Chapter 4 - Monday Morning
Arturo called Mariana seventeen times Sunday night.
She answered none of them.
Monday morning, he appeared at Alvarado corporate headquarters.
Diego wasn't there to greet him.
Two security employees were.
“You can't enter, Mr. Ledesma.”
Arturo stared at them.
“I have an office upstairs.”
“Not anymore.”
“Move.”
“Please don't make this difficult.”
Arturo laughed bitterly.
“You know who I am?”
A voice behind him answered.
“Yes.”
Mariana approached.
Arturo turned.
“You blocked my access.”
“Yes.”
“My files are upstairs.”
“Your personal belongings have been packed.”
“Mariana, stop this.”
She walked toward the elevator.
He followed.
“Please.”
That word made her stop.
Arturo almost never said please.
“Five minutes,” he said.
“About what?”
“Us.”
“There is no us.”
“Thirteen years don't disappear overnight.”
“They didn't.”
Mariana faced him.
“They disappeared slowly.”
He looked away.
She continued.
“Every lie removed a piece.”
“Mariana—”
“Every time you called me stupid.”
“I never called you stupid.”
“You didn't have to.”
His face tightened.
“I made mistakes.”
“You committed betrayals.”
“I can end things with Camila.”
“This isn't about Camila anymore.”
“Then what do you want?”
Mariana looked genuinely surprised.
“Nothing from you.”
That answer devastated him.
Arturo stepped closer.
“I love you.”
She stared at him for several seconds.
“Then you had a strange way of showing it.”
“I was arrogant.”
“Yes.”
“I thought you'd always be there.”
“Yes.”
“I thought—”
“I know what you thought.”
She held his gaze.
“You thought I needed you more than you needed me.”
He couldn't answer.
Mariana entered the elevator.
Arturo stopped the doors with his hand.
“Is there any chance?”
She looked at the man she had married.
For a moment she remembered the younger Arturo.
The ambitious man who once ate tacos with her at midnight after helping her father repair a broken kitchen freezer.
Maybe that man had loved her.
But love without respect had eventually become possession.
“No.”
The doors closed.
At nine, Mariana entered the boardroom.
Twelve executives stood.
Sergio smiled.
“Chairwoman.”
Mariana almost corrected him.
Then she didn't.
“Good morning.”
She sat in her father's old chair.
“Let's begin.”
The first months were brutal.
Arturo had left damage everywhere.
Debt structures needed restructuring.
Contracts required review.
Partners demanded explanations.
The press discovered the divorce.
Headlines appeared.
ALVARADO HEIRESS TAKES CONTROL.
POWER COUPLE SPLITS AMID BUSINESS DISPUTE.
Some commentators predicted failure.
Mariana ignored them.
She spent mornings with accountants.
Afternoons with managers.
Evenings visiting properties.
And instead of pretending she knew everything, she asked questions.
One evening, Sergio found her alone in the lobby.
“You're still here?”
“So are you.”
“I’m the general manager.”
“And I'm apparently the sentimental heiress.”
Sergio smiled.
“Not anymore.”
Mariana looked around the lobby.
“My father knew every employee's name.”
“He knew their children's names.”
“I don't know how he did it.”
“He listened.”
Mariana nodded.
“Then that's where I'll start.”
The next morning she did.
Housekeeping.
Kitchen staff.
Receptionists.
Drivers.
Maintenance crews.
She listened.
And something unexpected happened.
The company improved.
Not because Mariana became her father.
Because she stopped trying to become Arturo.
Meanwhile, Arturo's world contracted rapidly.
Banks asked questions.
Partners delayed deals.
His board demanded explanations.
Then came the civil complaint.
He blamed Mariana.
Then Octavio.
Then Sergio.
Then Camila.
Camila resigned.
Their relationship ended shortly afterward.
“You said we'd have a future,” Arturo told her.
Camila looked at him across his half-empty apartment.
“You said a lot of things.”
“You knew I was married.”
“Yes.”
“And that was wrong.”
She picked up her suitcase.
“But what scares me isn't that you lied to Mariana.”
She looked at him.
“It's how easily you lied to everyone.”
She left.
May you like
For the first time in years, Arturo had nobody available to blame.
Except himself.
