Elena arranged to meet Lucía at a hotel in the center of Seville two days before the wedding.
Lucía arrived dressed in black, with no visible makeup and a thin folder under her arm. Far from the glitz of the festivities, she seemed more tired than arrogant.
“I guess this is because of Diego,” she said as she sat down.
—It’s because of your signature.
Lucia raised an eyebrow.
Elena slid the photograph she had received across the table.
Lucia paled.
—Who sent you this?
—That’s the first thing Diego asked when I showed him something else.
Lucía studied the image.
—This signature is not mine.
—You were eleven years old.
—Precisely.
—So why does your name appear?
Lucia closed her eyes.
—Because my father used a holding company in my name when I was a minor.
Elena did not expect such a direct answer.
Lucía explained that her father, César Ferrer, had been a financial advisor to the Salvatierra family. To reduce tax exposure and conceal the true beneficiaries, he opened companies linked to family members, including one in his daughter’s name.
—Was that legal?
—Some structures, yes. Others, I don’t know. I discovered everything much later.
Does Diego know?
Lucia looked at her.
-Yeah.
The word fell like a stone.
—Since when?
—Since his father died.
Elena felt anger rising up her neck.
—So you’ve been keeping it for years.
—We’ve been trying to find out how much Tomás knew for two years.
Elena remained motionless.
Lucía opened the folder.
Inside were copies of transfers, deeds, and a company chart.
“Diego hasn’t told you the whole truth,” he said, “but he’s not working with Tomás either.”
—So what does he do to you?
Lucia let out a bitter laugh.
—That’s what you think.
Elena held his gaze.
—I saw you kissing in Marbella last month.
Lucia stopped smiling.
—We didn’t kiss.
—I’m not blind.
—Diego was drunk. He grabbed my face because he had just found out that his father had signed a personal guarantee that could implicate his mother. You were walking into the living room. From your angle, it looked different.
—How convenient.
—Ask him.
—I did it. He told me there was nothing to explain.
Lucia looked away.
—That’s typical of Diego. He believes that if he keeps quiet long enough, the problems will get tired and go away.
That phrase turned out to be too accurate.
Elena looked at the documents.
—Why are you dancing together at the wedding if all this is so serious?
Lucia frowned.
-Dance?
-Forget it.
It hadn’t happened yet.
Elena felt an absurd chill, as if she were remembering a future scene.
Lucia pointed to a page.
—There’s something else. Rojo Uno didn’t just embezzle money. He also bought, below market value, some of the land your father had contributed to Valdemora.
—I know that.
—You don’t know who has them now.
Elena looked up.
-Who?
Lucía pointed to a name.
SALVATIERRA HOSPITALITY SOUTH.
The subsidiary that Diego managed.
Elena felt nauseous.
—Diego controls the land.
—The company controls them. And Tomás wants to sell them to an international fund after the wedding.
—What does my wedding have to do with this?
Lucia hesitated.
—You still own a central plot of land that was left out of the project because it was in your mother’s name. Without that plot, the fund cannot unify the project.
Elena thought about the scriptures she had gone to look for.
Diego wanted to sell the old house.
He had also asked to discuss “reorganizing” family assets after the honeymoon.
—Was I getting married to get my land?
-Don’t know.
—You work with him.
—I work with him because he is the only person in that family who ever wanted to review the accounts.
—And yet he lied to me.
Lucía did not defend Diego.
That hurt more.
-Yeah.
Elena looked at the diagram again.
—What is the red square?
Lucia raised her head too quickly.
—What square?
Elena knew that he recognized her.
He took a photograph out of the frame.
Lucia went white.
—Where is that?
—Safe.
—Elena, don’t take him to the wedding.
-Because?
Lucia looked towards the hotel entrance.
—Because Tomás believes that all the objects marked with that symbol were destroyed when they closed the Rojo Uno office.
—What’s inside?
-Don’t know.
-I don’t believe you.
Lucia pressed her lips together.
—My father said that Julián Martín had created a “safety net” in case he was betrayed. Something small that only those who were at the first meeting in Valdemora would recognize.
—The frame.
-Maybe.
Elena felt the weight of the bag at her feet.
—Thomas will recognize it.
-Yeah.
—Diego too.
Lucia nodded.
Elena closed the folder.
—Then I’ll take it.
Lucia grabbed her wrist.
—You don’t understand Thomas.
