The day my daughter won the lottery—ten million dollars that went straight to her head—she threw me out onto the street with my suitcases still open, staring at me as if I were an intruder in my own life and shouting, “You won’t see a single cent of my money, you old witch!” I kept my mouth shut, swallowed my tears, and left in silence… without her ever looking at the name printed on the ticket. A week later…
My name is Carmen Valverde, and the day my daughter threw me out of the house, Madrid was covered by a gray sky that smelled of rain and gasoline. I was sixty-three years old, with worn-out knees and a pension that barely covered half the rent of the apartment we shared in Carabanchel.
My daughter Laura, twenty-eight, a hairdresser with the temperament of a storm, paid the rest.
For years I had played the same numbers in Euromillions.
An old woman’s habit, she used to say. That Friday afternoon I came back from the supermarket with grocery bags cutting into my fingers and the lottery ticket folded inside the pocket of my coat.
At the lottery shop on the corner, as always, I had asked the clerk to print my name and my ID number on the back.
“Just in case,” I told him.
He smiled without looking up.
At home, Laura was lying on the couch with her phone, watching influencer videos showing luxury apartments in Barcelona and Marbella. I placed the ticket on the glass table.
“Check the numbers later, will you?
I’m too lazy,” I said, taking off my shoes.
“Yeah, Mom, the usual,” she replied without looking up.
That night the drawing played in the background on the television while I washed the dishes. I wasn’t paying attention—I’d lost too many times to get excited anymore. But I did hear a strange silence from the living room, followed by the thud of something falling to the floor.
She was standing there, pale at first, then flushed red, the ticket trembling in her hand.
Her eyes were shining in a way I had never seen before.
“Those are my numbers,” I murmured, walking closer. “Let me see…”
She didn’t let me finish. She stepped back as if I were a dangerous animal.
“No.
It’s my ticket,” she snapped. “I had it. I checked it.
I saw it first.”
“Laura, I paid for it. My name is on the back, don’t be ridiculous.”
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