Summary
Alejandro, a powerful, millionaire, attractive, womanising and capricious CEO, was surprised that his new secretary refused to sleep with him when they all fell at his feet. Maybe that's why none of them lasted more than two weeks, because he quickly got tired of them, but Valeria refused, leading him to pursue her with various strategies to achieve his goal, not forgetting his fun with the other women. Without realising it, Valeria became his right hand and he needed her even to breathe, but he only recognised his love when she reached her limit and left him.
Chapter 1. The Contract
**VALERIA**
I had been working for Zalco for 6 months when they called me from the personnel office, I came straight away, there were 3 days left of my trial contract, I had 2 options, I was effective or they fired me and the truth was that I had no indication of what could happen, I never had problems with anyone, my job was simple so I made no mistakes and it was well paid.
It was enough to rent a flat with two friends and eat every day, travel, buy clothes and go on some trips.
I had enough clothes because my work required me to be elegant and quite formal.
These were not the clothes I wore to school, much less to go out, although I often stayed late at work and could not go back to the flat to change because I went straight from work to school.
I announced myself to the Chief of Staff's secretary.
I was quite nervous, I can't deny it, I didn't want to be out of work because it meant going back to my parents' house and I didn't want to do that, not because of them but because it would mean seeing my exboyfriend all the time.
We lived 2 blocks apart.
I thought he was the love of my life and I was the love of his.
When we started dating, I was 16 and he was 20.
My parents didn't approve of me having a boyfriend at such a young age.
They said I was wasting my adolescence with someone who might not be worth it.
I didn't understand their reasons.
The first year was rosy, even though I left my friends behind.
The second year was when I finished school and it wasn't the same as the first.
He often went out with his friends and I didn't want to go out with my friends, I had few friends left.
I was always at home.
When I had to go on a school trip with my classmates, I did it because my parents forced me to, saying that they had paid for the trip for two years and that it was a lot of money to throw away.
Now I regret that I did not enjoy the trip as much as I should have.
When I came back after 10 days away, I found out that some friends had seen my boyfriend several times making out with a girl from the neighbourhood with a dubious reputation.
He didn't deny it, he just told me that I had left him to go out and that he was doing the same thing I was doing with who knows who.
Then he told me that he had slept with her a few times, but that it was nothing important and that I should forgive him.
So I did, I forgave him.
I started college and he didn't like it at all, he was always with his group of friends at that time, including this girl he went out with when I was travelling.
My parents talked to me for hours, telling me not to leave school, that it was only 4 years and that I would have a degree that would help me for life, that I wouldn't have to work, that I should dedicate myself to studying.
I was still seeing Diego, but things were not going well.
He was going out more and more with his friends, he wasn't studying, he was working with his father, he wasn't doing badly financially, but he wasn't doing anything for his future either.
It had been three and a half years that we had been together, when several friends and even my cousin hinted to me several times that he was seeing other girls, I did not want to believe them and it hurt me to be told about him.
Then one afternoon Emilia arrived, my best friend, one of the few I never stopped seeing, we even chose the same career and studied together.
You have to open your eyes, Diego is cheating on you with two different girls.
Don't get carried away by what others say.
I saw him, come with me and take off your blindfold.
If you're talking about the girls who are usually in that group, they must just be friends.
Enough, yours is a habit or a fear and he's a bastard, you can't love that guy and I'm sure he doesn't love you and he doesn't love anyone.
It's not like that.
I'm going to tell you straight, even if it hurts, he got a girl pregnant.
I remember sitting down because I understood that Emilia was not lying to me.
I felt an intense pain.
Could he be such a bastard?
Did he really not care about me at all?
Was he going to be a father?
I accompanied her, we walked a few blocks, there was a square where he spent many afternoons with his friends, as if they were still teenagers with nothing to do.
Some of his friends didn't work, let alone study.
Others looked stoned all the time.
Almost all of them lived in that square drinking beer, and it wasn't that they drank one or two, they drank until they couldn't get up on their own.
I saw him talking in the ear of a girl, she was a beautiful brunette, tall and with a good body, and I saw how, after talking in her ear, he brought his mouth close to hers and kissed her shamelessly, in the middle of the street, or rather, in the middle of the square and in front of his friends.
Someone must have seen me and warned him, because he turned his head and looked at me.
But he turned back to the girl and continued to kiss her.
I wanted to run away.
I felt he had stolen my life.
He betrayed me again.
I wanted to kill him.
For a few moments I just stared at him.
He kept kissing her and hugging her.
I left.
I didn't want to go home, I went to my friend's house.
We locked ourselves in her room and I cried a lot.
I didn't want to believe what everyone was telling me.
He kept kissing her in front of me, did that mean he had left me?
Several times I seriously doubted him.
Several other times I proved that he had lied to me.
And I was always afraid of him, I didn't even tell my best friend.
It was the end of our relationship and what hurt me the most was how stupid I was.
I wanted to feel nothing.
I wanted my heart to feel nothing.
I wanted to be made of cardboard, but my heart, which seemed to be made of glass, was shattered.
I was not a masochist when I accompanied Emilia, I wanted to prove her wrong, although deep down I knew exactly what Diego was like.
Maybe I was waiting, deep down, for something like this to free me from him.
I also knew that in front of his friends he was denying me as his girlfriend.
For a while I felt like dying.
The girl was pretty, so what? So am I.
But I know she hasn't made anything of her life either, just like him.
Maybe they deserved each other.
I loved him and I'm sure if she was like him, her love was very small.
I knew Diego would regret it in time.
I hoped that he would never forget me.
I gave him everything, body and soul.
No one will ever love him the way I loved him.
But I have dignity and I've come this far.
It's not like he was chasing me.
He didn't, and although it hurt me, it also helped me to know that our relationship had hit rock bottom, that it no longer existed.
I finished that year, he didn't look for me, at least not at first.
Then I started to see him when he came back from college, he seemed sorry, I felt I had broken free of him although my heart was still wounded.
He wanted to get us back together and I would never forgive him, there was no point in trying.
He harassed me, annoyed me and even threatened me a few times to go back to him.
I never knew if he was a real father, nor did I care, but I did know that I never wanted to see him again.
I also wanted to be independent.
So, with my friend and another girl from university, we decided to rent an apartment in the centre of the city, near the university and an hour and a half, almost two hours, from our homes.
Although we had to work to pay for it, we avoided travelling several hours a day.
At weekends, some of us went to our parents' house.
I was fine until I saw him, so I tried not to go out when I was at my parents' house.
It was more indignation than anything else.
Valeria Ocampo.
I was taken out of my head.
I needed this job.
Anxiously, I went to the personnel office.
Good morning.
Please sit down, Valeria.
I did.
I looked at her expectantly.
I see that you are six months away from graduating in business studies and that you speak two languages fluently.
Yes, ma'am, I speak and write English and Italian, and I get by with a bit of French.
Would you be willing to learn Chinese?
Yes, I have a talent for learning and I love languages, but at the moment I don't have the money or the time.
She smiles at me and changes the subject.
Your contract ends in 3 days, but given your commitment, I am offering you a permanent position.
I smiled.
Although it's not that easy.
Tell me.
My illusions were shattered.
Mr Alejandro Zalco needs a personal assistant immediately, a secretary, assistant or whatever you want to call her, the thing is that you would have to be willing to travel with him and study Chinese, the company will pay for the course, it can be on Saturdays and I don't know how you would manage with the subjects you are studying if you have to travel.
If it gets complicated with any subject, I can finish the course in February.
The woman smiles at me, she is nice despite her reputation as a witch.