PART 1
“Sir, don’t make noise… If your wife hears you, your daughter won’t leave this house alive.”
Alejandro Mondragón froze at the service entrance of his own mansion, with a bouquet of white roses in his hand and his heart beating as if it wanted to come out of his chest.
Nobody knew he was back.
He was supposedly still in Madrid, closing the biggest hotel deal of his life. Renata, his wife, had sent him sweet messages during the week. Photos of drinks, elegant dinners, of his daughter Valentina smiling barely in front of the camera. But something in that smile had hurt him.
So he changed his flight without warning.
He landed in Mexico City, took a regular taxi from the airport and, before reaching Lomas de Chapultepec, passed by a flower shop in Polanco. He bought the same white roses that he had given to Renata when he proposed to her.
He came to apologize for so many trips, so many absences, so many times that he believed that paying for schools, drivers and vacations was the same as being present.
But as he approached his house he noticed something strange.
There was music.
Luxury cars filled the entrance.
Laughter, clashing glasses, elegant voices could be heard. A party. At home. A party that no one had mentioned to him because everyone thought he was on the other side of the world.
Alejandro asked to be dropped off a block early. She walked slowly, entered through the service door and as soon as she crossed the kitchen, Maricela, the employee who had been working with them for years, dropped a tray. The glasses broke against the marble floor.
—Maricela, it’s me —he whispered.
But she ran towards him and covered his mouth with her hand.
—Shut up, sir. Please. You have to see something before I go down to the living room.
Alejandro felt his blood get cold.
Maricela took him up the service staircase, away from the music and the expensive perfume of the guests. The second floor was dark. Too quiet for a house full of people.
They stopped in front of Valentina’s room.
The door was ajar.
—Don’t come in yet —Maricela said with tears in her eyes—. Look first.
Alejandro barely pushed the door.
And the world broke.
