Chapter 7 - THE FIRST WIFE
Dante stared at the doctor. “My father wasn’t married before Helena.”
“He was,” Dr. Santos said. “For eleven months. Her name was Teresa Vale.”
Helena lowered herself into a chair. “He told me Teresa died before they could marry.”
“She died years later.”
Dr. Santos opened his briefcase. Inside were copies of medical records and old payment slips. Teresa had been admitted under a false name after a serious illness. Augusto had paid for her care but insisted that no one outside the clinic know she was alive.
“Why?” Dante asked.
“I never got a straight answer,” the doctor said. “Marisa found Teresa while delivering repaired uniforms. Teresa asked her to carry letters out.”
“Letters to whom?” Isabela asked.
“To her daughter.”
Isabela felt the room tilt. “She had a daughter?”
Dr. Santos hesitated. “Marisa took the child in.”
Dante looked at Isabela.
“No,” Isabela said. “Marisa was my mother.”
“She raised you,” the doctor said gently. “She loved you. I watched her bring you to the clinic every birthday so Teresa could see you through the garden window.”
Isabela pushed away from the table. “Why didn’t Teresa speak to me?”
“She was afraid Augusto would find you. Later, she was too ill.”
Helena covered her mouth. “Marisa tried to tell me.”
Dr. Santos nodded. “Teresa had proof Augusto was moving company money into accounts controlled by Vicente. She wanted to make it public. Augusto wanted her kept away from his family.”
Isabela looked at Dante. She had entered his house searching for the person who ruined her mother’s life. Now she was being told the woman who raised her had spent years protecting her from him.
“Where’s Teresa?” she asked.
Dr. Santos closed his eyes. “She died twelve years ago. I’m sorry.”
For a while, nobody spoke.
Then Rafael’s radio sounded. A guard had found a burned folder in the service yard. Inside it were scraps of clinic records.
“Someone’s getting rid of the originals,” Rafael said.
Dr. Santos reached into the briefcase again. “They won’t get these.”
He pulled out a small envelope bearing Teresa’s name. Inside was a birth certificate.
May you like
Isabela scanned it. Under FATHER, one name had been written in neat block letters.
AUGUSTO MONTENEGRO.
