annoyed by the interruption.

“Their names are Mateo and Emilia,” Lucia said. Four months.

Alejandro took a deep breath, as if the air were heavy.

“Are they mine?”

Lucia pursed her lips. The answer was written in his eyes before he spoke.

“Yes.

The world bowed down to him. Alejandro leaned on the back of a chair.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Lucia looked at him with a mixture of sadness and firmness.

“Because you were clear. Because I heard you say “I wasn’t born for that.” Because when I talked about children, you changed the subject as if I were putting a chain around your neck.

“I could have changed.

“And if not?” she asked, and then she broke down a little. What if I forced you and then… Did you look at me with resentment every morning? If children grew up feeling that their father was “complying” with them as if he were paying a debt?

Alejandro felt ashamed. And also anger… but not towards her.

“I… I had a right to know.

“Right?” Lucia laughed humorlessly. I had to learn how to change two diapers with one hand and prepare formula with the other. I had to go to the hospital alone when Emilia had a fever. I had to juggle my work, with money, with fear. Do you know what my right was? Keep them at peace.

Mateo began to cry. Alexander took an instinctive step, but stopped.

Lucia took him in her arms with ease and cooed to her. And Alexander saw something that left him cold: Matthew calmed down when he heard Alexander’s voice say, almost unintentionally:

“Hello… champion.

Lucía looked at him, surprised.

“Sometimes… When they cry too much, I tell them about you,” he confessed in a thread of voice. Not your money. From you. How you laugh when a joke beats you. How serious you get when you think. From… what I loved.

That disarmed him. And then came the twist that Alejandro did not expect.

“There’s another reason,” Lucia added, lowering her gaze. Your mom came to see me.

Alejandro stiffened.

“My mother?”

Lucia nodded.

“Shortly after we finished. He looked for me. He told me that you “weren’t cut out for that life” and that if I got pregnant, I was going to ruin you. He offered me money… to leave, to never “appear”. And when I found out about the twins, he came back. I didn’t accept his money, but… I was scared. I thought if I told you, she would make a war. And I didn’t have the strength for wars.

Alejandro felt something ignite in his throat.

“No… no way.

Lucía looked at him wearily.

“I didn’t want to fight you. Not even with your family. I wanted to raise my children peacefully.

At that moment, Alejandro’s cell phone vibrated. It was Renata.

“Can we talk? I notice you are strange. It worries me.”

Alejandro turned off the screen.

“Lucia…” Let me see them. Only… Let me be a little bit.

Lucía stared at him harshly.

“I’m not going to let you in and out. I’m not going to allow you to become a “visitor.” If you want to be there, it’s complete. With bad nights, with tiredness, with decisions. If not… Better leave today and don’t confuse them again.

Alejandro felt an ancient fear: the fear of losing control. But, for the first time, that fear did not make him flee. He made him stay.

“I want to make it whole,” he said. And I know that it is not enough to say it. I’m going to prove it to you. Step by step. As you say.

Lucia looked at him for a long time. Then, in a low voice:

“First, a DNA test. For them. So that everything is clear.

“Yes. Whatever you ask for.

Matthew, in Lucia’s arms, looked at Alejandro again and opened his hand, as if looking for something. Alejandro approached slowly and offered a finger. The baby held him tightly.

That simple grip broke his chest.

—

The test confirmed the obvious. Alejandro did not tell the press. He did not make it a scandal. He turned it into a plan.

He gave up the early morning meetings. He restructured his company to delegate. He had Thomas draft clear custody and liability agreements, but without coldness: as a commitment, not as a contract.

And he went to confront his mother.

“What did you do?” He asked, his voice breaking, in the huge living room of the family home in Las Lomas.

Doña Teresa, impeccable, looked at him with a dignity that could no longer cover the guilt.

“I protected you.

“You took my life,” replied Alejandro. You took my children away from me for four months. And you almost took away my opportunity to be someone better.

The conversation was hard. Long. Without melodrama, but with open wounds. In the end, her mother cried for the first time in years and accepted something she had never accepted: that she couldn’t control everything.

—

The following months were a clumsy and beautiful apprenticeship.

Alejandro changed diapers with trembling hands. He fell asleep sitting with Emilia on his chest. She learned that crying is not always “solved”, sometimes it is only accompanied. Lucia, at first, did not let her guard down. And it was fine. Trust was not a button. It was a construction.

Renata, when Alejandro told her the truth, looked at him in silence. Then, he exhaled.

“I thought I wanted a life with you,” he said. But I don’t want to be an obstacle in something like that. And… I also don’t want to be chosen for comfort. If you’re going to stay, let it be for love.

They said goodbye with respect. No villains. Only with truth.

—

A year later, in a park in Coyoacán, Mateo ran with clumsy steps after a ball, and Emilia screamed with laughter in Alejandro’s arms. Lucía watched them from a bench, with a coffee in hand and the sun beating down on her face.

Alejandro sat down next to him.

“Do you remember the day we broke up?” he asked.

Lucia smiled sadly.

“Yes. You said you wanted freedom.

Alejandro looked at his children, and then at her.

“I didn’t understand that freedom without love… It feels like an empty house.

Lucía watched him in silence, as always, measuring if the words came with deeds behind them. And Alejandro, instead of promising, took a small box from his pocket.

Lucía opened her eyes, alarmed.

“No… Alejandro…

“I’m not asking you to forget,” he said. Nor that you trust just because. I’m asking you to keep choosing each other, slowly. Let us try, without masks. I don’t want to run away anymore.

Lucia put a hand to her mouth. Emilia, as if she understood the moment, stretched out her arms towards her mother.

Lucia took it, and the weight of her daughter gave her a strange calm. He looked at Alejandro, at the little box, at Mateo laughing with the ball… and finally nodded, with tears.

“Yes,” he whispered. But on one condition.

Alejandro smiled, almost laughing nervously.

“Whatever.

“That you never decide for us again without listening to us.”

Alejandro closed his eyes for a second, grateful.

“Done.

When they hugged, it wasn’t the perfect movie hug. It was a real hug: tired, trembling, full of history. And yet, it was the safest hug Alejandro had ever felt in his life.

Behind them, the city continued with its noise. But there, in that park, the future finally looked really simple: not because there were no challenges, but because they were no longer alone.

And, for the first time, Alejandro Cruz understood that the most valuable thing he could build was not a company.

It was a home.