They humiliated her because she looked poor, not knowing that she was the hotel owner’s daughter.

Mateo let out a groan.

Valeria pressed call.

One ring. Two rings. Three.

Her heart was pounding in her chest. Behind her, she heard Beatriz’s mocking voice:

“Look, now she’s calling someone to come and save her. How touching.”

Four rings.

And then a deep, tired voice, which Valeria would have recognized anywhere:

” Hello ? “

Something broke inside her.

“Daddy…” was all she could say before tears choked her throat.

At the other end, there was such a long silence that she thought the call had been cut off.

“Valeria?” Alejandro’s voice was no longer harsh. It was broken. “My daughter? Is that you?”

“Forgive me, Dad. Forgive me for everything. I… I wouldn’t have called you if…” A sob. “I have a baby, Dad. His name is Mateo. He has a high fever and I have nowhere to take him. I was kicked out of where I was living and…”

“Where are you?” he interrupted, and his voice suddenly regained its full firmness. “Tell me where you are, right now.”

“At the Imperial. I came because Rosa told me you were having dinner here on Thursdays… But they’re throwing me out, Dad. A lady said I was a thief and the security guard is escorting me out.”

At the other end of the line, Valeria heard something she had never heard before: her father breathing as if he had just been punched in the stomach.

“You’re being kicked out… of the Imperial?” »

” Yes. “

A second of silence. Then each word, slow and heavy as a stone:

“Don’t move, my daughter. Don’t go out in the rain. If anyone touches you again, tell them to wait. I’m five minutes away. I’m coming.”

The call ended.

Valeria slowly lowered the phone. She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. Something had changed inside her. She no longer felt alone.

Ramiro took his arm back.

“Come now, miss. You’ve made your call.”

But this time, Valeria didn’t let herself be pushed. She gently pulled away, turned around and looked them in the face — first the security guard, then Beatriz.

“I’m not going out,” she said calmly, a calmness that surprised everyone. “My father is on his way. And he asked me to wait for him here.”

Beatriz burst into laughter that echoed throughout the hall.

“Your father? And who is your father? The one who sweeps the street across the street? Is he coming by bus?”

Some laughed again. But Lucía, at the reception desk, didn’t laugh. There was something about the way this young woman stood—back straight, chin raised despite the tears—that seemed strangely familiar. As if she had seen that same look on another face.

Valeria looked Beatriz straight in the eyes.

“You have no idea what you’ve just done, madam.”

And for the first time that evening, Beatriz Montenegro’s smile wavered.

Chapter 4 – Five minutes

Those were the longest five minutes in the history of the Grand Hotel Imperial.

Beatriz sat down in a velvet armchair and ordered a glass of champagne, determined not to miss the end of the scene. The two young men were still filming. The man in the gray suit looked at his watch with mocking impatience.

“I’ll give her two more minutes,” Beatriz said. “If her ‘daddy’ doesn’t arrive, you’ll take her out, even if you have to drag her, Ramiro. Understood?”

Ramiro nodded, but he wasn’t so sure of himself anymore. Something about Valeria’s calmness worried him.

Meanwhile, Lucía kept her eyes fixed on the young woman. And suddenly, her gaze shifted to the wall behind the reception desk, where a huge portrait in a gilded frame hung: the photograph from the day the hotel had opened, thirty years earlier. It showed a young Alejandro Ríos smiling alongside his wife, Elena Castillo, on the day they had cut the ribbon.

Lucía looked at the photo. She looked at Valeria. She looked at the photo again.

The same dark eyes. The same raised chin. The same beauty mark near the left eyebrow.

She felt her blood run cold.

At that very moment, powerful headlights illuminated the entrance through the large bay windows. Three black SUVs pulled up in front of the hotel, one behind the other, braking sharply in a way that made everyone turn around. Four men in suits, wearing earpieces, got out of the first one. One of them opened a huge umbrella and waited by the rear door of the second vehicle.

In his office, the managing director, Esteban Villalobos, received a call. He listened for three seconds, turned livid, and ran out while adjusting his tie.

“Everyone to their posts!” he shouted, his voice breaking. “Mr. Ríos is here! The owner is here!”

The entire hall froze.