Chapter 13 - A Poisoned Alliance
Back at the Montero main residence, Alejandro and Lucía transformed the study into a war room. Lucía laid out original land deeds from forty years ago, signed by Alejandro’s late grandfather and her mother, detailing a stolen legacy worth over two billion dollars.
"My mother gave your family the capital to start Montero Construction," Lucía explained, pointing to the yellowed signatures. "In exchange, your grandfather gave her 51% of the Gran Imperial Hotel chain. But when my mother fell ill, your grandfather forged her death certificate and seized the equity."
Alejandro felt a wave of shame wash over him. "My entire family's wealth... was built on a crime against your mother?"
"Yes," Lucía said softly. "I didn't marry you for revenge, Alejandro. I loved you. I still love you. But I was never going to let your mother treat me like garbage in a house that my family paid for."
Suddenly, Alejandro’s phone rang with an unknown caller ID. He answered on speaker.
"Alejandro..." His mother’s frail, shaking voice came through the line. "You need to leave the country. Tonight."
"Mother? Where are you?" Alejandro demanded.
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"Hector Vance came to me," Doña Elena sobbed. "I told him nothing, Alejandro! I swear to God I told him nothing! But he... he tapped your security grid through Valeria’s old access codes. He knows where you are keeping the stock certificates! He’s sending his men to the estate tonight!"
Before Alejandro could respond, the power to the entire estate cut out, plunging the mansion into pitch blackness.
