Chapter 7 - THE PATERNITY LIE
By afternoon, the story reached the press.
RICARDO SALAZAR QUESTIONS HOTEL MAGNATE’S PATERNITY.
Reporters surrounded the hospital.
Anonymous accounts posted photographs of Valentina and Isabel.
Commentators compared facial features.
Mónica’s legal team released a statement claiming Alejandro created abuse allegations to protect a false inheritance.
The attack was deliberate.
If Valentina was not Alejandro’s biological child, Ricardo planned to challenge her trust rights and the company shares.
Alejandro did not care about the shares.
He cared that Valentina might someday see strangers debating whether he was truly her father.
He ordered a private DNA test through a court-approved laboratory.
Then he sat beside her hospital bed.
Valentina was coloring a house with a blue roof.
“Daddy?”
“Yes.”
“Is Mónica going to come back?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
She studied his face.
“Dr. Camila said you would stop loving me if I was bad.”
Alejandro placed the crayon down.
“There is nothing you could do that would make me stop being your father.”
“What if I break things?”
“Things can be repaired.”
“What if I lie?”
“We tell the truth afterward.”
“What if I’m not really yours?”
Alejandro’s heart stopped.
She had already heard the rumor.
Perhaps Mónica had been planting it for months.
He lifted Valentina carefully.
“You are my daughter.”
“Biology cannot change that.”
The DNA results arrived two days later.
Alejandro was Valentina’s biological father.
Isabel’s medical records confirmed her pregnancy and delivery history.
The supposed letter was a forgery.
A handwriting expert found it had been created using samples from Isabel’s journals.
The printer was located in Ricardo’s office.
Police searched the office.
They found more forged letters.
One accused Alejandro of violence toward Isabel.
Another claimed Isabel feared him.
A third directed control of the trust to Ricardo if Alejandro became dangerous.
None were genuine.
But investigators found one real recording.
Isabel had made it shortly before her death.
Her voice was weak but clear.
“If Mónica Salazar ever enters Valentina’s life, do not trust the story of how we met.”
Alejandro froze.
He had met Mónica at a charity dinner organized by Ricardo.
May you like
Isabel had died six months earlier.
Why would she mention a woman Alejandro had supposedly never met?
