Chapter 18 - Beatriz Asked to See IsabellaThe request came through lawyers.
Beatriz wanted one supervised meeting.
Alejandro's immediate answer was no.
Dr. Martín asked him to reconsider deciding for Isabella.
That stung.
But she was right.
So they asked Isabella.
“No.”
Simple.
No hesitation.
Alejandro felt relief.
Then Isabella asked:
“Can I write something?”
“Yes.”
She spent twenty minutes at the dining table.
Then handed Alejandro a folded sheet.
“Don't read it.”
He didn't.
The letter went through attorneys.
Beatriz received it at the detention facility where she was being held after additional fraud charges and concerns she might flee.
No one knew what Isabella had written until Beatriz's lawyer later referenced it in negotiations.
One sentence:
I don't hate you, but I don't want you to teach me to be scared anymore.
Beatriz cried when she read it.
According to her attorney, she cried for nearly an hour.
Alejandro heard this and felt nothing at first.
Later, unexpectedly, he felt sad.
Not for the woman who abused Isabella.
For the person Beatriz might have been if resentment had not become entitlement.
Then he hated himself for that sympathy.
Dr. Martín corrected him.
“Compassion does not require reconciliation.”
Alejandro remembered the sentence.
The criminal case moved forward.
Rafael returned to Spain under a cooperation agreement.
Gabriel pleaded guilty to fraud-related offenses.
Beatriz faced the largest number of charges.
But one question remained.
The pregnancy.
A prenatal paternity test, completed with medical approval, confirmed Rafael was the father.
Alejandro expected humiliation.
Instead, he felt freedom.
Beatriz and Rafael's relationship, however, had already collapsed.
Rafael's cooperation implicated her.
Her attorneys accused him of orchestrating everything.
Some of that was true.
Not all.
Investigators reconstructed responsibility.
Rafael designed the property sale.
Gabriel created shell invoices.
Beatriz accessed Alejandro's accounts.
Beatriz manipulated Isabella.
Beatriz created the false behavioral narrative.
Rafael proposed the fake passport.
Gabriel arranged it.
Beatriz knew and did not stop it.
Everyone contributed something.
No one could hide behind the others.
Then Camila's old foundation case reopened.
Rafael confessed he had stolen the missing money years earlier.
Beatriz had protected him.
That protection was the first compromise.
The first secret.
The first time she chose personal advantage over truth.
Alejandro wondered whether lives were destroyed by giant decisions or by small decisions repeated until the person no longer recognized the distance traveled.
Isabella did not care about philosophy.
She wanted a dog.
“You promised we'd talk about it.”
“I said we'd talk.”
“We're talking.”
“That is technically true.”
“I want a golden retriever.”
“Large.”
“Yes.”
“Hair everywhere.”
“Yes.”
“Garbage thief.”
She grinned.
“We can train him.”
Alejandro laughed.
Eventually they adopted a rescue dog instead.
A ridiculous golden mix Isabella named Sunny.
The first time Sunny dug into a trash bag, Isabella froze.
Alejandro saw it.
Her smile disappeared.
Her breathing changed.
He immediately removed the bag.
No lecture.
No joke.
Later, Isabella told Dr. Martín.
“It reminded me.”
Triggers.
Another word Alejandro learned.
The past could enter a room through smell, sound, a plastic bag.
Healing was not forgetting.
It was discovering the memory no longer controlled what happened next.
Five months after the garden incident, Beatriz formally entered a guilty plea to multiple counts of fraud, forgery, child endangerment and coercive mistreatment.
Other charges remained contested.
The plea agreement required restitution.
Millions would return to Isabella's trust through seized assets.
The villa was protected.
The Swiss placement contract voided.
The fake passport canceled.
Beatriz's marital claim to the Marbella property disappeared because she had never owned it.
On the morning before sentencing, Alejandro received one final package from Beatriz.
Inside was Camila's box.
The one Isabella believed had been thrown away.
Photographs.
Perfume.
Scarf.
Cards.
Everything.
Beatriz had not destroyed it.
She had hidden it.
Alejandro stared.
There was a note.
I couldn't throw it away. I wanted to. I hated that I couldn't.
He showed Isabella.
Her hands trembled as she opened the box.
She pressed Camila's scarf against her face.
Then she found something underneath.
An envelope Beatriz apparently had never opened.
Camila's handwriting.
May you like
Addressed not to Isabella.
To Beatriz.
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