Chapter 7 - The Bargain Between Fathers
Diego returned to the mansion at two in the morning and found fire engines in the driveway.
He left the car before it stopped.
“What happened?”
A security officer hurried toward him.
“Small fire beneath the east staircase. It is contained.”
“Was anyone hurt?”
“No one we have found.”
“Found?”
“The housekeeper and the new maid are missing.”
Diego’s blood turned cold.
“Where is Paulina?”
“Still at the Serrano residence.”
“Who reported the fire?”
The officer hesitated.
“We are checking.”
Diego entered the mansion.
Smoke lingered in the hall. Firefighters moved beneath the staircase, carrying scorched boxes from a concealed room Diego had not known existed.
He saw a burned envelope on the marble floor.
His name was written across it.
He picked it up.
The handwriting was Marisol’s.
The envelope had been opened, but part of the letter remained.
I do not know what they told you. I would never take money to disappear. I am afraid, Diego. Not for myself. For the baby.
The world narrowed.
“Where did this come from?” he demanded.
A firefighter pointed toward the hidden vault.
Diego entered despite the heat.
The room had been damaged, but the fire was strangely concentrated near the door and shelves. It had not begun from faulty wiring.
This was deliberate.
He found the camera hidden between the shelves.
Its memory card was missing.
Behind the cedar chest, an open service shaft descended into darkness.
Diego called Marisol’s name.
A faint answer came from below.
He climbed inside.
Ten minutes later, he emerged with Marisol in his arms while two firefighters helped Inés behind him.
Marisol coughed against his shoulder.
“I can walk.”
“You can barely breathe.”
“The letters.”
“We’ll recover them.”
“No. Someone wanted them destroyed.”
Diego carried her into the hall.
Their eyes met.
He had imagined this reunion hundreds of times in anger, in regret, in dreams he refused to admit were dreams.
None of those imaginings included smoke in her hair and blood on her palms.
“Why did you lie about knowing me?” he asked.
“Because everyone who knows the truth becomes a target.”
“I was already a target.”
“You were protected by your name.”
“My name caused this.”
She looked away.
Inés handed Diego the pillowcase.
“We saved what we could.”
Inside, he found the ledger.
He read three pages before his face hardened.
“My grandfather paid to have you watched.”
“He did more than that.”
Diego looked at Marisol.
“What baby?”
She closed her eyes.
Before she answered, Sebastián Serrano entered through the front doors.
He wore a dark overcoat over formal evening clothes. Paulina walked beside him, still dressed for the charity dinner.
“My God,” Paulina said, rushing forward. “Diego, are you all right?”
He stepped away from her.
“Why is your father listed in my grandfather’s ledger?”
Sebastián stopped.
“What ledger?”
Diego threw it onto a table.
“Page forty-two. Serrano security division. Surveillance, relocation, clinic monitoring.”
Sebastián did not touch the book.
“That document belonged to Rafael. You should ask him.”
“He’s dead.”
“Then you may never receive the answers you want.”
Paulina looked at Marisol.
“What was she doing in a sealed vault?”
“Reading letters that should have reached me nine years ago.”
Paulina’s face remained composed.
“How unfortunate.”
Diego heard the coldness beneath the words.
“Did you speak to Marisol during the winter after San Aurelio?”
“No.”
“Did you call her?”
“No.”
Marisol stood despite the medic’s protest.
“You told me Diego wanted you to handle my pregnancy.”
Paulina laughed softly.
“That is absurd.”
“You said I was an amusement.”
“I have never spoken to you in my life.”
“You knew Valentina’s name before meeting her.”
Paulina’s gaze flickered.
Only for a second.
Diego saw it.
“Who is Valentina?” he asked.
No one answered.
Sebastián moved between them.
“This conversation is becoming hysterical.”
Diego faced him.
“What agreement did you make with my grandfather?”
Sebastián’s expression changed from polite concern to calculation.
“The agreement that built the empire you now control.”
“What agreement?”
“Rafael needed access to our ports. I needed Alcázar capital. A union between our families guaranteed both.”
“My marriage to Paulina.”
“Your eventual marriage.”
“And Marisol threatened it.”
“She was a village girl carrying a story no one could verify.”
Marisol flinched.
Diego stepped closer.
“She was carrying my child.”
Sebastián’s silence answered before his mouth did.
Paulina turned pale.
“Father.”
Diego stared at him.
“You knew.”
Sebastián adjusted one cuff.
“Rafael knew.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“He believed the child could destabilize the succession of the company.”
“There was no succession question. I was his only grandson.”
“Not the company succession. The trust.”
Diego frowned.
“What trust?”
Sebastián looked at the ledger.
“You truly do not know.”
A cold unease moved through the hall.
“Know what?”
Sebastián smiled without warmth.
“Your grandfather did not leave you the Alcázar fortune.”
Paulina whispered, “Stop.”
But he continued.
“He left you control of it until the legitimate firstborn child of your line could be identified.”
Diego looked at Marisol.
She appeared as shocked as he was.
Sebastián turned toward the staircase.
“Rafael spent his life fearing that you would destroy the family through sentiment. In the end, sentiment destroyed him instead.”
“What does Valentina have to do with the trust?”
Sebastián looked over his shoulder.
May you like
“If she is your daughter, Diego, then on her tenth birthday, everything you believe belongs to you becomes hers.”
Valentina would turn ten in less than four months.
