Chapter 4 - The Poisoned Legacy
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The silence that followed Elena’s question was heavy enough to crush everyone in the room.
Alejandro whirled around toward his mother, his eyes wide with a frantic, desperate warning. “Mother, keep your mouth shut. Don't say a word.”
That aggressive command was the final straw.
Victoria stared at her son—at his flared nostrils, his clenched fists, and the ugly, familiar rage distorting his face. Then she looked at Elena, sitting bruised on the floor, holding a child who carried Navarro blood.
A tear slipped down Victoria’s withered cheek.
“No,” Victoria whimpered, stepping away from Alejandro as if he were a stranger.
“Mother!” Alejandro snapped, taking a step toward her.
“I can't keep doing this!” Victoria cried out, her voice cracking under the weight of years of secrets. “I can’t keep covering for you! I promised myself I wouldn't let it happen again!”
Elena felt a cold chill run down her spine. “What do you mean 'again'?”
Rafael’s bodyguards stepped between Alejandro and the women, their hands resting near their jacket holsters.
Victoria buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking violently. “Five years ago… before you met Alejandro, Elena… there was Laura.”
Alejandro’s face turned an ashen gray. “Mother, stop! I swear to God, stop talking!”
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“Laura didn't leave him because she had an affair!” Victoria sobbed, ignoring her son entirely. “That was the lie we paid the PR firm to print! She left because he did the exact same thing to her! He trapped her, he controlled her, and when she tried to leave, he put his hands on her!”
Elena stared at Victoria in horror. Every story Alejandro had ever told her about his ex-wife—that she was ungrateful, unstable, a liar who abandoned him—was a calculated lie designed to hide his own violent nature.
