Chapter 3 - Lucia Had Come Back Once
Isabel’s first explanation was simple.
She bought the brooch at an estate sale.
Alejandro almost admired the speed of the lie.
“You bought this.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I don’t remember.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“You lived in Boston years ago.”
“Yes.”
“And somehow you bought the exact brooch my daughter wore when she left this house?”
Isabel lifted her chin.
“Jewelry designs repeat.”
Alejandro turned the hummingbird over.
Inside one wing were three tiny letters.
L.A.R.
Lucia Anne Reyes.
Custom engraving.
Isabel stopped speaking.
Marianne looked at Alejandro.
“Reyes?”
Alejandro nodded.
Lucia kept her mother’s surname after her divorce.
Isabel finally changed her story.
“All right.”
Alejandro waited.
“Lucia came here once.”
Everything inside him went still.
“When?”
“Before we married.”
“How long before?”
Isabel hesitated.
“About two years.”
Alejandro stared.
That meant Lucia returned to the mansion six years after leaving.
While Alejandro was still mourning the estrangement.
While he was asking mutual friends whether his daughter ever mentioned him.
While he believed she had made no attempt to come home.
“What happened?”
“I turned her away.”
Marianne whispered:
“Oh, God.”
Alejandro’s voice remained low.
“Why?”
“She came angry.”
“About what?”
“You.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Isabel looked toward the windows.
Lucia arrived without warning on a rainy November afternoon.
Alejandro had been in Washington for a foundation meeting.
Isabel was already staying at the estate frequently, though they were not married yet.
Lucia appeared at the front door carrying one overnight bag.
She asked:
“Is my father here?”
Isabel recognized her from photographs.
Instead of calling Alejandro, she invited Lucia inside.
They spoke in the small morning room.
Lucia said she wanted to see her father before she lost her nerve.
She admitted she had spent years waiting for Alejandro to contact her.
Alejandro felt physically sick.
“She told me not to contact her.”
Isabel nodded.
“I know.”
“What did you tell her?”
Isabel did not answer.
Alejandro stepped closer.
“What did you tell my daughter?”
“That you had moved on.”
His face hardened.
“With you?”
“Yes.”
Isabel told Lucia that Alejandro rarely spoke about her anymore.
That the estrangement had been painful at first but eventually became “peaceful.”
That reopening it might hurt him.
Lucia asked whether Alejandro truly did not want contact.
Isabel said:
“He told me the door needs to stay closed.”
Alejandro whispered:
“I never said that.”
“I know.”
The admission came too easily.
He stared.
“Then why?”
Isabel’s eyes filled.
“Because I knew what would happen if she came back.”
“What?”
“You would choose her.”
Alejandro almost laughed from disbelief.
“She’s my daughter.”
“Exactly.”
There it was.
Not inheritance.
Not money.
Position.
Isabel knew Alejandro’s estrangement from Lucia created a vacancy inside the mansion.
Not the role of daughter.
Something broader.
The person who challenged him.
The person whose opinion could still reach him when everyone else failed.
Before Isabel, Lucia had occupied that emotional space.
If Lucia returned, Isabel feared she would lose her influence over Alejandro before their relationship even stabilized.
So she lied.
Lucia left.
At the door, the hummingbird brooch snagged on the wool scarf she was wearing.
It fell to the floor.
Isabel noticed after Lucia drove away.
She picked it up.
“You could have mailed it.”
“Yes.”
“You could have called me.”
“Yes.”
“You hid it.”
Isabel’s voice dropped.
“Yes.”
Alejandro stared at the tiny bird.
Eight years of estrangement.
Six years of believing Lucia never looked back.
May you like
And for at least one afternoon, she had stood inside his own house asking whether he still wanted her.
Someone else had answered for him.
