Chapter 10 - The Mother Before Esther
Alejandro arrived at Valeria's new clinic under heavy security.
She was stable.
The baby was stable.
But the attempt to enter her room had changed everything.
Marcela had arrived using an employee badge belonging to a nurse.
When security challenged her, she claimed she was Valeria's sister.
She fled before police arrived.
Rafael had the surveillance footage.
There was no longer any reason to protect the Aranda name.
Alejandro contacted federal investigators through an attorney with no ties to his family.
Then he sat beside Valeria.
"I found something about my father."
She watched him.
"And about me."
He handed her the adoption record.
Valeria read it slowly.
"Lucia Marquez."
"I've never heard her name."
"Esther told me she almost died giving birth to me."
"Apparently she never gave birth to me at all."
Valeria reached for his hand.
"What does her death certificate say?"
"Hemorrhage."
The word landed heavily between them.
Valeria looked at him.
"You don't think."
"I don't know what I think anymore."
Samuel entered before either could continue.
He carried new test results.
"Valeria's levels are improving."
"That is good news."
Alejandro nodded.
"But?"
Samuel looked serious.
"The baby is showing mild signs of stress."
Valeria's face went pale.
"Is he going to be okay?"
"We're monitoring closely."
"Right now, his heart rate is stable."
"But you must remain here."
"No mansion."
"No family visits."
"No exceptions."
Alejandro agreed immediately.
Samuel turned to him.
"There is something else."
"The toxicology profile from the tea is consistent with Valeria's blood samples."
"We now have medical confirmation."
"Could it have been accidental contamination?"
"Not at these concentrations."
Valeria closed her eyes.
Samuel continued.
"There is evidence the compound was added repeatedly."
Alejandro looked at her.
She whispered.
"So someone really did this."
Samuel nodded.
"Yes."
After he left, Valeria stared toward the window.
"I kept defending them."
Alejandro said nothing.
"I kept telling myself Esther was cruel because she was controlling."
"That Marcela hated me because I didn't belong."
"I never wanted to believe they would actually hurt the baby."
Alejandro lowered his head.
"I didn't want to believe anything that made my family look different from the story I had built about them."
His phone rang.
Rafael.
"We found Lucia Marquez."
Alejandro stood.
"You told me she's dead."
"Lucia is dead."
"But we found her sister."
"Where?"
"Puebla."
"Her name is Elena Marquez."
"She's seventy-two."
"And when I mentioned Eduardo Aranda, she started crying."
Three hours later, Alejandro entered a small house outside Puebla.
Elena Marquez was waiting in the living room.
She stared at his face and immediately covered her mouth.
"You have her eyes."
Alejandro could not speak.
Elena touched his cheek.
"Lucia's eyes."
Alejandro sat.
"Tell me what happened."
Elena looked toward the family photographs surrounding the room.
"Your mother was seventeen when she met Eduardo."
"She worked in a flower shop."
"Eduardo was already engaged to Esther."
Alejandro stared at her.
"Lucia became pregnant?"
"Yes."
"Eduardo wanted to leave Esther."
"But Esther's family controlled part of the financing his father needed."
"So he married Esther anyway."
The shame in the story belonged to another generation.
Yet Alejandro felt it in his own chest.
"What happened to Lucia?"
"Eduardo supported her privately."
"When you were born, he visited every week."
"Then Lucia became sick."
"She started bruising."
Alejandro went cold.
"Bruising?"
Elena nodded.
"Bleeding from her gums."
"She was weak all the time."
Alejandro could barely breathe.
"What did doctors say?"
"They didn't know."
"One night she hemorrhaged."
"By the time we got her to the hospital, it was too late."
Elena began to cry.
"Three days after the funeral, Eduardo came for you."
"He said Esther had agreed to raise you as her own."
Alejandro stared at her.
"Esther knew?"
"Of course."
"She knew exactly whose child you were."
Alejandro stood slowly.
"Why would she raise me?"
Elena looked into his eyes.
"Because Eduardo told her that if she refused, he would leave her."
May you like
Then Elena said the sentence that made the room disappear around him.
"But before Lucia died, she told me she was afraid of Esther."
