Chapter 7 - ISABEL’S CONFESSION
Paulina opened the envelope.
She read the first page.
Then the second.
Her expression changed.
“This can’t be.”
The letter wasn’t merely a confession.
It was evidence.
Isabel had documented everything.
The intercepted letters.
The payments.
The lies.
And why she had done it.
Paulina immediately called someone.
“I need this letter destroyed.”
The voice on the other end hesitated.
Paulina snapped.
“Tonight.”
But she made one mistake.
She photographed the pages first.
The photographs automatically uploaded to a cloud account connected to an old tablet.
A tablet still sitting inside Diego’s mansion.
The next morning, Diego’s assistant discovered the synchronized images.
“Sir, you need to see this.”
Diego opened the first photograph.
His mother’s handwriting appeared across the screen.
Diego,
If you are reading this, then the secret I spent years protecting has failed.
Diego’s hands tightened.
He continued.
I separated you from Marisol.
Not because she was poor.
Not because she was unsuitable.
But because your father discovered that you intended to marry her.
Diego frowned.
His father, Alejandro Villaseñor, had died eight years earlier.
The letter continued.
Your father changed his will.
If you married outside the families approved by the Villaseñor trust, control of the company would pass to your uncle Esteban.
I believed losing Marisol would hurt you.
But losing the company would destroy everything your grandfather built.
So I chose for you.
Diego stopped reading.
Marisol stood beside him.
“She sacrificed us for the company.”
Diego whispered.
“No.”
“She sacrificed you.”
He continued reading.
When Marisol became pregnant, I realized my mistake had become permanent.
But by then, I was afraid.
If the child became known, Esteban could argue that your relationship with Marisol violated the trust conditions before your thirty-fifth birthday.
I paid Paulina to help keep Marisol away.
I told myself I was protecting you.
Perhaps I was only protecting the Villaseñor name.
Diego lowered the tablet.
His face was white.
Marisol touched his arm.
“There’s more.”
The final paragraph was shorter.
The trust restriction expires on Diego’s thirty-fifth birthday.
After that, nobody can take the company from him.
If I do not have the courage to tell him before then, I pray he can forgive what I did.
Diego looked at the date.
His thirty-fifth birthday had been fourteen months earlier.
His mother had died two months after that.
“She had two months.”
Marisol whispered.
Diego nodded.
“She could have told me.”
But she hadn’t.
Then his attorney called.
“Diego, we have another problem.”
“What?”
“Someone filed an emergency petition this morning.”
“Who?”
“Esteban Villaseñor.”
Diego’s uncle.
“He’s challenging Valentina’s legal recognition.”
Diego stood.
“On what grounds?”
His attorney paused.
“He claims recognizing an illegitimate heir could affect control of the Villaseñor family trust.”
Diego looked at his mother’s confession.
Then toward Valentina playing outside.
May you like
The past wasn’t finished with them.
It had just declared war.
