Chapter 2 - The Letter He Never Saw
Alejandro abandoned Valeria in the lobby, ignoring her dramatic protests, and forced the hotel manager to give him access to the employee roster. Within twenty minutes, he was standing outside a cramped, rented room in a dilapidated district six miles away from the sparkling lights of the Gran Imperial.
He knocked on the weathered wooden door. No answer. He knocked again, harder this time.
When the door creaked open, Lucía stood in the dimly lit hallway, clutching a worn shawl over her bump. "You shouldn't be here, Alejandro. If Doña Elena finds out you traced me—"
"My mother?" Alejandro barged into the tiny room. The place smelled of lavender and damp walls. A single twin bed sat in the corner, alongside a small table covered in prenatal vitamins and hospital pamphlets. "What does my mother have to do with you running away?"
"I didn't run away!" Lucía shouted, her professional facade finally shattering. Tears welled in her dark eyes, bright with rage and pain. "I was forced out! Seven months ago, the day after we found out I was pregnant, your mother came to the estate while you were in Miami. She brought doctors, Alejandro. Doctors with forged medical documents claiming I had a contagious psychological condition that threatened the baby."
Alejandro felt the floor tilt beneath him. "That’s impossible... She wept when you vanished. She helped me look for you!"
"She gave me a choice," Lucía said, her voice shaking as she rubbed her pregnant belly protectively. "Either I sign the divorce papers, surrender full custody of the child to her upon birth, and leave the country—or she would use her influence to lock me away in a private psychiatric facility where I would never see daylight again. She showed me video footage of your father’s old enemies. She promised that if I stayed, she would make sure neither I nor our child survived the month."
"No..." Alejandro murmured, shaking his head in denial. "My mother loved you."
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"She hated that I was a gardener’s daughter!" Lucía fired back, her chest heaving. "And the night I fled, who do you think drove me to the bus station? Who threatened to call the police and report me for stealing family heirlooms if I ever contacted you?"
Lucía reached into her drawer, pulled out a yellowed piece of paper, and threw it at his chest. "Ask her. Ask Valeria."
