Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO RETURNED AT MIDNIGHT
Alejandro did not confront Renata immediately.
Daniel advised him to let the police handle the investigation and to avoid alerting anyone who might destroy evidence. The security team changed the access codes, reviewed the guest logs, and installed temporary monitoring around the greenhouse.
At 11:42 p.m. the following night, the east garden camera recorded a figure approaching the greenhouse.
The person wore a dark coat and carried a small bag.
Security officers moved toward the garden.
The figure tried the greenhouse door.
It opened.
Mateo and another guard entered from opposite sides. The visitor turned, dropped the bag, and ran toward the hedge.
They caught her near the fountain.
It was not Renata.
It was a woman named Claudia Mendez, a former personal assistant to Victor Salas.
She was taken to a secure office and questioned in the presence of police. Inside her bag were two storage drives, a printed access list, and a small envelope containing cash.
Claudia said Victor had paid her to retrieve a black document box from the greenhouse.
“What was in the box?” Alejandro asked.
“I don't know.”
“Why did he want it?”
“He said it contained old company records.”
“Why come at midnight?”
Claudia looked down.
“Because he told me the police were about to search the property.”
Daniel opened the storage drives. One contained archived financial spreadsheets. The other held audio recordings.
The first recording was a conversation between Victor and Renata, made several weeks after Alejandro's accident.
Renata's voice was clear.
“He still thinks the company is protected by the trust.”
Victor replied, “It is, until the medical review confirms permanent incapacity.”
“And if he improves?”
“Then we delay the review. The board won't question a medical conclusion from Rivas.”
Alejandro stopped the recording.
He felt no anger at first. Only a cold emptiness.
The second recording was dated six months later.
Renata was speaking again.
“I can't keep pretending to be devoted to him.”
Victor answered, “You don't have to. Once the transfer is complete, you can leave.”
“And Valeria?”
“She's harmless. She thinks she's helping him.”
Renata laughed.
“Then let her.”
Alejandro closed the laptop.
Daniel looked at him carefully.
“Sir?”
“Send the recordings to the police. Preserve the original drives.”
“Understood.”
Alejandro walked to the window. The garden was dark. The greenhouse stood at the far end, its glass panels reflecting the security lights.
He remembered the day Valeria had sat with him there during a storm. She had brought a blanket and read aloud from a book because he had been too tired to speak. He had thought she was simply kind.
Now he knew she had been dismissed as harmless by people who believed kindness was weakness.
“Find Valeria,” he said.
Daniel hesitated. “Do you want us to bring her here?”
“No. I want to know whether she's safe. Don't contact her unless she agrees.”
The following morning, Valeria received a call from an unknown number. She answered cautiously.
“Miss Valeria? My name is Daniel Ortega. I work with Mr. Alejandro. I want to tell you that there may be a security risk connected to the investigation.”
She listened.
“Is Mr. Alejandro in danger?”
“We don't know. But we have reason to believe someone used the mansion's security system to retrieve documents.”
“Does he know who?”
“Yes.”
Valeria closed her eyes.
“Then tell him to be careful.”
Daniel paused.
“Would you be willing to speak with him?”
“Not yet.”
“I understand.”
She ended the call.
That evening, someone left a package outside her apartment. It contained a photograph of Valeria beside Alejandro's wheelchair and a handwritten note:
Stay away if you want to keep your job and your family safe.
Valeria's aunt found her staring at it.
“Who sent that?”
“I don't know.”
Teresa locked the door and called the police.
Valeria looked at the photograph again.
She had wanted to leave the mansion behind.
But now she understood that the people who had used Alejandro were not finished.
And somehow, they had decided she was part of the problem.
Claudia Mendez was interviewed again after the storage drives were examined. She admitted that Victor had instructed her to retrieve the black document box, but she insisted she did not know what it contained.
She also said Victor had told her the box included “insurance records” that could damage several people if they became public.
The police asked whether she had been involved in the accident.
“No,” she said. “I never touched the car.”
“Did you know the vehicle had been tampered with?”
Claudia looked frightened.
“I heard Victor say the transport would be delayed. I thought he meant a schedule problem.”
“Did he say why?”
“He said Mr. Alejandro needed to remain unavailable until the board vote.”
The investigator asked her to explain.
Claudia said that Victor had planned a special board meeting to approve the trust amendment. The vote was scheduled for the morning after the accident. When Alejandro was hospitalized, the meeting was postponed until the medical incapacity documents could be prepared.
She did not know whether Victor had planned the accident itself. But she had heard him say that “the road would take care of the rest.”
The phrase was disturbing. It required investigation, not assumption.
Claudia agreed to provide a full statement and identify the people who had arranged the payments. Her lawyer asked for protection because she feared retaliation.
The police placed her under protective supervision.
Alejandro listened to the update without interrupting.
He felt anger rising, but beneath it was a strange sadness. The company he had built had become a place where people treated another person's body as a route to power.
“Make sure Claudia is safe,” he told Daniel. “Whatever she did, she is cooperating now.”
Daniel nodded.
Later, Alejandro visited the greenhouse. It had been neglected during his illness, and the plants had grown unevenly. Valeria used to bring small pots there when she wanted to rescue a plant that looked beyond help.
He found one of the old pots still on the shelf. A tiny green shoot had emerged from dry soil.
He touched the edge of the pot.
He remembered Valeria telling him that plants did not recover on command. They needed water, light, and time. Some never returned. Others surprised you.
He had not understood the lesson then.
Now he did.
A message arrived from Daniel. The police had identified the man who delivered the threatening package to Valeria's apartment. He had been paid through a transfer linked to Victor's assistant.
Alejandro called the investigator and asked whether Valeria's security could be increased.
The investigator said arrangements were already underway.
Alejandro did not call Valeria to tell her what to do. He sent one message:
The police have identified the person who delivered the package. They are handling it. Please contact them if you receive anything else. You do not have to come to the mansion or meet me.
A few minutes later, she replied:
Thank you for telling me. I appreciate that you did not make the decision for me.
May you like
He read the sentence twice.
That, he realized, was what respect looked like.
