Chapter 14 - What Evelyn Did
Victoria opened her private safe.
Inside sat a white envelope.
PATERNITY - ELENA ALVAREZ.
My hands went cold.
“You had this?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Since Rafael died.”
I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because there was nothing left.
“You knew.”
“I knew a file existed.”
“You opened it?”
“No.”
I stared.
“Why?”
“Because Rafael wrote your name across the seal.”
That stopped me.
LUCIA ONLY.
I took it.
The paper tore loudly.
DNA analysis.
Elena Alvarez.
Comparison sample.
Name redacted on the first page.
Relationship probability.
Biological father.
Confirmed.
I turned the page.
My stomach dropped.
The name:
MATEO MONTENEGRO.
I looked at Bell.
“Mateo?”
He sat down.
Victoria whispered, “My cousin.”
The man who died in rehab.
The man Adrian accidentally drugged.
My grandfather.
No.
Timeline.
Elena had been born decades earlier.
Mateo had been young then.
I checked the age.
Too young.
Bell saw it.
“This cannot be Elena’s father.”
A second note.
UPDATED IDENTIFICATION: SAMPLE WAS MISLABELED.
My pulse climbed.
The actual comparison sample came from Mateo’s father.
Alejandro Montenegro.
Victoria’s uncle.
That made sense.
Elena’s father had been a Montenegro too.
Isabel had become pregnant by her own cousin?
No.
Bell read further.
Not biological Montenegro.
Alejandro had been adopted into the family.
Different bloodline.
Still scandalous socially.
Not incest.
I exhaled.
Victoria covered her mouth.
“Our father called him unsuitable because he wasn’t born Montenegro.”
Of course.
The cruelty had been class, bloodline, ownership.
Not love.
I kept reading.
Elena’s father died before she was born.
Isabel never told the family his name.
Rafael found out years later.
Then one final page.
LUCIAS PATERNITY - PENDING.
My chest tightened.
Different file.
Different question.
Elena’s paternity was solved.
Mine was not.
Bell looked at Victoria.
“You said Rafael gave you a file.”
“He gave me two.”
My pulse jumped.
“Where is the other?”
She stared at me.
“I burned it.”
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Rafael made me promise.”
“Why?”
Her eyes filled.
“Because your mother asked him to.”
My hands shook.
“Elena knew?”
“Yes.”
“Knew who my father was?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Victoria looked toward the door.
A man stood there.
Board director Paul Ramsey.
The one with the bruised wrist.
The one who changed his vote.
He looked at me like he had seen a ghost.
Victoria whispered:
“Paul.”
He did not look at her.
He looked at me.
Then said:
“Your mother made me promise I would never tell you.”
May you like
CUT.
