Before the private jet.
Before the red dress.
Before the engagement ring she never asked for.
Helena used to call herself by another name.
"Lucía Montenegro."
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She was 22 when they caught her.
An unfair trial, no solid evidence. A bank fraud scheme where she was just another pawn. The real culprits were untouchable.
The judge looked at her like she was trash.
"Five years in prison. No right to bail."
But Helena never served the sentence.
A week later, a lawyer showed up with an envelope. No explanation. Just an offer:
"Field work. Social intelligence. High pay. High risk."
She accepted. Not because she trusted them, but because it was that or let the system devour her.
And that was how she met Arturo Santamaría.
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Julian's father.
The owner of everything.
He didn't touch her. Not at first. He just trained her. Taught her how to read men in a room full of smoke. How to walk into a party uninvited and leave with someone else's secret in her hand.
"You are no one, Lucía," he said one night as he clasped a diamond necklace around her neck. "But you can look like someone. And in this world, that's all that matters."
He turned her into Helena.
A woman with no past. No records. No family.
A beautiful, lethal shadow.
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The problem was that, at a fake engagement party, she met Julian.
He didn't know who she was. Thought his father had hired her as the event coordinator. But that night, Helena wasn't playing a role.
That night, Helena laughed. For real.
And that changed everything.
Loving Julian was a mistake. But also, the only real act of her life.
That's why, when his father offered her money to disappear, she hesitated.
Not because she cared about the deal.
But because, for the first time, someone truly saw her.
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In the present, Helena stared out at the sea from the boat, her hair tangled by the wind.
"You don't know what I was, Julian," she said without looking at him. "Or what I did to get to you."
"Tell me," he whispered. "All of it."
She met his gaze.
"If I tell you… you won't love me anymore."
"That," he replied, "isn't up to you anymore."