Chapter 3 - The Man Behind the Wedding
By sunrise, Alejandro had slept exactly twenty-three minutes.
Not in the honeymoon suite.
Not beside his wife.
He sat in his private office at Hacienda Los Encinos while investigators moved through the estate.
The room overlooked the eastern gardens.
Morning sunlight illuminated the same lawn where photographers had taken wedding portraits the previous afternoon.
It already felt like something that had happened years ago.
Luis Ortega stood beside the fireplace.
“The sedative was real.”
Alejandro looked up.
“How much?”
“Enough to create serious risk.”
“Fatal?”
“With your medication and alcohol? Possibly.”
Alejandro leaned back.
Months earlier, he had been prescribed medication for an irregular heartbeat caused by stress.
Very few people knew.
Renata knew.
Mateo knew.
Esteban knew.
Alejandro’s personal physician knew.
Arturo Villaseñor did not.
At least Alejandro had never told him.
“What happens now?”
Luis exhaled.
“Now the prosecutor decides what charges can be supported.”
“What about Arturo?”
“We found nothing directly linking him to the champagne.”
“Renata looked at him.”
“That isn’t evidence.”
Alejandro stood.
“Then find evidence.”
Luis studied him.
“You’re treating this like a corporate takeover.”
“It is.”
“No. It’s potentially attempted murder.”
Alejandro stared at the gardens.
“My entire career has been built around people trying to take things from me legally.”
Luis said nothing.
“This time they used marriage.”
Alejandro looked at him.
“I understand the difference.”
Before Luis could respond, someone knocked.
Marisol entered.
She looked exhausted.
“Sir?”
Alejandro immediately softened.
“Come in.”
She stepped inside alone.
“Where is Valentina?”
“Asleep.”
“Good.”
Marisol wrung her hands.
“I need to apologize.”
Alejandro frowned.
“For what?”
“For bringing her here.”
“You saved my life.”
Marisol blinked.
“No, sir.”
“Your daughter did.”
“She shouldn’t have been wandering around.”
“If she hadn’t…”
He didn’t finish.
Marisol looked down.
“I keep thinking about what might have happened.”
Alejandro came around the desk.
“Don’t.”
She looked at him.
“Valentina heard something else.”
Luis straightened.
“What?”
Marisol took out a folded sheet of paper.
“She drew this before she fell asleep.”
Alejandro opened it.
Children’s drawings were usually difficult to interpret.
This one wasn’t.
Three figures stood behind enormous flowers.
One wore a white triangular dress.
Renata.
Another wore black.
Mateo.
A third figure had gray hair.
Above them, Valentina had drawn a square.
“What is this?”
“She says it was a black box.”
Alejandro frowned.
“A box?”
Marisol nodded.
“She said the gray-haired man gave it to Renata.”
Luis studied the drawing.
“Arturo?”
“She says it wasn’t Renata’s father.”
Alejandro looked at Marisol.
“Did she recognize him?”
“She said she’d seen him at your house before.”
A thought struck Alejandro.
“Older?”
“Yes.”
“Glasses?”
“Yes.”
Alejandro felt his stomach tighten.
He crossed to the desk and opened his laptop.
He pulled up photographs from a company event.
One after another.
Executives.
Investors.
Board members.
He stopped on a picture.
“Is this him?”
Marisol stared.
“I don’t know.”
“Ask Valentina later. Don’t wake her.”
Luis looked at the screen.
The man in the photograph was Santiago Beltrán.
Chairman of Beltrán Capital.
Alejandro’s largest outside investor.
And a man who had spent years trying to purchase controlling interest in Cárdenas Developments.
“He was at the wedding,” Luis said.
“Yes.”
“Where is he now?”
Alejandro checked his phone.
Gone.
Santiago had left the estate at 11:38 p.m.
Eleven minutes before police officially secured the exits.
Luis immediately started making calls.
Alejandro stared at Santiago’s photograph.
Pieces shifted into place.
Six months earlier, Beltrán Capital had offered to buy thirty-two percent of Cárdenas Developments.
Alejandro refused.
Three months later, rumors appeared suggesting the company was overextended.
Then banks suddenly tightened lending conditions.
One major project stalled.
Alejandro had assumed it was market pressure.
What if it hadn’t been?
He opened financial reports.
Luis watched.
“What are you looking for?”
“Pressure points.”
Alejandro searched through loan covenants.
If certain accounts were transferred or frozen, several developments could technically default.
A temporary control crisis could force Alejandro to seek emergency capital.
Who would be positioned to provide it?
Beltrán Capital.
Alejandro sat back slowly.
“This wasn’t just theft.”
Luis understood.
“They wanted your company.”
“Yes.”
The office door opened again.
Teresa entered.
She carried two cups of coffee.
“You haven’t eaten.”
“Mamá.”
“You haven’t.”
She placed one cup near Alejandro.
Then she noticed Santiago’s photograph.
Her face changed.
