“I know.”
“How?”
She looked toward Gabriel.
The manager closed his eyes.
Alejandro turned.
“Tell me.”
Gabriel spoke carefully.
“Seven months ago, I received instructions regarding Mrs. Montero.”
“From whom?”
“Mr. Salazar.”
Alejandro’s jaw tightened.
“What instructions?”
“That she was not to receive any special accommodation.”
“That Montero family accounts would not cover her stay.”
“And?”
Gabriel hesitated.
“Say it.”
“That if she attempted to contact you through hotel management, we were
not to facilitate it.”
Lucía looked at the floor.
Alejandro stared.
“You followed those instructions?”
“They arrived on Montero legal letterhead.”
“With your signature authorization attached.”
Alejandro went silent.
“My signature?”
Gabriel nodded.
“I still have the email.”
“Show me.”
Gabriel opened his laptop.
The email was archived.
There it was.
A PDF authorization.
Alejandro Montero.
His signature.
Perfect at first glance.
Except Alejandro knew where it came from.
It was copied from a land-acquisition agreement signed two years
earlier.
The slight upward stroke in the final letter was identical.
He remembered the document because Ramón had prepared it.
Alejandro’s hands began to shake.
“Send this to me.”
Gabriel did.
Lucía sat.
Alejandro looked at her.
“How did you end up working here?”
She answered without looking up.
“My accounts stopped working.”
“What?”
“Three days after I left the house.”
“My debit card was declined.”
“My credit card was frozen.”
“The joint account disappeared from my banking app.”
Alejandro stared.
“I didn’t touch your accounts.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I spent seven months learning what really happened.”
She looked at him.
“But at the beginning, I believed you.”
That hurt.
Not because she had doubted him.
Because someone had made his cruelty believable.
Lucía continued.
“I had some cash.”
“I stayed with my cousin for two weeks.”
“Then Ramón contacted her.”
“He told her she could become involved in litigation if she helped me
hide.”
Alejandro whispered a curse.
“She asked me to leave.”
“I don’t blame her.”
“She was frightened.”
“I went to a shelter for several nights.”
Alejandro closed his eyes.
His pregnant wife.
Sleeping in a shelter.
While he sat in a mansion believing she had abandoned him.
“I eventually came here.”
“Gabriel knew me from charity events.”
“He gave me a room for three nights.”
Gabriel looked ashamed.
“Then legal called.”
Lucía continued.
“I told him not to risk his job.”
“I found work.”
“Housekeeping was hiring.”
Alejandro stared at Gabriel.
“You hired her?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
Gabriel looked directly at him.
“Because I believed the order came from you.”
The answer was the same disease everywhere.
A signature.
A powerful name.
No questions.
Alejandro looked at Lucía.
“Why didn’t you contact someone else?”
“I did.”
“Who?”
“Your sister.”
Alejandro froze.
“Camila?”
“She never answered.”
“My father?”
“I sent a letter.”
“No response.”
“My assistant?”
“Your office said he had instructions not to take my calls.”
Alejandro’s stomach turned.
His assistant, Diego, had resigned five months earlier.
Abruptly.
At the time, Ramón said Diego had been caught leaking confidential
information.
Alejandro had accepted the explanation.
Now he wondered.
“Did Ramón show you evidence I cheated?”
Lucía asked.
Alejandro looked at her.
“Yes.”
She flinched.
He continued.
“Photographs.”
“Of you with a man.”
“Entering an apartment.”
Lucía stared.
“What man?”
“I don’t know.”
“You believed them?”
Alejandro looked down.
“For a while.”
“Who gave them to you?”
He already knew.
“Ramón.”
The room became silent.
Lucía laughed softly.
Not because anything was funny.
“So he told you I betrayed you.”
