Alejandro sat slowly on the edge of the bed while Valentina stared at the floor.
Maricela quietly closed the bedroom door.
Then he read.
—
At first, the letter sounded apologetic.
That frightened him immediately.
Children apologize when adults fail them because children instinctively believe suffering must somehow be their fault.
Valentina wrote about loneliness first.
About his constant travel.
About dinners where Renata smiled beautifully in public but barely spoke to her in private.
About feeling like an accessory inside her own house.
Then the letter changed.
The handwriting became uneven.
Messier.
As though she had been crying while writing it.
Mamá says I ruin everything because I remind her of before.
Alejandro stopped breathing for a second.
Before what?
He kept reading.
Three years earlier, Renata had begun an affair with a man named Mauricio Beltrán — a luxury developer Alejandro himself had introduced into their social circle.
The affair had not remained secret inside the house for long.
Valentina discovered it accidentally one afternoon when she came home early from school.
She hadn’t told Alejandro.
Not because she wanted to protect Renata.
Because Renata had threatened her.
She said if I told you, our family would explode and it would be my fault.
Alejandro closed his eyes.
God.
His daughter had been carrying this alone at thirteen years old.
But the letter became worse.
Much worse.
Renata had begun drinking heavily whenever Alejandro traveled.
At parties.
At lunches.
At home.
And when she drank, she became cruel.
Not physically violent.
Something colder.
Precise cruelty.
The kind rich people perfect behind closed doors because bruises are harder to hide than words.
She says you only love me because you feel guilty for not loving her anymore.
Another line:
Sometimes she calls me “the witness.” I think she hates me because I know who she really is.
Alejandro’s hands clenched so tightly around the pages they crumpled.
Across the room, Valentina sat perfectly still.
Like someone waiting for judgment.
Then came the part that made his blood turn to ice.
Renata planned to send Valentina to Switzerland.
Not for school.
Not for opportunity.
To remove her.
Legally.
Permanently.
Mauricio had connections with an elite behavioral institution disguised as an international therapeutic academy.
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