Chapter 10 - Isabella Comes Home
Alejandro reached the hospital before anyone else.
Mariana brought Lucy later, only after doctors confirmed Isabella was stable.
For the first time in twenty years, brother and sister occupied the same room.
Isabella opened her eyes.
Saw Alejandro.
And cried.
Not dramatically.
Silently.
He did not touch her until she held out one hand.
Then he took it.
“I’m sorry.”
She stared.
“For what?”
“Everything.”
“Which part?”
He almost laughed through tears.
“Fair.”
Mariana watched from the doorway.
Love did not erase betrayal.
But betrayal did not erase love either.
Lucy stepped inside.
Isabella’s expression shattered.
“Elena.”
Lucy froze.
Then suddenly remembered.
“Isa…”
The nickname.
No one had mentioned it.
Proof more powerful emotionally than any birthmark.
They embraced.
Mariana watched her mother hold the girl she had once tried to protect.
Then Isabella revealed what happened.
Rafael found her three days earlier.
He demanded the archive.
She refused.
He abducted her.
But she escaped when the vehicle stopped for fuel.
“How?”
“I stabbed him.”
Alejandro stared.
“Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Is he alive?”
“Probably.”
Mariana felt almost disappointed by the uncertainty.
No dramatic corpse.
No neat conclusion.
Isabella then looked at Mariana.
“You need to know something about Hale.”
“Victor?”
“Yes.”
“He wasn’t your father.”
Relief came too quickly.
Then suspicion.
“Who was?”
Isabella hesitated.
“Elena never told me.”
Lucy shook her head.
“I don’t remember.”
“But Victor believed you were his daughter.”
Mariana frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Margaret Blake told him.”
Another lie used to control someone.
Hale thought Mariana was his child.
That was why he tried stopping Elena from taking evidence public.
He believed exposure would destroy Mariana’s future.
“He protected me?”
Isabella shook her head.
“He protected himself while telling himself it was for you.”
That sounded familiar.
Then Isabella revealed the darkest layer.
Victor Hale was alive too.
He had entered federal witness protection fifteen years earlier after testifying against several city officials.
Mariana stared.
“Why wasn’t Rafael convicted?”
Because Hale omitted Rafael’s role.
A deal.
Rafael agreed to leave Hale’s supposed daughter alone.
In exchange, Hale buried part of the case.
Mariana laughed bitterly.
Every man protecting her had somehow protected himself first.
Then Isabella whispered:
“Rafael recently found Hale.”
“Why?”
“Hale knows who your biological father is.”
Mariana stared.
“Does that matter?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because that man owned half the land underneath Alejandro’s original construction company.”
Alejandro frowned.
“Impossible.”
Isabella shook her head.
“Your empire didn’t begin with your father’s company.”
She looked at Mariana.
“It began with hers.”
Mariana’s breath stopped.
“Mine?”
The original land titles were held by a trust created in Mariana’s name when she was a child.
She had never known.
Someone had quietly transferred them after Elena disappeared.
The transfer signature belonged to David Ruiz.
Her adoptive father.
Except David was already dead when the papers were signed.
May you like
Forgery.
Alejandro’s fortune might have been built on property stolen from Mariana before either of them ever met.
