The people she says caused them are standing in the room.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Victoria’s glass slipped from her hand and struck the carpet.
Champagne spread across the floor.
“You foolish boy,” she hissed.
“Do you understand what you’re doing to your own family?”
“I’m protecting my family.”
I stepped closer to Elena.
“She is my family.”
For the first time since I had arrived home, Victoria lost control of her face.
The elegance disappeared.
Her lips curled with the same contempt Elena must have seen during the six months I was gone.
“That ungrateful woman would have left you with nothing,” she said.
“We saved what belonged to you.”
Ricardo grabbed her arm.
“Mom, stop talking.”
But she pulled away.
“Why should I? He needs to know the truth.
He abandoned his responsibilities and left her in charge.
She refused every sensible decision.
She thought because her name was beside his, she had authority over us.”
Elena opened her eyes.
“It was our business,” she whispered.
Victoria turned toward her.
“You had no business until my son gave you one.”
I saw Elena’s fear, but something else was beginning to appear beneath it.
She was listening to Victoria expose herself sentence by sentence.
“Tell him,” Victoria continued.
“Tell him how many chances we gave you before you forced us to become firm.”
Ricardo stepped in front of his mother.
“The police will be here soon.
We should leave.”
“No,” I said.
“You should stay.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You think a few bruises prove anything?”
The room went silent.
He heard his own words only after he had spoken them.
I stared at him.
“A few bruises?”
Victoria whispered his name, but he had already revealed knowledge no innocent man should have possessed.
Elena began shaking again.
I sat beside her and placed the phone in her hand.
“The operator is listening,” I said.
“Tell her what happened.”
Ricardo stepped forward.
“Don’t.”
It was the first direct command he had given Elena since I entered the room.
She flinched, but she did not stop.
Haltingly, she described the first document they had brought her.
It had been presented as a temporary authorization so employees could be paid while I was away.
When she tried to read it, Ricardo snatched it back and accused her of distrusting the family.
She refused to sign.
That evening, Victoria took her phone and told her I had requested the transfer.
Elena asked to speak with me.
Victoria said I was in danger and could not be disturbed.
