“I did horrible things. I know that I have no right to hope for your forgiveness. »

Don Ernesto watched him without interrupting him.

“I let myself be carried away by ambition. I wanted security. I wanted to prove that I had achieved something important. »

“And for that, you needed to take my house from me?”

Lucía looked down.

“Víctor convinced me that everything would be simple.”

The old man replied:

“Víctor didn’t force you to humiliate me.”

She began to cry more.

“I know.”

“It was you who decided to deprive me of sufficient food.”

“Yes.”

“You were the one who decided to make Javier believe that I was losing my mind.”

Lucía took a long time to answer.

“Yes.”

“And you’re the one who decided to treat me worse than the dog in the house.”

The woman covered her face.

“I’m sorry.”

Don Ernesto took a deep breath.

“There’s something I want to ask you.”

Lucía relieves les yeux.

“Anything you want.”

“When you saw me on my knees on the floor, how did you feel?”

She did not answer.

“Weren’t you ashamed?”

Lucía began to tremble.

“At first, yes.”

“What’s next?”

“Then I stopped thinking about it.”

This answer deeply saddened the old man.

Not because it was unexpected.

But because she seemed sincere.

“That’s the most terrible thing, Lucía,” he says. That you have managed to get used to the suffering of another person. »

The woman lowered her head.

Javier took a step forward.

“Did you come to ask for forgiveness or to get something?”

Lucía regards him.

Her tears stopped.

“I need help.”

Don Ernesto closed his eyes.

He expected this answer.

“What kind of help?”

Lucía swallowed.

“Víctor has disappeared. There is money that I cannot repay. My lawyer says that I may have very serious problems. »

Javier felt a mixture of indignation and sadness.

“So that’s why you’re here.”

Lucía began to cry again.

“I don’t know what to do.”

The old man remained silent for several seconds.

Then he uttered a sentence that surprised even his son.

“If you want to start fixing what you’ve done, you’re going to have to tell the whole truth.”

Lucía relieves les yeux.

“Are you going to help me?”

“I’m going to help you understand that another lie would only make things worse. But I won’t hide what happened. »

She seemed disappointed.

Don Ernesto continued:

“Forgiveness does not mean erasing the consequences.”

And for the first time, Lucía understood that this man, whom she had considered weak, possessed a strength that she had never been able to recognize.

CHAPTER 18. ELENA’S LATEST RECORDING

Until then, Javier thought he had listened to all the important recordings.

But Elena kept another.

Don Ernesto had gone to his office a few days before the incident in the kitchen.

The meeting had been recorded with his agreement and authorization.

In it, the old man explained that he feared that Lucía was preparing a situation that would present him as incapable of directing his own life.

He also said that his daughter-in-law had started to deprive him of normal meals.

Elena had insisted that he leave the mansion immediately and take shelter.

Don Ernesto had replied that he had decided to leave on Friday.

But he had added something that had caught the lawyer’s attention.

“There’s something else you need to know.”

“Tell me.”

“Years ago, I prepared documents so that Javier could inherit the company without difficulty.”

“I remember it.”

“But I never wanted my son to think that my money was the most important thing I could pass on to him.”

Elena had remained silent.

Ernesto continued:

“I have thought a lot about what I want to do with this house.”

“Do you want to change your asset arrangements?”

“I want to look at a solution that guarantees me that I can live here for the rest of my life and then allow some of what I’ve built to help elderly people who find themselves alone.”

Elena had explained to him that there were different legal possibilities and that they would have to be carefully examined.

The old man nodded.

“I don’t want to make a decision in anger. I want to decide with clear ideas. »

Then he had spoken words that Elena would never forget.

“If Javier ever listens to this recording, tell him that he doesn’t have to choose between loving me and building his own life. He just has to remember that no one deserves to be humiliated because they get older. »

The recording had ended.

When Elena played it to Javier, he remained silent.

His father was sitting opposite him.

“Why didn’t you tell me about that?” asked Javier.

Don Ernesto smiled slightly.