She said that officially she had been in a car accident, but she knew that her car’s brakes didn’t fail on their own; someone had sabotaged them with the clear intention of wiping her off the map.
The name came out of her lips like poison: Patricia Velasco, daughter of a politician, Rodrigo’s friend since they were young, always in love with him and willing to do anything to take his place as his wife.
Rodrigo had married Camila, a teacher of humble origins, and Patricia never forgave him, harboring resentment and envy like silent weapons that sooner or later she decided to use cruelly.
« She wants my place, » Camila said, « and if she has to kill me to get it, she’ll do it without hesitation, because people like her don’t know how to lose or accept no. »
Valeria felt a chill because she understood all too well what it was like to have a predator smiling in every photo and pretending to be perfect at every social and family event.
For weeks, while cleaning, she would sit and listen to Camila at night, talking about fear, love, and dangerous men who hide behind powerful surnames and charming smiles.
Camila showed him photos of her baby Matías, a little boy with gray eyes and brown curls, whose smile gave her the strength to keep breathing even though death had touched her skin.
« If something happens to me, » she said, squeezing his hand, « I want someone good to be near my son, someone who isn’t after his money or his last name, just his well-being. »
He asked for her number and something more important: a promise, the promise that if she ever needed a safe place, she should call Doña Mercedes and approach the Santillán family.
—If anything happens to me, take care of Matías even from afar—she begged—, I just want someone with a pure heart to love him, because here there are plenty of eyes that only see money.
Camila left the hospital and it seemed that things were starting to improve, until another piece of news hit like a bucket of ice water: another car accident, this time completely fatal.
The brakes had failed again, but the authorities closed the case as an accident, Patricia continued to come and go from the house, and Matías was left without a real mother for good.
Valeria called Doña Mercedes, who tearfully confirmed that the case had been closed, that no one wanted to look any further, and that the child was trapped between cold nannies and a dangerous fiancée.
—If you ever need a job, come —said the lady—, Camila trusted you and I will too, this house will always have a corner for someone who loved it so much.
Later, with the newspaper ad in hand, Valeria understood that it was time to fulfill the promise she had made in that silent hospital room.
In the mansion, Valeria tried to be invisible, cleaning, tidying and looking down, but seeing Matías broke her inside every time she saw him walking seriously and silently through the hallways.
The child was ignored by nannies who were more focused on their cell phones than on him, and when he cried at night no one came up to comfort him, as if his pain were part of the furniture.
Or almost no one, because Valeria started sneaking into his room under the guise of cleaning, she sang softly to him, offered him water and rocked him until the little one finally fell asleep peacefully.
One early morning, with a high fever and the nannies snoring on the sofa, she held him in her arms for hours while changing cloths and praying that the child would not die in front of her.
It was that night when Rodrigo saw them for the first time, the exhausted new employee with the sleeping child on her chest, and something stirred inside him, a mixture of nostalgia, guilt and hope.
—Thank you —he murmured, unable to look away, feeling that the image reminded him of what he had lost and what he could still save in his own home.
Valeria wanted to apologize, fearing immediate dismissal, but instead received a mild warning: Patricia would not be happy if she found out that Matías preferred her above everyone else.
And of course he wasn’t, because he saw the different gleam in Rodrigo’s eyes and noticed how the boy calmed down with Valeria, fueling an envy he had already killed once.
First came venomous comments, then the perfect trap with a « stolen » pearl necklace, a searched room, the necklace « coincidentally » found under Valeria’s mattress in front of witnesses.
« She’s a thief, » Patricia declared, holding the necklace in her hand. « I knew it from the beginning. These kinds of people only break into houses to steal whatever they can. »
Valeria was trembling because if they called the police and checked her fake documents, not only would they accuse her of theft, but Sebastián would also find her and the game of running away would end.
Rodrigo’s lawyer, Bruno, recalled something simple: reviewing the security cameras, which showed Patricia entering Valeria’s room with a key and leaving minutes later with the lighter bag.
Patricia tried to justify herself, lost control, screamed, let out her jealousy and contempt for Matías, and Rodrigo ended the engagement by coldly expelling her from the house.
