I don’t know how much time I have left.
Some people take advantage of the pain of others because they know that those who are suffering no longer have the strength to defend themselves.
If one day someone tries to convince you that your father doesn’t deserve your trust, listen to them before judging them.
Javier stopped reading.
His eyes filled with tears.
Il regarda Don Ernesto.
The old man was crying silently.
Pilar waited.
When they were able to continue, she pointed to the bottom of the document.
The truth is not in a single box.
It is spread out in places where no one would think to look.
Because a proof can disappear.
But many pieces of evidence, kept by different people, are much more difficult to destroy.
Javier raised his head.
“What does this mean?”
Pilar opened her bag again.
She took out a silver key.
A blue ribbon was attached to it.
Don Ernesto pertrifies himself.
“Where did you find it?”
“Elena entrusted her to me shortly before she died.”
Javier felt his heart beat violently.
“So Arturo has a copy.”
Pilar acquiesça.
“A copy that, on its own, is of no use to him.”
“Why?”
“Because a safe deposit box cannot be opened simply by presenting a key. The school’s access conditions must be respected and the necessary documents must be provided. »
Don Ernesto looked at the little object.
“What’s in it?”
Pilar held his gaze.
“Documents that Elena wanted to protect.”
“What documents?”
The former secretary took a few seconds to answer.
“Proof that Ricardo had started stealing money from you long before his illness.”
Javier felt a shiver run down his spine.
“How long before?”
“Almost twenty years.”
Don Ernesto turned pale.
“It’s not possible.”
“Yes.”
Pilar took out another sheet.
It presented the history of a former company.
In one section was the name of Ricardo Valdés.
In another, that of Elena Morales.
But Elena’s signature was not genuine.
“Ricardo used his identity to justify certain operations,” Pilar explained. Then, he took advantage of the fact that your family did not check these movements. »
Javier looked at his father.
“Why didn’t mom realize it?”
“She realized it,” Pilar replied. That’s why she started gathering evidence. »
Don Ernesto put a hand to his face.
He remembered Elena’s last weeks.
Phone calls that stopped when he entered the room.
Letters that she hid under her pillow.
Of her visits to a management firm that she had never wanted to explain.
He had thought that she was preparing instructions for after her death.
And he was not mistaken.
But he didn’t know that she was also trying to stop a man they considered family from continuing to steal from them.
Pilar took something more out of her bag.
A recent photograph.
It showed Ricardo and Arturo walking out of an office building together.
Between them walked a woman with black hair.
Javier brought the photograph closer.
His heart seemed to stop.
“Lucia.”
Pilar acquiesça.
“This photo is from four months ago.”
Javier frowned.
“We already know that. She met Arturo. »
“You don’t look at what’s important.”
Pilar pointed to the file that Lucía was carrying under her arm.
It featured a company logo.
Inversiones Horizonte.
Javier immediately recognized the name.
It was the company in which Lucía had lost her first thirty thousand euros.
The same scam that had allegedly caused his debt.
“I don’t understand,” he whispered.
Pilar looked at him sadly.
“Then listen carefully.”
She leaned forward.
“The company that ruined Lucía was controlled by people linked to Arturo.”
Javier was speechless.
“You mean he was the one who swindled her?”
“That’s what the documents say.”
“And then he appeared to help her?”
Pilar acquiesça.
“Exactly.”
Don Ernesto closes the poings.
“They organized his desperation.”
Pilar regarda Javier.
“They used her to get into your house.”
Javier remembered all those months of arguments.
Lucía’s tears.
Nights when she kept repeating that they needed money.
Of his insistence on selling the family home.
And he understood that his marriage had been used as an instrument of a much older operation.
But Pilar wasn’t done.
“There’s something else you need to know.”
She took out one last photograph.
It showed Ricardo entering a hospital.
The image dated from sixteen years earlier.
Three days before Elena’s death.
Javier looked up.
“What is special about it?”
Pilar answered slowly.
“That day, your mother called me to tell me that she had found out who was stealing the money.”
“So what?”
“When I arrived at the hospital, Ricardo had already entered his room.”
Don Ernesto turned pale.
“What happened?”
Pilar lowered her voice.
“Elena told me that Ricardo had demanded that she hand over all the documents to him.”
“She gave them to him?”
