Chapter 5 - The Fall
Alejandro took Teresa into his private office and locked the door.
They inserted the memory card into an offline computer.
The recording had no sound.
It did not need any.
At 9:47 that night, Valeria appeared in the upstairs corridor carrying a small suitcase.
She moved cautiously.
Her pregnancy was clearly visible beneath a loose blue dress.
Esther stepped from another room.
The women exchanged words.
Valeria tried to walk past.
Esther caught her wrist.
Valeria pulled away.
Esther grabbed again.
Harder.
Valeria lost her balance.
Her body twisted.
She crashed sideways into the marble frame surrounding the bathroom entrance.
Alejandro stood from the desk so suddenly the chair rolled backward.
On the screen, Esther looked down at Valeria.
For five seconds, she did nothing.
Then Teresa entered the frame.
She rushed toward Valeria.
Esther raised one hand.
Teresa stopped.
Even without sound, Alejandro understood the command.
Wait.
Valeria was lying on the floor.
Pregnant.
In pain.
And his mother had told the housekeeper to wait.
Alejandro paused the recording.
His vision blurred.
"What happened next?"
Teresa's voice shook.
"Señora Esther told me Valeria was being dramatic."
"She said not to call an ambulance."
"What did you do?"
"I waited until your mother left."
"Then I helped señora Valeria back to bed."
Alejandro looked at her.
"Why didn't you call me?"
Teresa started crying.
"I tried."
"What do you mean?"
"I called your office in Madrid."
"Marcela answered."
Alejandro felt sick.
"She told me you were in an important negotiation."
"She said she would tell you."
"She never did."
Teresa lowered her eyes.
"I'm sorry."
Alejandro shook his head.
"No."
"Don't apologize."
He looked at the frozen image of his mother.
"Tell me what you meant downstairs."
"What other evidence disappeared?"
Teresa became very still.
"Your father."
The room changed.
Alejandro turned slowly.
"What about my father?"
Teresa clasped her hands.
"Twelve years ago, Don Eduardo became sick before he died."
Alejandro remembered.
His father had complained of exhaustion.
Then dizziness.
Then weakness.
Doctors blamed stress.
"Continue."
"He bruised very easily."
Alejandro stared at her.
A memory returned.
His father at breakfast with a dark mark across his forearm.
Eduardo joking that he must be getting old.
Another memory.
Blood on his father's toothbrush.
Another.
Esther pouring him tea.
"What kind of tea?"
Teresa's voice was almost inaudible.
"The same kind."
Alejandro could hear his own heartbeat.
"Are you saying my mother killed my father?"
"No."
"I don't know that."
"But I know he became afraid."
"Afraid of whom?"
"Your mother."
Alejandro stood motionless.
Teresa continued.
"One week before he died, Don Eduardo gave me an envelope."
"He told me that if anything happened to him, I should give it to you."
Alejandro stared at her.
"You never did."
"I couldn't."
"Why?"
"Because after he died, señora Esther searched my room."
"She knew about the envelope."
"What happened to it?"
"I moved it before she found it."
"Where?"
Teresa swallowed.
"I hid it inside the old chapel behind the wine cellar."
Alejandro remembered the chapel.
His grandfather had built it decades earlier.
Nobody used it now.
"Is it still there?"
"I don't know."
Esther renovated the basement after Eduardo's death.
Alejandro stood.
"We're going to find out."
His phone rang.
Samuel.
Alejandro answered immediately.
"How is Valeria?"
Samuel's voice was controlled.
But tense.
"We have preliminary results."
"What did you find?"
"A compound in her blood that should not be there."
Alejandro felt the room tilt.
"What compound?"
"I'm confirming it before I say more."
"But Alejandro."
May you like
"Yes?"
"Whatever she's been exposed to, this did not happen accidentally."
