Chapter 3 - The First Betrayal
Paulina recovered first.
“Rafael came because I called him.”
Diego entered the room and picked Valentina up.
“Why?”
“I was frightened. You suddenly announced that a maid’s daughter might be yours. I needed someone from the family office to explain what this could mean.”
Diego looked at Rafael.
“And the document?”
Rafael remained calm.
“A record discovered in the company archive.”
Diego held out his hand.
Paulina gave him the paper.
He read it in silence.
Marisol arrived seconds later, breathless.
“Valentina!”
The child reached toward her.
Marisol took her immediately, then saw the medical record.
“What is that?”
“A document claiming you intended to place your unborn child for adoption,” Diego said.
Marisol stared at the signature.
“That is not mine.”
Rafael gave a careful sigh.
“Of course she would say that.”
Diego’s eyes lifted.
“You are speaking about the mother of my child.”
“We do not yet know the child is yours.”
Valentina buried her face against Marisol.
Diego folded the paper.
“Get out.”
Rafael blinked.
“Diego—”
“Leave my house.”
“You need me.”
“No. I needed someone loyal. I made the mistake of believing that person was you.”
Paulina stepped forward.
“You cannot dismiss him because Marisol makes an accusation.”
“I dismissed him because he entered through the servants’ door, brought a suspicious document into my home, and failed to inform me that Marisol searched for me three years ago.”
Rafael’s expression changed almost imperceptibly.
That was enough.
Diego saw it.
“You knew.”
Rafael said nothing.
“You knew she came to the office.”
“I handled hundreds of visitors.”
“She told you she was pregnant.”
Rafael’s jaw tightened.
“She was emotional and confused.”
Marisol moved closer.
“You told me Diego wanted nothing to do with us.”
“I tried to protect the Villaseñor family.”
“From his own daughter?”
“From a scandal.”
Diego handed Valentina back to Marisol and crossed the room.
He stopped inches from Rafael.
“You erased three years of my daughter’s life.”
“I protected your inheritance.”
“Security.”
Two guards entered.
Rafael straightened his jacket.
“This is a mistake.”
Diego’s voice was low.
“Remove him from the property. Cancel every access credential he has. Freeze all accounts connected to his office.”
For the first time, fear appeared in Rafael’s eyes.
“You cannot do that without board approval.”
“I just did.”
As the guards escorted him away, Rafael looked at Paulina.
It lasted less than a second.
But Diego noticed.
When the front doors closed, he turned to his fiancée.
“How long have you been working with him?”
Paulina’s mouth opened.
“I am not working with anyone.”
“He looked at you.”
“Because I called him.”
“You knew about Valentina before today.”
“That is ridiculous.”
“You hated her from the moment you moved in.”
“She lived in the kitchen!”
“She was three years old.”
Paulina’s composure cracked.
“You are destroying our future over a child who appeared from nowhere.”
Marisol’s face hardened.
“My daughter did not appear from nowhere.”
Paulina looked at her with contempt.
“She is the daughter of an employee who slept with her employer’s son.”
Diego’s hand struck the table.
The sound shook the room.
“Enough.”
Paulina stepped back.
“The next insult you direct at Marisol or Valentina will be the last thing you say inside this house.”
“You’re threatening me?”
“I’m warning you.”
She removed the engagement ring from her finger.
For one moment, Marisol thought Paulina would throw it.
Instead, Paulina closed her fist around it.
“You will regret humiliating me.”
Diego looked at the ring.
“The wedding is postponed.”
Paulina went still.
“Postponed?”
“Until I understand what has happened.”
Her face became white.
“We are supposed to marry in three weeks.”
“Not anymore.”
Paulina turned and climbed the staircase without another word.
Inside her bedroom, she locked the door and called Rafael.
He answered from the back seat of the security vehicle.
“He suspended the wedding,” she said.
“Good.”
“Good?”
“Anger makes Diego predictable.”
“He froze your accounts.”
“Not the important ones.”
“What do we do now?”
Rafael looked through the rear window at the mansion growing smaller behind him.
“We force him to choose.”
“Between what?”
“His company and the child.”
That afternoon, Diego ordered a private DNA test through a laboratory he trusted.
A doctor arrived at the mansion and collected samples from Diego and Valentina.
The sealed kit was placed inside a locked case.
Two guards accompanied it to the laboratory.
By evening, Diego believed nothing could interfere.
He was wrong.
At 10:17 p.m., one of the security vehicles stopped at a red light in Polanco.
A motorcycle pulled alongside it.
The rider smashed the rear window, threw a small device inside, and sped away.
Smoke filled the car.
The guards escaped coughing.
When the smoke cleared, the locked medical case was gone.
At the mansion, Diego received the call.
Marisol watched his face turn cold.
“What happened?”
“The DNA samples were stolen.”
She hugged Valentina tighter.
“Who would do that?”
Diego looked toward the dark staircase.
May you like
“Someone who already knows what the result will say.”
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