Chapter 2 - The Cup on the Tray
Alejandro reached for the porcelain cup.
Marcela moved faster.
She grabbed the tray.
"Don't be ridiculous."
The suddenness of her movement told him everything.
Alejandro caught her wrist.
"Put it down."
Marcela stared at him.
"You are hurting me."
"Put it down."
She released the tray.
The cup rattled against the saucer.
Valeria watched from the bed.
Alejandro took a clean glass bottle from the minibar and poured half the tea into it.
Marcela laughed nervously.
"What exactly do you think you're doing?"
"Having it tested."
"For what?"
"You tell me."
Marcela's face hardened.
"This is insane."
Alejandro slipped the bottle into his jacket pocket.
"You wanted me to believe my wife had a lover."
"I showed you what I saw."
"No."
"You showed me what you wanted me to see."
Marcela turned toward Valeria.
"This is what she does."
"She creates problems and then convinces you we're the enemy."
Valeria whispered.
"I never said you were my enemy."
Marcela smiled coldly.
"You didn't have to."
Alejandro stepped between them.
"Leave."
Marcela stared at him.
"For her?"
"For now."
She picked up the tray.
Before leaving, she paused at the doorway.
"Mother won't like this."
Alejandro's expression changed.
"I stopped caring what Mother likes about thirty seconds ago."
Marcela left.
The door closed.
Valeria exhaled shakily.
Alejandro took out his phone.
He called his private security chief, Rafael Mendez.
"Rafael."
"I need two things done immediately."
"First, no one enters this bedroom without my permission."
"Not my mother."
"Not Marcela."
"No one."
"Second, I want every security recording from the last thirty days copied before anybody knows I'm asking."
There was a pause.
Then Rafael answered.
"That may be difficult."
Alejandro frowned.
"Why?"
"Because several recordings have already been deleted."
Alejandro's blood went cold.
"Deleted by whom?"
"I don't know yet."
"Find out."
He ended the call.
Valeria was staring at him.
"You believe me now."
Alejandro looked at the bruises again.
"I believe someone has been hiding something from me."
"That isn't the same thing."
"No."
"It isn't."
He sat beside her, leaving enough distance not to frighten her.
"Tell me everything."
Valeria closed her eyes.
"It started after your mother found out the baby was a boy."
Alejandro felt a strange pressure behind his ribs.
His family had celebrated the news.
Esther had ordered champagne for everyone except Valeria.
She had immediately started talking about the Aranda heir.
"What changed?"
"She became obsessed with my pregnancy."
"She controlled my meals."
"My vitamins."
"My doctors."
"My schedule."
"She said an Aranda child couldn't be left to chance."
Alejandro remembered laughing when his mother said that.
He had thought it was harmless family pride.
Valeria continued.
"Then I started feeling weak."
"I would wake up dizzy."
"My gums bled."
"I had bruises everywhere."
"I told your mother."
"What did she say?"
"That pregnancy was difficult for women who hadn't been raised strong."
Alejandro shut his eyes.
The cruelty sounded familiar now that someone was forcing him to hear it.
"Then what?"
"Three weeks ago I collapsed in the gallery downstairs."
"Who found you?"
"Teresa."
The elderly housekeeper had worked for the Arandas for almost twenty years.
"She wanted to call an ambulance."
"Your mother stopped her."
Alejandro's eyes opened.
"What?"
"Esther said the family didn't need reporters seeing an ambulance outside."
"So she called the family doctor."
"Dr. Velasco?"
Valeria nodded.
"He examined me for six minutes."
"He said dehydration."
"Samuel later told me my symptoms were too serious for that diagnosis."
Alejandro stood.
"I'm calling an ambulance now."
"No."
He stared at her.
"Valeria."
"No family hospital."
"No family doctor."
"No drivers."
"No one your mother controls."
Alejandro understood.
He called Samuel Ortega himself.
The doctor answered on the third ring.
"This is Alejandro Aranda."
Silence.
Then Samuel said something Alejandro had not expected.
"I wondered how long it would take you to call."
"You've been treating my wife."
"I've been trying to keep your wife and unborn son alive."
Alejandro tightened his grip on the phone.
"What do you suspect?"
"I'll discuss that when Valeria is somewhere secure."
"Why?"
"Because two nights ago someone broke into my clinic."
Alejandro's stomach dropped.
"What was taken?"
May you like
"Only one thing."
"Valeria's blood samples."
