COLUMBIA ( ENGLISH VERSION)

Chapter 1

RACHEL

2023

- Are you leaving? - asks me the guy I just slept with whose name I don't remember

- Yes, why? - I answered already quite tired of always having to hear that question

- Nothing is that I thought you were going to stay - he answers me

- Well, honestly I'm not that type - I told him going to the door of his small apartment- Goodbye - I said goodbye before closing the door.

Honestly, I'm tired of the same thing all the time because they're always surprised when they realize I'm not going to spend the night with them.

You may wonder why I do it, the truth is that I have my reasons, which I sincerely believe is what has marked me the most in this life.

FLASHBACK 1 (2005)

- How are you leaving? - I hear my mother say from my bedroom so I decide to go down to see what happens

- As you can hear, I'm tired of our continuous arguments and of having to pretend in front of your whole family that we're fine because you know it's not like that - my father answers.

- Make no mistake, you've been sleeping with your secretary for months, don't bother me - My mother says angrily

- Well, yes, because nothing can be done simply with you - my father answers.

- And what about the girl? - asks my mother

- Look honestly, I'm about to have another child and I don't have time for more worries like Rachel is - I hear my father's words that completely destroy me.

-  GO AWAY! - I hear my mother say with anger

- But? - tries to say my father

"Don't give buts, look, I want you to leave this house okay, I'm not going to tolerate you saying that my daughter is a concern, so I want all of her custody and that you never come back, understood?" says my mother

"OK!" my father yells before leaving.

I decide to come out of my hiding place behind the sofa and ask my mother what was going to happen to our lives now.

- Mom, what's up? - I ask when I see my mother about to shed her first tear.

- Nothing honey - he answers me thinking that he didn't know anything and that he had gone down because of the slamming door that my father had hit.

- Then why are you crying? - I ask innocently as if I don't know anything

- Look honey, I'm going to be honest, dad has left, but I promise I'll try to do everything possible so that we are both the happiest- she answers a little calmer.

"Okay mom," I reply.

After this, a year later we moved to another town, yes, my mother worked very hard in an office.

And although my mother refused to find someone again, in the end a co-worker found him, honestly he is a great man and it's worth it for me that my mother is happy because she deserves it.

I honestly don't know anything about my father, he took my mother's words very seriously, he has never tried to re-enter our lives, the truth is that although the first years of my life have been hard, having a father figure , since you see yourself being the only one without a father, but after what he did to us we are better off like this.