Javier held her gaze.
“I don’t ask you to forget it.”
“I know that.”
Don Ernesto laid a hand on his shoulder.
“And that’s precisely why I believe we can find a way.”
Three days later, Lucía asked to see Javier.
He agreed to meet her in a public place.
They chose a quiet coffee.
When she arrived, he had a hard time recognizing her.
She had lost weight.
Her hair was tied up.
She was not wearing any makeup.
She sat down opposite him, her hands intertwined.
“Thank you for coming.”
Javier didn’t answer.
Lucía regarda la table.
“I know that nothing I can say will change what I did.”
He remained silent.
“When Arturo told me they could help me pay off my debts, I wanted to believe him.”
“I know.”
“Then he started asking me horrible things.”
Javier looked up.
“And you agreed.”
Lucía acquiesça.
“Yes.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“I was afraid you would leave me.”
Javier felt deep pain.
“So you chose to turn my father into a monster.”
She began to cry.
“I didn’t want you to hit him.”
“But you wanted me to believe that he had assaulted you.”
Lucía lowered her head.
“Yes.”
“And that was enough to hurt him.”
She did not deny it.
For several minutes they talked about his debts.
Of their relationship.
Months of lies.
Lucía admitted that she had made her own decisions, even though Arturo had manipulated her.
She also explained that she was cooperating with the investigators and receiving advice on how to meet her obligations.
Javier listened to him.
For the first time in a long time, they talked without trying to win an argument.
At the end, Lucía asked:
“Is there any chance that we will get back together?”
Javier looked out the window.
He remembered the day of their wedding.
Of their first trip.
Improvised dinners.
Times when she had supported him when his work was going badly.
But he also remembered the carpet.
Burgundy in colour.
From his father’s trembling hand.
And the words that his mother had left him.
To love is also to have the courage to ask questions.
“No, Lucía.”
She closed her eyes.
A tear fell on the table.
“Because of what I did?”
Javier took a deep breath.
“Because of what you have done and everything that has happened between us after so many lies.”
Lucía nodded slowly.
She did not protest.
She did not try to convince him.
“I understand.”
Javier gets up.
“I hope you find a way to rebuild your life.”
She looked at him.
“Do you hate me?”
It took him several seconds to answer.
“No.”
Lucía began to cry louder.
Javier ajouta :
“But the fact that I can no longer trust you as a wife doesn’t mean I want to see you destroyed.”
He left without looking back.
This decision did not bring him any joy.
It brought him sadness.
And a strange feeling of freedom.
A few months later, the investigation led to legal proceedings.
Ricardo and Arturo were held accountable for the transactions and documents related to their alleged actions.
The investigators managed to reconstruct part of the path of the money from the family accounts.
Other potential victims were also identified.
The operation prepared on Don Ernesto’s house was never completed.
The disputed documents did not allow the transfer of ownership.
And the house remained in the old man’s name.
However, one question remained unanswered.
The recording of the fake attack.
Javier had tried to get it back, without success.
Lucía had admitted to having erased it.
For months, he believed that he could never visually prove what had happened.
Until the morning when he received a call from a technician in charge of examining the surveillance system.
“Mr. Morales, we have found something that you should see.”
Javier felt a shiver.
“The recording?”
“Not exactly.”
“So what?”
The technician paused.
“A partial copy generated before the main file was deleted.”
Javier closed his eyes.
“What do we see there?”
The answer made his hands tremble.
“We see your wife there.”
“What are you doing?”
“To prepare the whole scene.”
Javier remained silent.
The technician continued.
“And there is something else.”
“What?”
“A voice call that you hear just before she hits herself.”
Javier’s heart began to beat violently.
“With whom?”
“A man.”
“What does he say?”
The technician replied:
“He gives him instructions.”
Javier swallowed.
“Can we recognize his voice?”
“We will have to carry out an official verification. But one sentence is perfectly audible. »
“Which one?”
The technician consulted his notes.
Then he read:
“Make his son believe that he did it. Then we’ll take care of the rest. »
Javier pertrifies himself.
Because this recording could not only prove his father’s innocence.
