—Why didn’t you tell me?
Diego closed his eyes.
—Because I thought I could fix it before you knew.
Elena let out a joyless laugh.
—Your way of protecting me consists of deciding what truth I can bear.
-I know.
—No. You don’t know yet.
Elena examined the forged signature.
—Who made it?
-Don’t know.
Lucia appeared at the door.
—I think Caesar.
Diego looked at her.
Lucia continued.
—My father handled documents for Tomás. If anyone knew enough old signatures to imitate Elena’s, it was him or someone from his office.
Elena looked up.
—Your father took the frame.
—The car was his. That doesn’t mean he was driving it.
—But you knew the frame mattered.
-Yeah.
—And you didn’t tell me everything.
Lucía accepted the blow.
—No.
Elena felt that everyone around her spoke the same language: secrets justified as protection.
“What was hidden in the frame?” Diego asked.
—A password.
Elena explained the RED file.
Diego paled.
—Do you have copies?
-Yeah.
-Where?
Elena looked at him.
—You no longer have the right to ask that.
Diego nodded slowly.
-You’re right.
It was the first honest answer of the night.
The following morning, Fernando, Pilar, and Elena went to the Economic Crimes Unit with a copy of the files. They didn’t make any grand accusations. They handed over documents and explained where they came from.
The investigators would request business records, notarized deeds, and bank statements where appropriate.
Pilar insisted on something important:
—These files can serve as a guide. They are not a sentence.
Elena understood.
I needed verifiable facts.
Not revenge.
That afternoon, Diego received a message from Tomás.
“Give me back the copy of the agreement and I’ll make the frame problem disappear.”
Diego showed it to Elena.
—He wants the fake document.
—Or he wants to know if you have it.
—I’m going to answer.
—Not without speaking to your lawyer.
Diego looked at her in surprise.
—Do you care what happens to me?
Elena held his gaze.
—It matters to me that the truth isn’t ruined because you want to play the hero.
Diego smiled sadly.
—That was well deserved.
Elena did not smile.
She was still wearing her wedding ring.
I didn’t know why he hadn’t taken it off.
Perhaps because ending a ceremony was easy.
Accepting that the marriage could have started dead was another matter.
Two days later, the police located César Ferrer’s car in a parking lot in Jerez.
Empty.
In the trunk they found the lining torn from a frame.
Not the frame.
Just a small piece of beige cardboard.
Elena recognized her.
It belonged to the reverse.
Fernando asked:
—What were they looking for inside?
Elena thought about the password.
—They thought I was hiding something.
Diego shook his head.
—And he hid it.
Elena looked at him.
—No. The important thing wasn’t inside.
-So?
—The important thing was who would recognize it.
That night a call came in.
He wasn’t with the police.
It was César Ferrer.
Her voice sounded tired.
—Elena, I don’t have much time.
—Where is the frame?
-Don’t know.
—Your car…
—It was stolen from me.
Elena looked at Lucia, who was with her.
Lucia stiffened.
-Dad.
Caesar remained silent.
—Lucía is with you.
-Yeah.
The man’s voice broke.
—Then listen to both of them. Tomás didn’t steal the frame because he cared about the password.
-Because?
—Because behind the red square there is something that Julian never understood.
Elena pressed the phone.
-That?
Caesar breathed a sigh of relief.
—The first operation of Rojo Uno was not Valdemora.
—So which one?
—The purchase of the Santa Aurelia hotel.
Elena looked around.
They were staying at the same resort where the wedding had taken place.
Caesar continued:
—The palace where you got married was paid for with money that disappeared from your father’s company.
Chapter 7 — Saint Aurelia
Elena left the Santa Aurelia Palace that same night.
He could no longer bear to sleep under a roof that, according to César, could have been bought with money diverted from his father’s company.
Marta offered him her apartment in Seville.
Diego stayed at the hotel.
They didn’t argue.
The following days were a succession of meetings.
Investigators located César Ferrer in Huelva. He had been in hiding out of fear of Tomás and the consequences of his own actions.
He agreed to testify accompanied by a lawyer.
His testimony did not make him innocent.
César admitted to participating in corporate structures created to conceal the true beneficiaries. He acknowledged that some transactions had inflated costs and diverted funds.
But he stated that the original plan was not to destroy Julian.
—Valdemora started as a legitimate business —he explained during a statement, the essential part of which Lucía learned later through her lawyer—. Tomás turned the system into something else.
