And now his name appeared in the documents of a transaction that I had never authorized.
I went back to Daniel.
“We need to end this meeting,” I told him.
Mr. Holguín tried to intervene.
“Isabel, there’s no need to dramatize.”
I looked directly at him.
“Then explain to me why your family organized an investor meeting using my company’s financial information.”
Her smile disappeared.
“That’s a very serious accusation.”
“It’s a question.”
Carlota turned to her father.
“Dad, you said she knew about it.”
Nobody spoke.
It was a short sentence.
Almost accidental.
But she revealed much more than Carlota intended.
Daniel looked at her.
“Known about what?”
Carlota’s eyes began to fill with tears.
“Daniel, I thought it was an agreement between the families.”
“What agreement?”
She looked desperately at her mother.
Mrs. Holguín shook her head.
But Carlota had already begun to speak.
“My dad said that, after we got married, we would participate in a hotel project.”
Daniel took a step back.
“And why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“Because I thought it would be a surprise.”
“A surprise worth millions of pesos?”
Carlota covered her mouth.
His father gently tapped the table.
“That’s enough. All of this is being taken out of context.”
I made a copy of the letter of intent.
“So let’s put it in context.”
I showed him Daniel’s questioned signature.
Then, the note about my supposed ratification.
And finally, the proposal that linked Altamar Consulting with the future project.
“Why did they use these documents before obtaining our authorization?”
Mr. Holguín looked at the papers.
For a few seconds he seemed to calculate his answer.
“It was a preliminary step.”
“With a signature that Daniel denies having put on it.”
His face hardened.
“That will have to be proven.”
“Exactly,” I replied. “And it will be proven.”
Daniel remained motionless.
I had never seen him look at Carlota that way.
He didn’t seem furious.
He looked injured.
And there was something much sadder about that expression.
The realization that the person with whom she had imagined building a life might have hidden something fundamental from her.
“Did you know they were using my documents?” he finally asked.
Carlota began to cry.
“I just wanted our families to have a future together.”
Daniel shook his head slowly.
“You didn’t answer me.”
She pressed her lips together.
And then he said something I didn’t expect to hear.
“My dad needed the project to move forward.”
Mr. Holguín raised his voice.
“Carlota!”
But it was already too late.
“Why did I need it?” I asked.
The young woman looked at the ground.
“Because things aren’t as good as you think.”
His mother put a hand to her chest.
Mr. Holguín remained completely still.
And I remembered his comments about the yacht in Los Cabos.
His mockery of the nouveau riche.
The almost desperate need to demonstrate a fortune that was now beginning to seem suspicious to me.
“Are you having financial problems?” I asked.
No one answered.
But silence was the answer.
At that moment, Daniel placed the small box containing the engagement ring on the table.
Carlota stared at her.
“What are you doing?”
“I need to know who I was going to marry.”
“Daniel, please…”
“I can’t keep celebrating while I find out they used my name to negotiate with my mother’s company.”
Tears rolled down Carlota’s cheeks.
For the first time that night, her perfect hairstyle and diamonds seemed completely irrelevant.
I would have liked to hug my son.
But he knew that he had to make that decision himself.
And Daniel was discovering a truth that no mother can shield him from.
Love is no substitute for trust.
My phone vibrated again.
It was a message from Veronica.
We need to talk about Arturo. Urgently.
I took a few steps away and called her.
“What did you find?”
“There are transfers from a company linked to the Holguín family to an Altamar Consulting account. We are still verifying their purpose. And we found internal emails that suggest Arturo provided confidential information.”
I closed my eyes.
“Since when?”
“The earliest records we’ve located are from four months ago.”
Four months.
Long before that party.
Long before they sat me down by the stove.
“I want all the evidence to be preserved,” I replied.
“We’re already coordinating it. But there’s another problem.”
I heard the sound of papers on the other end of the line.
“One of the emails mentions a meeting with someone identified only as ‘R’.”
“R for Romero?”
“We don’t know. But that person apparently provided information about the shareholding structure and the dates of your upcoming business decisions.”
I felt my stomach clench.
That meant that Arturo might not have acted alone.
“Send me everything you have.”