Alejandro saw it.
“You know something.”
“No.”
“Mamá.”
Teresa sat down.
“He knew your father.”
“How well?”
“Too well.”
Alejandro waited.
She looked toward the window.
“Before you were born, your father and Santiago were partners.”
Alejandro stared at her.
“You never told me.”
“There was nothing useful to tell.”
“What happened?”
“Santiago wanted to sell land your father believed should be held.”
“What land?”
Teresa looked at him.
“Los Encinos.”
Alejandro’s eyes narrowed.
The estate.
“Santiago wanted to sell this property?”
“He wanted to develop it into luxury towers. Your father refused.”
“So they separated.”
“Not peacefully.”
Teresa paused.
“Your father bought Santiago out.”
“How much?”
“Everything he had.”
Alejandro understood immediately.
Humiliation.
Resentment.
Decades of it.
“And Mateo?”
Teresa’s expression darkened.
“Santiago always liked Mateo.”
“Why?”
“He thought Mateo deserved more.”
Alejandro stood.
“How long have they known each other?”
“Since Mateo was a teenager.”
Alejandro turned toward Luis.
“Find every financial connection between Mateo and Beltrán Capital.”
Luis nodded.
Teresa reached for Alejandro’s hand.
“There’s more.”
He looked at her.
“Your father believed Santiago tried to sabotage the company once before.”
“When?”
“Twenty-two years ago.”
Alejandro was sixteen then.
“What happened?”
“A warehouse fire.”
Alejandro remembered it.
One worker died.
The company nearly collapsed.
Investigators ruled it accidental.
“You think Santiago caused it?”
“Your father did.”
“Why didn’t he prove it?”
“He couldn’t.”
Teresa’s voice dropped.
“But after the fire, Santiago offered to buy the company.”
Alejandro sat back down.
Same strategy.
Create crisis.
Buy distressed assets.
Only this time the crisis wasn’t a warehouse.
It was Alejandro himself.
Luis’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Alejandro.
“Santiago’s jet filed a flight plan for Madrid.”
“When?”
“Forty minutes ago.”
“Has it departed?”
“Not yet.”
Alejandro stood.
“Stop it.”
Luis shook his head.
“I can’t simply stop a private aircraft without legal authority.”
“Call the prosecutor.”
“I am.”
Alejandro grabbed his jacket.
“Where are you going?”
“To the airport.”
“You cannot confront a potential suspect.”
“Watch me.”
Teresa stepped in front of him.
“No.”
Alejandro stared at her.
She didn’t move.
“I almost lost one son last night.”
Her voice broke.
“I will not watch the other destroy himself this morning.”
Alejandro exhaled.
She was right.
He hated that she was right.
So he stayed.
Thirty minutes later, Luis returned.
“The prosecutor issued a temporary hold.”
Alejandro said nothing.
“Santiago’s plane isn’t leaving.”
For the first time since the wedding, Alejandro felt the balance shift.
But it lasted less than a minute.
His chief financial officer called.
“Alejandro.”
“What?”
“We have a problem.”
“What kind?”
“The Monterrey Central account.”
Alejandro sat forward.
“What happened?”
“Forty-eight million pesos moved overnight.”
“To where?”
“We’re tracing it.”
“Who authorized it?”
Silence.
“A power-of-attorney document was uploaded at 2:14 a.m.”
Alejandro stared at the desk.
“That document was never signed.”
“I know.”
“Whose signature?”
“Yours.”
Someone had forged it.
And despite the wedding collapsing publicly, the financial part of the plan had continued.
“Freeze everything.”
“We’re trying.”
“Trying isn’t enough.”
“Alejandro…”
“What?”
“There were five transfers.”
His pulse accelerated.
“How much total?”
“Approximately two hundred and twelve million pesos.”
Over twelve million dollars.
Alejandro stood.
“Destination?”
“Four shell companies.”
“And the fifth?”
His CFO hesitated.
“A trust.”
“What trust?”
“The Mateo Cárdenas Family Trust.”
Alejandro closed his eyes.
When he opened them, Teresa was staring at him.
She understood from his expression.
“Mateo?”
Alejandro nodded.
Her face collapsed.
Luis’s phone rang again.
This time he listened for only a few seconds.
Then he looked toward Alejandro.
“They’ve located Santiago.”
“At the airport?”
“No.”
“Where?”
Luis paused.
“Hospital San José.”
Alejandro frowned.
“Why?”
“He suffered a heart attack forty minutes ago.”
Alejandro stared at him.
Convenient.
Too convenient.
Then Luis continued.
“He wasn’t alone.”
“Who was with him?”
“Renata’s father.”
Arturo Villaseñor.
And suddenly Valentina’s mysterious warning made more sense.
The betrayal wasn’t simply romantic.
It wasn’t simply financial.
May you like
Two powerful families had conspired to take Cárdenas Developments.
And Alejandro’s marriage had been their doorway inside.
