I don’t quite know how to begin.

People tell you to talk. To tell your story. So here I am, letting the words come out as they will.

My name is Iñaki Salgado. I’m in my early thirties, thin to the point of looking fragile, with dark circles permanently etched beneath my eyes. I learned long ago how to look tired without complaining. How to endure in silence.

My life used to be simple.

My wife, Ximena Arriola, and I lived in a small adobe house on the outskirts of Puebla, where mornings smelled of bougainvillea and fresh bread drifting in from the street ovens. We were elementary school teachers. We didn’t have much money, but we had something better—mutual respect, calm routines, and a quiet, honest love.

Everything changed one December, just weeks before Christmas.

Ximena had gone to the market to buy ingredients for tamales. A truck with failed brakes lost control at a wet corner and slammed into her. I was in the middle of teaching when the hospital called. I remember the chalk slipping from my fingers before I ran out of the classroom.

I barely recognized her on the stretcher.

The woman who used to walk fast, laugh loudly with her students, and sing while cooking lay completely still, her eyes wide with fear.

A severe spinal injury. Partial paralysis.

From that day on, my world shrank to a single room.

I took an indefinite leave from school. I learned how to lift her without hurting her, how to feed her slowly, how to change sheets, clean wounds, massage legs that no longer responded. Our home turned into a makeshift clinic—bandages, medications, rehabilitation tools, and the constant smell of alcohol and despair.

Family members suggested specialized centers. Professionals. Institutions.

I always gave the same answer.

“She’s my wife. I’ll take care of her.”

To survive, I took small electrical jobs—fixing wiring, installing lights, anything I could find. I came home exhausted every night, but I still sat beside her bed and read aloud from old books. Sometimes I talked about my students, the jacaranda trees blooming in spring, small pieces of life I hoped would remind her that the world hadn’t disappeared.

Ximena barely spoke.

She nodded. She cried quietly. I thought it was pain. Grief. Love trapped inside a broken body.

I never doubted her.

Years passed.

Friends stopped visiting. Some told me bluntly that I should let go, think of myself. I didn’t judge them. Caring for someone like that is a long, lonely road.

Then came that afternoon.

I was on my way to work when I realized I’d forgotten my wallet—documents, money, everything. I turned back, annoyed, thinking I’d be in and out in seconds.

I opened the door.

The light of the setting sun spilled through the window and exposed the truth like an open wound.

Ximena was not in bed.

She was standing.

Walking.

And she wasn’t alone.

An unfamiliar man stood beside her, hurriedly folding clothes and stuffing them into a large suitcase on our bed. They were laughing—softly, freely.

A laugh I hadn’t heard in five years.

“Hurry,” she said in a clear, steady voice. “Before he comes back. Take the money from the wardrobe. We’re going south and starting over.”

My keys fell from my hand and hit the floor with a sharp metallic sound.

They froze.

In Ximena’s trembling hands was a thick wad of cash—the money from my sleepless nights, my labor, the sacrifices made for medicines she had never needed.

I didn’t shout.

I didn’t hit anything.

Something inside me simply shut down.

“Since when?” I asked quietly.

Two years.

Two years of walking. Two years of pretending.

The man was a former lover. They had reconnected. She had played the role of a paralyzed woman to secure free care, a home, and money—while he “got his life together.”

“Iñaki… let me explain—” she said, stepping toward me.

I stepped back.

Five years of my life had been a performance.

And I had been its most loyal audience.

I went to the wardrobe, retrieved my wallet, and slipped it into my pocket.

“Go,” I said calmly. “Keep the money. Consider it payment for a flawless performance.”

They left in a rush, like thieves caught mid-act.

The house went silent.

I sat down and stayed there for a long time, allowing the pain to pass through me without resisting it. It hurt—deeply—but it no longer crushed me. For the first time in years, I wasn’t holding myself together for a lie.

I didn’t clean right away.

I opened the windows instead and let the night air of Puebla rush in, carrying away the smell of medicine, deception, and the past. I realized I was still here. Still breathing. Still allowed to choose.

The next morning, I returned to school.

I held the chalk with hands that trembled slightly but felt steady. My students looked at me—and for the first time in years, I felt anchored to life again.

I don’t know what the future holds.

But I know this:

I will never again sacrifice myself for a love built on deception.

The door to my old life closed—not with a violent slam, but with the quiet certainty of a man who had finally awakened.

And behind it, a new path began.