He thought the danger was named Patricia and that by firing her everything was over, but she still had her lowest blow up her sleeve, one that involved destroying Valeria from another front.
What Rodrigo didn’t know was that Valeria’s story went far beyond that of an innocent employee, and that night in his office he was about to find out for sure.
« My name is not Rosa, » she said, her voice breaking. « My name is Valeria Montes de Oca, and I have been hiding because someone powerful has wanted me dead for years. »
The silence was brutal, Bruno immediately looked up, Doña Mercedes put a hand to her mouth and Rodrigo looked at her as if he were seeing a ghost that came out of the financial newspaper.
« Leonardo Montes de Oca’s daughter? » Bruno asked. « The heiress who disappeared before her wedding and never reappeared anywhere in the world? »
Valeria told everything: her engagement to Sebastián, the attacks, the escape, the fear of destroying her sick father with the truth, her jobs in secret, and her meeting with Camila in the hospital.
He explained how Camila told him about her suspicions regarding Patricia and Matías, and how she asked him to take care of him if anything happened, planting a promise that he was now fulfilling at all costs.
« I came here for that reason, » he said, looking at Rodrigo, « because Camila asked me to protect her son and I couldn’t let Patricia keep you, Matías, and his memory. »
Rodrigo felt guilt for not believing Camila, anger for letting the enemy in, and gratitude for that woman in a gray uniform who silently broke her heart for her son.
However, Patricia had not left defeated but wounded, and wounded vipers are the most dangerous, because they prefer to destroy everything rather than accept that they have definitively lost.
Shortly afterwards, Bruno received a call informing him that Patricia had hired a private investigator and that the same man had just contacted Sebastián Ugarte with information about Valeria.
« They already know who you are, » Bruno told him, « and they already know where you are, which means your past has just caught up with you and it doesn’t plan to leave without fighting dirty. »
The mansion’s doorbell rang like a gunshot and Sebastian arrived elegant, perfumed and smiling, feigning courtesy while saying that he had come for his fiancée as if she were a lost object.
« Mr. Santillán, I’ve come for my fiancée, » he said, extending his hand. « Miss Montes de Oca belongs to my family by agreements that you don’t fully understand. »
—Valeria is neither his fiancée nor his property —Rodrigo replied without accepting the greeting—, and in this house no one will ever again treat her as something to be bought or traded.
Sebastian spoke of contracts, agreements, money, mentioned that his father was sick and asked about her, using guilt as his favorite weapon, knowing where to do the most damage.
But this time Valeria wasn’t alone; there were guards at the door, cameras recording, a lawyer prepared, and a man willing to face anyone to protect her.
« If he goes near her again, » Rodrigo said in a dangerous voice, « I’m going to bring him down with the truth, and believe me, his money isn’t enough to cover up all his victims and his crimes. »
Sebastian left, but he left one last dagger: that when her father died without seeing her it would be her fault, words that pierced Valeria’s heart to the core.
Days later, Bruno arrived with unexpected news: they had found Leonardo alive and willing to see her, finally closing the wound between father and daughter that had been festering in silence for years.
The encounter was pure reparation; Leonardo cried when he saw her, asked for forgiveness for having put her in the hands of a monster, and she apologized for having disappeared without giving him an explanation.
Standing in front of the hospital bed, Leonardo asked Rodrigo a direct question, asking if he truly loved his daughter or was just grateful for what he had done for Matías.
« I love her, » Rodrigo replied, « and if she allows me, I will spend the rest of my life taking care of her as she deserves, without ever allowing anyone to harm her again. »
Valeria did not run away this time nor hide behind another name, but confessed that she loved him too, accepting that fear was not going to dictate all her future decisions.
Justice, which always seemed to arrive late, suddenly began to move quickly when the mechanic who sabotaged Camila’s car brakes agreed to testify, detailing who paid him.
He spoke of money, threats, and an elegant blonde who sent death messages with painted lips, and bank transfers appeared in Patricia’s name that finally brought down her facade.
The police reopened the case and Patricia was arrested in front of the same mansion where she tried to destroy another woman’s life, screaming and blaming everyone but herself.
See more on the next page
Advertisement
