Chapter 11 - THE LOCKED ROOM
Alejandro arrived at Elena’s apartment less than an hour later.
He used the emergency key she had forgotten he possessed.
She was alone.
He closed the door and held up a printed photograph of Lucia entering Claire’s office.
“You’ve been busy.”
Elena kept her face calm.
“I don’t know that woman.”
Alejandro walked slowly around her apartment.
He opened drawers.
Checked closets.
Pulled books from shelves.
“Gabriel says you’ve been asking questions.”
“Gabriel is nervous because he betrayed my father.”
The words escaped before Elena could stop them.
Alejandro turned.
For one terrifying second, the room became completely still.
Then he crossed the distance between them and struck her.
Elena fell against the sofa.
He grabbed her arm before she could reach the door.
“Where are the files?”
She refused to answer.
He twisted her wrist until she cried out.
“You signed the pledge,” he said. “The land is ours.”
“Not if you lied.”
Alejandro’s eyes narrowed.
He understood that she knew something about the contract.
He searched her clutch, her laptop, and the replacement phone he had given her. He found only harmless wedding photographs and appointment schedules.
Elena had moved the evidence hours earlier.
Frustrated, he shoved her into the bedroom and locked the door from the outside.
“You’re staying here until you remember whose future you’re destroying.”
Elena listened as he called Victoria.
“She knows about Gabriel,” he said.
Victoria’s reply was faint but clear.
“Then move the wedding forward.”
“It’s in six days.”
“Make it two.”
Elena pressed her ear to the door.
Victoria continued.
“Once the ceremony begins and the public announcement is made, investors will believe the assets are secure. After that, her fear no longer matters.”
Alejandro left twenty minutes later, taking the apartment key.
Elena climbed onto the balcony and crossed a narrow maintenance partition to the neighboring unit. Her elderly neighbor pulled her inside and called Claire.
By midnight, officers had photographed Elena’s injuries.
But the detective advised against an immediate arrest.
Alejandro’s attorneys would claim there were no witnesses. Worse, the Varelas might flee, move funds, and destroy evidence before the financial warrants were ready.
Elena made a choice that horrified everyone in the room.
“I’ll go back.”
Don Roberto shook his head.
“No company is worth this.”
“It isn’t about the company anymore,” Elena said. “It’s about every person they’ll hurt if they escape.”
She asked the police for forty-eight hours.
The wedding would happen in two days.
May you like
But it would not end with vows.
👉 Elena agreed to return to the man who had locked her away—because the ceremony was now the only place where she could force the Varelas to expose themselves in front of witnesses.
