Chapter 3 Clara's Reaction

The silence that followed Ana's exit from the room stretched like a tight wire, charged with an energy that Ana could barely handle. When Clara slowly stood up from the bed, the room seemed to shrink even more, more claustrophobic. The words that had been suspended in the air were not enough to fill the abyss that separated the two women. Ana stood still, her chest tight with pain and confusion, as her eyes met Clara's.

Clara, for her part, had the empty look of someone who knows they've made an irreparable mistake. There was something in her eyes that seemed to be a mix of regret and fear, as if her own reflection were that of a stranger. But no matter how hard Ana tried to analyze her, nothing could calm the storm burning inside her. The pain of betrayal still felt so real, so fresh, that any attempt at understanding felt completely alien to her.

Clara opened her mouth to speak, but the words never fully formed. Her voice trembled, as if she were searching for the right way to express herself, to find something that could undo the irreversible. However, Ana, wrapped in her fury and pain, didn't need explanations. She didn't want to hear them.

"I don't want your explanations." The words came out of Ana with a speed and hardness that even surprised her. Her heart raced, and anger pushed her to keep her distance, to prevent Clara from having any chance to apologize or justify the unjustifiable.

Clara, however, did not stop. Her eyes, clouded with tears, seemed to beg for understanding, but the harshness of the situation left no room for anything but the fury of betrayal. With a sigh, Clara took a step toward Ana, but instead of drawing closer, it triggered the opposite reaction. Ana instinctively stepped back, one step, then another, until her heels touched the edge of the door. She didn't want to be close to Clara. Not now. Not after what she had seen. Not after what she had done.

"What do you want me to say?" Ana asked with a broken voice, but full of disdain. "Sorry? I regret it? I know, I did wrong. But please, understand, it wasn't my fault. Javier convinced me, he manipulated me. He knew you loved him and..."

Clara's words floated in the air, but they failed to penetrate the anger shield around Ana's heart. The image of Javier and Clara intertwined in bed remained alive in her mind, and hearing Clara's justifications only made her anger grow. The idea that her best friend was blaming Javier for her own actions was unbearable.

"Enough!" Ana screamed, her voice filled with rage. She couldn't take it anymore. She didn't want to hear another excuse, no attempt to redeem what couldn't be forgiven. Anger, frustration, pain, it all spilled out in that shout.

Clara seemed to break at those words. Not with the force of the betrayal Ana felt, but with a vulnerability Ana had never seen before. At that moment, Clara was no longer the woman she had shared laughter, confidences, and memories with. Now, she seemed small, broken, overwhelmed by the weight of what she had done. As if her own conscience were devouring her from the inside.

With shoulders slumped and eyes full of tears, Clara collapsed onto the bed. She hugged herself as if trying to piece herself back together, but the pain of the situation overwhelmed her. Ana watched her in silence, between rage and confusion. Every part of her being wanted to feel compassion for the woman who had been her friend, but the suffering she had caused made it impossible to feel pity. Clara was crying, but to Ana, those tears couldn't erase what she had seen, what she had lived in her own home, in her own bed.

"How could you?" Ana whispered, her words trembling with despair. A single tear fell down her cheek, and with it came an avalanche of pain. It was a pain she couldn't process, a sense of tearing that wouldn't let her breathe. How had she gotten to this point? How could she have been so blind? How could Clara, her best friend, have done this to her?

Clara raised her gaze, and in her eyes, there was a sadness that cut through the air between them. It was the sadness of someone who no longer knew how to turn back, someone trapped in a web of lies and regrets.

"I swear I never wanted this to happen." Clara's words were soft, as if she were trying to reach Ana with sincerity that, in that moment, seemed useless. "But he manipulated me, Ana. He told me he loved you so much, but that he couldn't go on with everything..."

Ana looked at her, her eyes filled with pain. Did Clara really think that this could justify what she had done? Did she think a simple "I'm sorry" could erase the image of her, naked in Javier's bed, betraying the friendship they had shared for years? No, Ana could no longer believe anything Clara said. The words became empty, as if they had no weight or value in the face of the magnitude of what had happened.

"Leave." Ana said firmly, her voice becoming cold and sharp. She could no longer stay there, looking at a Clara who, no matter how broken she had seemed in that moment, no longer had a place in her life. The betrayal didn't only come from Javier; Clara had crossed a line that couldn't be undone.

Clara looked at her one more time, her face showing a mix of regret and confusion, as if she were trying to find a reason to stay, to explain herself one more time. But there was nothing she could say that would change the reality of what Ana had lived. Words couldn't repair the damage, they couldn't erase the pain of the betrayal. After a long silence, Clara stood up from the bed, her steps hesitant, and left the room without saying another word. The door closed gently behind her, but in the room remained a heavy shadow of desolation.

Ana was left alone, in silence, facing the echo of lies, broken promises, and shattered illusions. Her heart kept pounding in her chest, but now there was a cold clarity inside her. She was no longer the same person who had entered that room. Trust, friendship, love, all of that seemed to have vanished into the air, like smoke, like something that was never real.

With a sigh, Ana collapsed onto the bed. She closed her eyes, trying to block out the images that assaulted her, trying to shut off the pain that still burned inside her. But in that silence, in that solitude, she began to understand something fundamental: she could no longer live in a world of lies, she could no longer hold on to something that was never real. The healing process would begin the moment she accepted that the people she had trusted no longer existed, at least not in the way she had known them.

The wind blew softly from the open window, bringing with it the promise of an uncertain future, but also the opportunity to start over. Although the path ahead would be long and painful, Ana knew she had to walk it, for herself. Betrayal had taken much from her, but there was still a part of her that fought to survive, to heal. And with that thought, Ana closed her eyes, ready for whatever would come next.