Chapter 6 — Alonso’s Offer
Chapter 6 — Alonso’s Offer
Alonso contacted Renata at noon.
Not by phone.
A hotel employee delivered a white box to her room.
Inside lay her wedding ring, cleaned and polished.
Beneath it was a burner phone.
It rang the moment she touched it.
Lucía signaled for her to answer while Reyes’s technicians began tracing the call.
Renata pressed the phone to her ear.
“Alonso.”
His breathing sounded uneven.
“I need you to listen.”
“For six years, that was always your favorite sentence.”
“This is not the time.”
“No. This is exactly the time.”
He went silent.
In the background, Renata heard traffic and the faint ringing of church bells.
“I did not plan to hurt you,” he said.
“You forged a life insurance policy.”
“My mother arranged that.”
“You signed it.”
“She told me it was protection.”
“For whom?”
“For the family.”
Renata closed her eyes.
Even now, he could not say her name when discussing her life.
“You used my identity to move money.”
“I intended to replace it.”
“With what?”
“We had contracts coming.”
“You stole tens of millions.”
“We borrowed it.”
“From companies you owned.”
“Everything belonged to the family.”
“No, Alonso. Everything belonged to whoever you thought was too weak to fight you.”
His voice hardened.
“You think Lucía Serrano cares about you? She sees a famous case. Reyes sees promotions. They will abandon you the moment the headlines move on.”
“And you?”
“I am your husband.”
“You laughed when your mother knocked me to the floor.”
“It was a joke that went too far.”
“She tried to make me look unstable.”
“She was angry.”
“You insured my life.”
Silence.
The technicians signaled that they needed more time.
Renata kept him talking.
“What was supposed to happen after the anniversary?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“The word ‘proof’ was written beside the date.”
Alonso’s breathing stopped.
“Where did you find that?”
“In the chapel.”
A curse escaped him.
“Listen to me. My mother keeps different plans. She writes things down to frighten people. That does not mean—”
“What was the plan?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was I supposed to have an accident?”
“No.”
“Were you taking me somewhere?”
“No.”
“Were you going to kill me?”
“I said no!”
The shout echoed through the phone.
Renata waited.
When he spoke again, his voice was lower.
“I can make this disappear.”
“How?”
“You withdraw your statement. Say you misunderstood the accounts.”
“The investigators have the records.”
“Records can be challenged.”
“And Rafael?”
Another silence.
Renata felt her stomach tighten.
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Did Víctor?”
“I wasn’t there.”
“Mauricio saw you.”
“He is a drug addict and a thief.”
“He followed you to the warehouse.”
“Mauricio would say anything to save himself.”
“Then come in and prove him wrong.”
Alonso laughed bitterly.
“You have always been naive.”
“And you mistook that for stupidity.”
The technicians pointed toward a map.
They had traced the signal to the historic center.
Alonso continued.
“Meet me at the Church of San Gabriel in one hour. Come alone. I will give you everything—accounts, passwords, documents.”
“In exchange for what?”
“You help me leave.”
Renata looked at Lucía.
Lucía shook her head firmly.
“What about your mother?” Renata asked.
“My mother is finished.”
“You were laughing beside her twelve hours ago.”
“I was surviving her.”
“No. You were becoming her.”
The line went quiet.
Then Alonso said something Renata never expected.
“She has your medical records.”
“What?”
“She knows about the surgery.”
Renata’s hand tightened around the phone.
“What surgery?”
“The operation you had when you were nineteen. The hospital in Iztapalapa.”
Renata’s breath caught.
She had undergone emergency surgery after a car struck her on her way home from university. She remembered weeks of recovery and a hospital charity program that paid most of the cost.
“Why would Evangelina have that?”
“Come to the church.”
“Tell me now.”
“She chose you before I met you.”
The call disconnected.
Technicians confirmed the location.
Police units moved immediately.
Renata remained motionless, holding the dead phone.
Lucía knelt in front of her.
“What did he mean?”
Renata stared at the wedding ring inside the box.
“I thought I met Alonso by accident.”
She remembered the bookstore in Coyoacán.
The rain.
The umbrella he offered.
The coffee afterward.
The way he seemed to know which subjects made her feel seen.
Perhaps none of it had been chance.
May you like
Perhaps Evangelina had not merely accepted an orphan into her family.
Perhaps she had selected one.
