Alex forgot.
He forgot the sleepless nights when Helen stayed by his side, reviewing proposals, sending emails, making calls to secure contracts when his company was just getting started.
He forgot how she sacrificed her own professional growth to support him, how she worked alongside him without asking for anything in return.
He forgot that it was her who pushed him during moments of doubt, that it was her voice that encouraged him to keep going when he thought of giving up.
And Natalie made sure he forgot.
She whispered sweet lies, wrapping his mind in a slow but lethal poison.
—Helen is only with you out of convenience,— she'd say, caressing his face with delicate hands.
As Alex's eyes filled with rage.
—Look at you now, Alex… powerful, successful. Do you really think she'd still be here if it weren't for what you have?
Little by little, doubt settled into Alex's mind, until it became certainty. He started seeing Helen with different eyes, questioning every gesture, every word. If she asked for money, he saw it as a sign of her ambition. If she tried to get close, he interpreted it as manipulation.
Natalie convinced him that she—and only she—was the one who truly loved him. That Helen only represented a chain to the past, a time when he was nothing.
And so, blinded by deception, Alex forgot who had truly been by his side from the very beginning.
But everything came to a head when, with evidence manipulated by Natalie, Alex accused Helen of sabotaging the company.
A series of falsified emails, altered documents, and distorted statements made it seem like Helen had leaked confidential information to the competition. Overnight, she went from being the woman who helped build the company to its worst enemy.
—I can't believe you were capable of something like this,— Alex confronted her, his eyes full of rage. —All this time pretending to be my partner, when all you wanted was to destroy me!
Helen stared at him, disbelief tightening her chest.
—Do you really think that about me? After everything we built together?
—The evidence speaks for itself,— he said coldly, throwing a folder onto the table.
She took the documents with trembling hands, her heart pounding in her ears. She knew it was all lies, that someone had fabricated everything… and she had no doubt who it was.
—Natalie,— she whispered, a chill running down her spine.
But Alex was no longer listening. To him, her sentence was already written.
The police came one night, right in front of their son, and arrested her like a criminal.
—Alex, please, this is a mistake!— Helen pleaded, feeling the cold bite of the handcuffs.
But he only looked at her with contempt.
The cold, gray walls of the cell mirrored her own existence: empty, hopeless.
Prison had taken everything from her—her freedom, her dignity, and her hope. She endured insults from inmates and guards alike, humiliations, threats, isolation. But nothing was as cruel as the news she received one early morning, when a sudden pain in her abdomen jolted her awake.
Helen had kept her secret close. She knew she was pregnant but had never told Alex. She couldn't. She feared his reaction, because the man she once knew—the one who loved her with devotion—no longer existed. He had changed so much… What remained was someone unpredictable.
Helen curled up on the stone cot, feeling her body betray her. She screamed, but no one came immediately. The other inmates stared in silence—some with pity, others with indifference. When they finally took her to the infirmary, the verdict was clear and devastating.
—I'm sorry…— the doctor said in a flat tone, as if Helen's pain were just routine. —You've lost the baby.
Helen didn't react right away. Her eyes stayed fixed on the cracked ceiling, her mind trapped between reality and denial. A child… the last remnant of what she had once dreamed of… was gone before ever seeing the world.
Days later, sitting in the darkest corner of her cell, she hugged her knees and let the tears flow. There was no one to comfort her.
During all the time she was in prison, he never visited her. Not Alex, nor any of her friends… it was as if they had all vanished from her life.
In prison, when allowed to make a call, Helen contacted her parents, always repeating the same version, the same lie. She told them she was away on business, that she didn't know when she'd return. They understood, never suspecting the truth. Each time she hung up, the emptiness inside her deepened.
Alex didn't mention anything to her parents either—not to protect them, but to leave her completely alone.
When she was finally released, eight months later, her reflection in the taxi window showed what she already felt inside: there was nothing left of the woman she once was. Her eyes, once full of life, were now dull and hollow. Her pale skin, her thinner body, her hunched back as if carrying an invisible weight.
The outgoing and cheerful Helen had died in that cell. What remained was only an echo of the shadow Alex had destroyed.
Helen left prison with the little she had: a bag with her old clothes, some crumpled bills, and a name that no longer meant anything.
The first time she tried to return to the mansion where she once lived, Alex met her with a look full of disdain.
—You don't belong here,— he said coldly, standing in the doorway.
—I just want to see Luke,— she whispered, her voice breaking.
Natalie, who stood beside him, smiled while Alex spoke with cruelty.
—And after everything you did, you think I'll let you? Do you really think you deserve to be his mother?
The words cut her like knives.
—Please…— she begged, tears burning her eyes. —I just want to see him.
—No,— Alex said, firm and sharp.
Without another word, he closed the door in her face.
Helen was left outside, in the cold, in the silence, feeling her world shrink into nothingness.
She found shelter in a small rented room in a modest part of the city. A dim space, with damp-stained walls and an old mattress on the floor. There, in the shadow of her new home, she hugged herself and cried in silence.
Helen found work at a restaurant, moving non-stop between tables and the kitchen. From dawn, she scrubbed floors until they shone, picked up the dirty dishes left behind by customers, and cleaned tables with mechanical motions, the smell of grease and coffee clinging to her clothes.
In the kitchen, she washed mountains of dishes, the hot water burning her hands, while the sound of orders and shouting cooks filled the air. Sometimes, they asked her to help peel vegetables or restock the shelves.
Her shift ended late at night, when the last customer left and she had to ensure everything was spotless for the next day.
With rough hands and an aching body, she would leave the restaurant with her apron folded under her arm, facing the cold streets and the solitude of her new life.
Helen—the woman who once had a life—now had nothing. No family, no dignity, not even the right to see her son. And Alex, the man who once swore to love her, had made sure to erase every trace of her existence.