Two days later, Don Ernesto received an official letter.
Víctor proposed a meeting to resolve the conflict without resorting to legal proceedings.
The letter had been sent to Elena’s office.
She read it carefully.
“He wants to negotiate.”
Javier frowned.
“After all they’ve done, what can he come up with?”
Elena replied:
“We don’t know yet. But any proposal must be recorded in writing. »
Ernesto asked to hear him.
“I want to know what he’s trying to achieve.”
They agreed to organize a meeting at the lawyer’s office.
Víctor arrived accompanied by a lawyer.
Lucía was not present.
Don Ernesto sat down opposite them.
Javier stayed by his side.
Víctor greeted him with forced politeness.
“Don Ernesto, I deeply regret all this misunderstanding.”
The old man looked at him.
“A misunderstanding?”
“The real estate transaction was never intended to harm you.”
“So why did you try to get me to sign documents that I didn’t want to sign?”
Víctor looked down at his papers.
“It was a preliminary proposal.”
Elena intervened.
“Even preliminary proposals must be presented in full transparency.”
Victor acquiesça.
“That’s exactly why we’re here.”
He proposed to cancel all sales commitments.
He also spoke of repaying certain sums which, according to him, had been deducted in error.
In exchange, he asked that the conflict end without new claims.
Don Ernesto listened attentively.
Then he asked a question.
“And Lucía?”
Victor seems surprised.
“What about her?”
“Does she agree to return the money?”
“We should discuss it with her.”
“Does she recognize what she did to me?”
Victor garda le silence.
Ernesto continued:
“I’m not just talking about the documents. I’m talking about the months she treated me like I wasn’t a human being. »
Victor’s lawyer intervened:
“These personal matters are beyond the scope of this meeting.”
Don Ernesto acquiesça.
“So this meeting is incomplete.”
Víctor breathed hard.
“Don Ernesto, I offer you a reasonable way out.”
The old man looked him straight in the eye.
“I don’t want to buy silence with money.”
Elena observes her client.
The continues:
“I want the facts to be examined. That everyone’s responsibilities be established. Let the money that must be returned be returned. And that no one ever again uses my age to try to take away my rights. »
Víctor clenched his jaw.
“It can take years.”
“I have worked for forty years to build my wealth. I can devote the time necessary to protect it. »
The meeting ended shortly thereafter.
No agreement was reached.
But as he came out of the study, Javier noticed something he hadn’t seen in a long time.
His father walked with his back slightly straighter.
Not because his legs had regained their strength.
But because he had ceased to feel obliged to ask permission to defend himself.
CHAPTER 15. ROSA’S TESTIMONY
While the lawyers were reviewing the documents, Elena received a call from Rosa, the domestic worker.
She seemed nervous.
“I need to tell you something.”
The lawyer invited him to come to her office.
Rosa arrived with a small bag.
Inside, she kept an old telephone.
She explained that she had worked at the mansion for six months.
At first, she had believed Lucía’s explanations.
She thought that Don Ernesto needed special care.
But, over time, she had begun to notice contradictions.
“When Mr. Javier was at home, she spoke to Don Ernesto with great affection,” she said. She would prepare breakfast for him and accompany him in the garden. »
“And when Javier left?” asked Elena.
Rosa lowered her eyes.
“Everything was changing.”
She said that Lucía had forbidden her to serve the old man in the dining room.
She had also ordered a chair to be removed so that he could not sit with the guests.
“One morning, I found him crying in the kitchen. He asked me for a glass of milk and a little bread. »
Javier, who was attending the meeting with his father’s permission, felt deep pain.
“Why didn’t you warn me?”
Rosa began to cry.
“I tried. But madame told me that you knew everything, and that if I continued to meddle in her affairs, I would lose my job. »
“You should have called me.”
“You’re right. I was scared. »
Don Ernesto, sitting near Elena, spoke to her softly.
“You didn’t come here to be reproached by us, Rosa.”
The woman wiped away her tears.
Then she explained that she had kept several messages sent by Lucía.
In one of them, his boss ordered:
“Don’t prepare a set for Ernesto. If he wants to have breakfast, let him go down to the kitchen. »
In another, she wrote:
“Don’t let him into the dining room when I’m entertaining my guests.”
