I’m Luis, I just turned 20, I’m 1.80 meters tall, I have a nice appearance and I’m a sophomore at a university in Mexico City. My life was pretty normal, until I met Doña Carmen—a wealthy 60-year-old woman who had owned a chain of major restaurants before retiring.

We met by chance at a charity event I attended with the college club. Doña Carmen, with her elegant bearing, her penetrating but warm gaze, impressed me from the first moment.

Although we were 40 years apart, we soon became very close. She told me about her life: an unhappy marriage, no children, and decades dedicated entirely to building her emporium. I was attracted by his intelligence, his experience, and also by the loneliness that he hid behind the smile. Just three months later, I decided to propose to her.

“I don’t care about age,” I said, kneeling in the rain. I just know that I want to be with you.

My entire family was furiously opposed. My parents called me crazy, claiming that Doña Carmen was “buying” me with money. Cousins, uncles and even neighbors murmured that I only wanted their fortune. But I didn’t listen to anyone. I truly loved her, not for the money, but for the peace she gave me, something I had never felt in my previous relationships. After much discussion, I moved out on my own and arranged the wedding with my parents’ reluctant acceptance.

The wedding was simple, with a few close friends and some of Carmen’s former associates. On the wedding night, in his luxurious mansion in Polanco, I was nervous like any young man who loves for the first time. She, despite her 60 years, maintained a distinguished and elegant air. He came out of the bathroom in a silk nightgown, sat down next to me, and placed in my hands three deeds of land in the center of the city, valued at tens of millions, along with the keys to a newly purchased Porsche for 6 million pesos.

And then he gave me a statement that made my blood run cold.

I stood motionless, staring at the shiny keys and thick writings. My heart was pounding in my chest. I stammered:

“What… What does this mean? I don’t need these things…

Doña Carmen smiled slightly, with deep eyes that caused me both fear and intrigue. He took my hand and, in a deep voice, said:

“Luis… If you have already chosen this path, you must know the truth. I didn’t marry you just to have company. I need an heir.

I froze. “An heir?” What do you mean…?

He paused, and then, in a serious voice, explained:

“I don’t have children. My fortune, of hundreds of millions, if it is not in the name of someone trustworthy, will end up in the hands of greedy distant relatives, who have been waiting for years for me to die to divide it all. I want everything to be yours. But… There is a condition.

The air in the room became dense, I had a hard time breathing. I asked in a broken voice:

“What condition…?”

She looked me straight in the eye and said, slowly:

“Tonight… You must really become my husband. Not only on paper. If you don’t… tomorrow I will tear up these deeds and annul my will.

I was stunned. My head was spinning. All the love that I thought was pure was tinged with a strange power game.

I swallowed, my heart pounding. And when, trembling, I stretched out my hand to her delicate silk nightgown… Doña Carmen suddenly held my arm tightly, and an icy glint appeared in her eyes.

—Wait, Luis. Before you go any further… you need to know a secret about my ex-husband’s death.

Doña Carmen squeezed my hand. Her voice trembled slightly, but her gaze was as cold as a blade:

—Luis… the truth is that my husband didn’t die of a heart attack, as everyone believes.

I froze. My whole body tingled, and I swallowed.
“What… what are you saying?”

She took a deep breath and looked at me straight in the eye:

—He hit me, he humiliated me… One day, in a fit of rage, he tripped on the stairs. I didn’t push him… but I didn’t help him either. I let him fall. And ever since then, I’ve carried that weight.

The room fell silent; all I could hear was the rapid beating of my heart.

“Now you understand,” he continued. “I don’t want my fortune to end up in the hands of the vultures who hate me. I want it to go to someone who has the courage to stay, even knowing who I really am.”

Trembling, I stared at the woman before me: as vulnerable as she was fearsome. On one side, the love and protection I’d felt; on the other, a secret capable of destroying everything.

I took a deep breath and took her hand:
“Carmen… I can’t change the past. But I can choose to stay. Not because of your money, but because… I choose you.”

Her eyes moistened; for the first time, I saw her fragile. She rested her head on my shoulder and whispered, ”
Thank you, Luis. No one has ever chosen me like this.”

That night was no longer a power exchange, but two unknown souls meeting in the darkness.

The next morning, when light flooded into the Polanco mansion, I woke up to see the three deeds and the keys to the Porsche on the table. But this time, they weren’t a condition: they were a deposit of trust.

I smiled, placed my hand on her sleeping shoulder, and murmured,
“The world may never understand us. But as long as we’re together, that’s enough.”

Outside, Mexico City was still noisy and full of prejudice. Inside that room, there were only two people—a young man and a woman of experience—who dared to choose each other despite all the murmurings.

And that was the beginning of a love story that the family called “madness”… but for us, it was  the only truth .

END