The man who stood up at the back of the room did not move forward immediately.
First he looked at Juliet.
Then he looked at Carolina.
He was a man in his early sixties, thin, dressed in a gray suit that seemed too simple for a wedding like that. It took Eduardo a few seconds to recognize him.
—Ramón Salcedo.
Ramón had been the notary for the Montes family for almost twenty years.
He had retired shortly after the fire.
Julieta clenched her fists.
—You have no right to be here.
Ramón picked up the folder.
—Your sister invited me.
The guests began to talk amongst themselves.
Carolina stayed by her mother’s side, making no attempt to get any closer. Elena still seemed unable to decide whether to hug her, apologize, or simply touch her to make sure she was real.
Eduardo went straight to Ramón.
—What does that folder contain?
Ramón did not respond immediately.
—First I need to see the key.
Carolina opened her hand.
The blackened piece rested on his palm.
Ramón closed his eyes for a second.
—Then it’s true.
Julieta turned towards Álvaro.
We’re going.
He didn’t move.
—I’m not going anywhere until I understand this.
—Álvaro.
“Ten minutes ago you tried to throw a woman out of our wedding who turned out to be your supposedly dead sister. Then we found out you visited the hospital where she was alive, using another name. I think I have a right to hear the rest.”
Those words were not spoken in anger.
That made them worse.
Julieta realized that she could no longer direct the scene.
Ramón asked for a table.
She placed the folder on top of it and explained that, six years earlier, Eduardo had prepared a reorganization of several family properties. He didn’t want his daughters to depend on him for life and had decided to give them equal shares in three hotels and a building in the center of Madrid.
Carolina was due to receive her share first because she was the oldest.
—The documents were ready —Ramón said—, but some signatures were still missing.
Eduardo looked at Carolina.
—That’s why we had arranged to meet that week.
Carolina nodded.
—I didn’t sign anything.
—Legally, no —Ramón replied.
Julieta let out a nervous laugh.
—Legally? Listen to how you talk. This is all a performance.
Ramón opened the folder.
—Then perhaps you’d like to explain these signatures.
He made several copies.
Eduardo took them.
Carolina saw how her father’s expression changed as he read.
Two documents transferred Carolina’s shares to a company.
Another one authorized the sale of a property.
They all bore Carolina Montes’ signature.
And they had all been dated the day before the fire.
“I never signed that,” Carolina said.
Ramón pointed to a goal.
—I know. I was supposed to certify the signatures and I refused because Carolina wasn’t present.
Eduardo raised his head.
—You never told me this.
—Because I received a call the next morning. Someone told me that you had canceled everything and that the papers would be destroyed.
—I didn’t make that call.
Ramón looked at Julieta.
She remained silent.
Carolina then understood a piece she had been trying to fit for years.
—Who managed that company?
Ramón took out another document.
—Originally, no one related to the family. It was a company created weeks earlier. But three months after the fire, it changed administrators.
Eduardo already seemed to know the answer.
—Juliet.
Ramón nodded.
Elena sat down.
Her face had lost all color.
—Was all this for money?
Carolina answered before anyone else.
—At first I thought the same thing.
Julieta raised her head.
Carolina continued.
—But there was something that didn’t fit.
On the night of the fire, if Julieta had only wanted to forge documents, she would have had many ways to do it without burning down an entire house.
And if he had truly believed that Carolina had died, he wouldn’t have needed to enter a hospital using a false identity.
There was another reason.
Carolina had discovered it months ago, when she began to review the movements of the family business from abroad.
After her supposed death, Julieta had not simply kept the shares.
He had discreetly sold two of the company’s properties.
The money had ended up in accounts that did not belong to her.
Ramón took out a second folder.
This time Julieta stopped pretending to be calm.
—Don’t open that.
Eduardo looked at her.
-Because?
—Because they are private matters.
—Deprived of whom?
Julieta did not respond.
Ramón opened the folder.
The payments were going to a security company called Arce Servicios Integrales.
The name meant nothing to Eduardo.
But Carolina knew him.
—They managed the clinic.
Elena raised her head.
