Chapter 3 - THE NAME HIS FATHER LEFT BEHIND
Alejandro felt the room tilt.
His father's death had been ruled a heart attack.
Sudden.
Unexpected.
Clean.
At least that was what the family had always said.
He remembered being twenty-one.
He remembered Doña Esther standing beside the coffin in black silk.
He remembered Marcela crying against his shoulder.
He remembered believing every word his mother told him.
Now a tiny unlabeled vial sat in his hand.
"Where is Tomás?"
Alejandro asked.
Valeria reached toward the nightstand.
"He gave me a number."
The paper was gone.
She stared at the empty drawer.
"I left it here."
Alejandro's eyes hardened.
"Who came into this room?"
"Only Teresa."
Their senior housekeeper.
"Anyone else?"
Valeria hesitated.
"Your mother."
"When?"
"Yesterday."
Alejandro turned toward the door.
Valeria grabbed his wrist.
"Don't confront her yet."
He looked back.
"She attacked you."
"I know."
"She threatened our child."
"I know."
"Then why the hell should I wait?"
"Because if Tomás was telling the truth, this is bigger than me."
That stopped him.
Valeria lowered her voice.
"Before he left, he said your father discovered something about the Aranda Foundation."
Alejandro frowned.
The foundation was his mother's pride.
Scholarships.
Hospitals.
Political donations.
Public charity.
His father had created it decades earlier.
"What did he discover?"
"I don't know."
"Tomás only said one sentence."
Alejandro waited.
Valeria looked frightened again.
"Your father didn't die because his heart failed."
"He died because he found the ledger."
Alejandro said nothing.
He walked to the window.
Below, the mansion looked perfectly calm.
Gardeners trimmed hedges.
The fountain ran.
A black SUV waited near the circular driveway.
The same house where he had grown up suddenly felt unfamiliar.
Then he saw someone below.
Marcela.
She was standing beside the SUV.
Talking to a man in a dark suit.
The man handed her an envelope.
Marcela glanced up toward the second floor.
Directly toward Valeria's window.
Then she saw Alejandro standing there.
Her face changed.
Only for a second.
But he saw it.
Fear.
Alejandro lowered the curtain.
"Call no one."
He told Valeria.
"I need ten minutes."
"Where are you going?"
"To find out whether my sister still thinks I'm stupid."
He walked into the hallway.
Marcela was already coming up the stairs.
Her smile returned instantly.
"Alejandro."
She touched his arm.
"How is our dramatic little princess this morning?"
Alejandro looked at her hand.
Then at her face.
"Better."
Marcela smiled.
"Good."
He pulled out his phone.
"And apparently loyal."
Her smile disappeared.
May you like
He opened the photograph she had sent him.
"Tell me who the man is."
