PART 3
I drove to my apartment in Narvarte with no music, without crying, my hands steady on the steering wheel. When I arrived, I saw 23 missed calls from Fernando, 9 from Iván, 6 from Graciela, and a message from my aunt Lucía: “Your mother would be proud. You are free now.” I saved that message and deleted the others. That night I placed my mother’s photo on the table, next to some gardenias, and whispered to her:
“I know the truth now, Mom. And I no longer feel defective.”
But the story didn’t end there. The next day, a business portal published: “Mexican businessman humiliates adopted daughter and reveals family crisis during Father’s Day lunch.” I wasn’t the one who leaked anything. It was the journalist invited by my own father. The man who wanted to show off a perfect family ended up showing his cruelty on the front page. 2 important partners froze projects with Grupo Santillán. One of them, Don Héctor Salinas, declared:
“I don’t do business with a man who turns an adoption into punishment.”
Graciela sent me a furious audio message.
“You destroyed this family.”
I listened to it once and deleted it. I didn’t destroy anything. I only opened a window in a house full of smoke.
3 days later, Renata appeared outside my school. Her eyes were swollen, with no makeup, no designer bag, none of that armor she always wore.
