Chapter 14 - The forgotten brother
Upstairs in the private library, the curtains were drawn tight against the gathering twilight. Doña Esperanza sat in an armchair beside the unlit marble fireplace, clutching a porcelain teacup that rattled against its saucer. Across from her, Lucía and Alejandro stood side by side, the open ledger resting on the mahogany desk between them.
"Mother," Alejandro said gently, kneeling beside her chair and taking her trembling hand. "You told us Father was an only child. You told the press, the lawyers, the entire board of directors that there were no other heirs to the Morales name."
Esperanza closed her eyes tightly, two tears tracing the soft hollows of her aged cheeks. When she spoke, her voice was barely more than a cracked whisper.
"I had to protect you. Both of you."
"Protect us from what?" Lucía asked softly, kneeling down on the other side of her mother. "Mother, someone left this photo at our gates. Camila claims father's plane crash wasn't what it seemed. And now we find checks signed by a man named Vicente dated after his supposed death."
Esperanza opened her eyes, staring at the photo of the clinic bassinet that Lucía had laid upon her lap.
"Vicente was Roberto's identical twin brother," Esperanza confessed, her chest shaking with suppressed grief. "They were born twenty minutes apart. But Vicente was... dark. Cruel. When your grandfather drafted the family charter, he saw the sickness in Vicente's heart. He disinherited him completely and left every acre, every company, every asset to Roberto."
"What happened to him?" Alejandro demanded.
"He tried to burn down the estate when Roberto and I announced our wedding," Esperanza whispered. "The police chased his car into the gorge. They found the wreckage burned to the chassis. The authorities told us the body was incinerated beyond recognition. Roberto wept for weeks. He believed his brother was dead."
"And the ring?" Lucía pointed to the photo, to the twin platinum wolves on the doctor's hand. "Whose ring is that?"
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Esperanza bowed her head into her hands. "That was your grandfather’s ring. He gave it to Vicente on his eighteenth birthday, hoping it would teach him honor. When Vicente vanished into the river, the ring was never recovered."
A sudden sound shattered the heavy quiet of the room. Down in the courtyard, the sharp, rapid blare of a security alarm echoed through the thick glass windows, followed instantly by the sound of tires screeching violently against the gravel driveway.
