Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN IN THE CHICKEN COOP
Rodrigo Peralta walked into the chicken coop expecting to find a thief.
Instead, he found a woman eight months pregnant, curled up in the dirt.
And before sunrise, he would make a decision that would change five lives forever.
The smell hit him first.
Wet straw.
Trampled earth.
The sharp heat of restless chickens shifting through the darkness.
Rodrigo raised his lantern.
For three nights, something had been stealing eggs from Rancho El Nogal.
He expected a possum.
What he saw was an old suitcase.
Then a pair of worn shoes.
Then a frightened young woman with one arm wrapped protectively around her swollen belly.
She couldn't have been more than twenty-three.
“Please.”
Her voice trembled.
“I wasn't stealing anything.”
Rodrigo stopped several feet away.
He had learned long ago that frightened people didn't need someone towering over them.
They needed space.
“What are you doing here?”
“I just needed somewhere dry.”
“Where's your family?”
Her eyes dropped.
“I don't have anyone.”
Rodrigo looked toward the open door.
A hard norther was rolling across the hills.
The temperature was already dropping.
“You can't stay out here.”
“I'll leave.”
She tried to stand.
Pain crossed her face immediately.
Rodrigo raised one hand.
“Sit down.”
She froze.
“I said sit down before you hurt yourself.”
Slowly, she lowered herself back onto the straw.
“What’s your name?”
“Valentina Cruz.”
“I'm Rodrigo Peralta.”
She gave a tired little laugh.
“I know.”
That surprised him.
“Everybody around here knows who owns El Nogal.”
Rodrigo almost smiled.
People knew his ranch.
They knew his money.
They knew the Peralta name.
Very few knew him.
He looked at her suitcase.
“That everything?”
Valentina nodded.
Rodrigo was silent for several seconds.
Then he extended his hand.
“This baby needs a roof.”
Valentina stared at him.
“My sons need someone around the house.”
Her expression hardened immediately.
“If you're offering me charity—”
“I'm offering you work.”
That stopped her.
“Cooking.”
He counted on his fingers.
“Laundry.”
“Keeping two boys from destroying my house.”
Despite herself, Valentina smiled.
“I'm serious.”
“So am I.”
Rodrigo glanced toward the storm.
“You can stay until after the baby's born.”
Valentina looked at his hand.
Then at the house in the distance.
“What do you want in return?”
The question struck him harder than she intended.
Rodrigo lowered his hand slightly.
“Nothing except what I already said.”
She searched his face.
Apparently she found whatever answer she needed.
Because finally, she took his hand.
Rodrigo helped her stand.
Neither of them knew that Mateo was watching from the kitchen window.
And when the ten-year-old boy saw his father walking toward the house with a pregnant stranger beside him, something cold settled inside his chest.
His mother had been gone for eighteen months.
Nobody was replacing her.
May you like
Nobody.
Especially not this woman.
