Chương 8
“Not everyone,” Andrés said. “Only those with legal departments.”
He rubbed his eyes.
“I have spent fifteen years preparing to run the company. I resent what your existence may change. That resentment is not your fault, but pretending I do not feel it would make me dishonest.”
Mariana studied him. “What do you want?”
“A public statement that you have made no claim to management.”
“I haven’t.”
“I know.”
“Then say that.”
“If I say it, it sounds like I am speaking for you.”
“You are.”
He looked uncomfortable.
Sofía hid a smile behind her coffee cup.
Mariana said, “I will not make decisions about a company I learned I might inherit three days ago. Your employees can be told exactly that.”
Andrés nodded slowly. “That is fair.”
“You don’t look happy.”
“Fairness has rarely improved my mood.”
Before he left, he placed a business card on the table.
“Héctor contacted me six weeks ago,” he said.
Mariana’s skin went cold.
“What did he want?”
“He said he represented a potential claimant connected to my aunt. He wanted a confidential settlement.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred million pesos.”
Sofía stopped writing.
“Did he give my name?”
“No. He provided enough details for us to suspect the claim involved the missing child. That is when we began monitoring civil filings connected to him.”
Catalina had not found the courtroom by luck.
Héctor had led them there while trying to sell Mariana’s identity before she knew it belonged to her.
The storage company’s surveillance footage showed Héctor removing boxes six hours after the court adjourned. Prosecutors searched one of his offices and recovered the laptop, Mariana’s documents, and several black legal folders. The blue tin was not among them.
A forensic review found draft agreements in which a shell company controlled by Héctor would receive a percentage of any trust distribution made to Mariana. Her signature appeared on two versions.
The signature looked nearly perfect.
Nearly.
Mariana stared at the printed page in Sofía’s office. The capital T in Torres crossed from right to left.
Rosa had slapped her hand lightly with a pencil when she was eight and made her repeat the letter until the line moved left to right.
“Writing is not sweeping,” Rosa had said. “You don’t drag the dirt back into the house.”
Mariana still crossed every T left to right.
She demonstrated on a clean page.
The handwriting expert did not treat the habit as proof by itself, but it became one detail among many: inconsistent pressure, identical pauses, the same microscopic tremor repeated across separate documents. Real signatures varied. Héctor’s forgeries did not.
The prosecutor assigned to the case was a compact woman named Lucía Ferrer, who refused Catalina’s attempts to accelerate anything.
“We are not your private investigators,” she told her during the first joint meeting.
Catalina’s jaw tightened. “I did not suggest you were.”
“You sent us a proposed witness schedule.”
“To save time.”
“It saved none.”
Mariana watched Isabel close her eyes.
Lucía turned to Mariana. “Your husband has not been charged yet. We have allegations, documents, and unusual transfers. We still need authentication, witnesses, and a clear chain of custody. He may claim you authorized the transactions.”
“I didn’t.”
“I believe that may be true. Belief is not the same as a case.”
“What happens if he leaves?”
“We have requested travel restrictions based on the missing documents and disputed funds. The request is under review.”
Catalina leaned forward. “He has an aircraft.”
“He has access to a leased aircraft,” Lucía corrected. “Which is now being watched.”
The process moved with an insulting lack of drama.
Requests were filed. Banks took days to answer. Registry offices produced incomplete records. A clerk claimed flood damage had destroyed documents from Mariana’s birth year. Another found two entries under the same certificate number.
Judge Rivas was suspended from hearing cases while an administrative inquiry proceeded. He denied wrongdoing through an attorney. The nonprofit that had received Héctor’s transfers called them donations.
Meanwhile, Mariana still needed prenatal care, clean clothes, sleep, and a place where reporters did not wait outside.
She moved into a furnished apartment owned by neither Catalina nor Grupo Aranda. Sofía found it through a client who rented to visiting professors. Catalina paid six months in advance through the independent trust, and Mariana signed a repayment agreement that everyone told her was unnecessary.
It was necessary to her.
The apartment had a narrow balcony overlooking a laundry and a jacaranda tree. Its kitchen drawers stuck. The shower took three minutes to warm. The sofa was green and too firm.
Mariana liked it immediately.
Catalina visited only after asking.
On her first visit, she brought two bags of baby clothes from a luxury store.
Mariana looked inside. “No.”
“They are practical.”
“This sweater costs more than my monthly groceries.”
“It is cashmere.”
“The baby will vomit on it.”
“Babies vomit on cotton too.”
“Then cotton is sufficient.”
Catalina’s mouth tightened, but she took the bags away.
The next time, she brought supermarket diapers and a package of plain white cloths.
Mariana inspected the receipt.
“You bought the wrong size.”
Catalina looked genuinely offended by the diaper industry.
They spent an afternoon folding the cloths at the kitchen table. Conversation came in small, awkward pieces.
Catalina hated papaya. Mariana loved it.
Mariana could not sleep without one foot outside the blanket. Catalina did the same.
Both disliked people who let spoons clatter in coffee cups.
Neither mentioned that these similarities might mean anything.
When Catalina reached for Mariana’s belly after a visible movement, she stopped her hand halfway.
“May I?”
Mariana hesitated, then nodded.
The baby remained still.
Catalina waited with her palm lightly against the navy fabric.
“He performs for no one,” Mariana said.
“That is an Aranda trait.”
“He is also half Luján.”
Catalina removed her hand.
May you like
The reminder darkened the room.
Héctor filed a request for access to prenatal information and future contact with the child. His attorney described him as an involved father being excluded by a hostile spouse and an interfering third party.
