That night, Alejandro gripped the therapy bar harder than usual.
“He came to see you?” you asked.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because he hates rooms where he isn’t the center.”
You almost smiled.
But Alejandro didn’t.
“He was driving the car the night of the accident,” he said.
Your breath caught.
“What?”
His face went pale, as if saying it pulled him back into the wreck.
“Everyone thinks I was driving. That’s what the report says. But Sebastián was behind the wheel.”
You felt the room tilt.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I did. At first.”
“And?”
“My mother told me I was confused from trauma. My father said scandal would destroy the family. Sebastián cried and said he panicked because he thought I was dead.”
Alejandro stared at his legs.
“Then the official story changed.”
You sat slowly.
The accident was not just an accident anymore.
It was a cover-up.
“Was he drunk?” you asked.
Alejandro looked out the window.
“Worse. He was racing another car.”
The air left your lungs.
“They buried it.”
“They bury everything,” he said.
Now you understood why Doña Isabel needed him helpless.
If Alejandro recovered, he could speak.
If he walked, people might listen.
If he reclaimed his legal authority, Sebastián could lose everything.
The guardianship papers became urgent after that.
Doña Isabel planned a grand charity gala at the mansion for her spinal injury foundation. The city’s elite would attend: politicians, businesspeople, journalists, social media influencers, everyone who loved tragedy when served with champagne. The event would honor Alejandro as “a symbol of resilience.”
But Alejandro was not invited downstairs.
At least, not as a man.
As a portrait.
Doña Isabel planned to show a video about his condition and announce a new foundation project in his name. Then, behind closed doors the next morning, the family would sign legal documents giving Ricardo and Isabel full authority over Alejandro’s medical and financial decisions.
Sebastián would be named interim executive heir.
You heard all of it from the hallway while carrying linens.
That night, Alejandro stood for thirty seconds.
Then forty.
