Alejandro swallowed. “Yes, Father. I know. Sofia and I saw you leave. I mean, we saw you… from a distance. We thought you didn’t want to interrupt us.”
“That’s not what I mean, son,” said Don Ricardo, his voice low but sharp. “I mean that I was there.
But not as Don Ricardo Alarcón. I was there as the man Sofía humiliated, the one she poured a Coca-Cola on his head.”
Alejandro’s face fell. His eyes widened, disbelief and horror vying for control of his expression. “What?! You were… you were that goalkeeper?!”
“It was me,” Don Ricardo confirmed, without looking away. “And I witnessed the true face of the woman you plan to marry.
The woman who could inherit a portion of my fortune , of my legacy .” He leaned back in his chair, observing his son’s reaction.
Alejandro staggered, bracing himself against the desk to keep from falling. “Father, no… I can’t believe it. Why would you do something like this? Why such a cruel test?”
“Because my instinct told me that Sofia wasn’t the right woman for you, Alejandro.
That all she saw were the zeros in our bank account. I needed to see it with my own eyes, and I needed you to see it too,” Don Ricardo replied, his voice cracking slightly.
“And what I saw… what I saw was a cruel, ruthless woman, capable of publicly humiliating an old man without a shred of remorse.
And what’s worse, I saw my own son, my heir , remain silent, unable to defend a human being, simply so as not to upset his fiancée.”
The accusation hit Alejandro like a punch to the gut. “That’s not true! I was in shock, Dad. I didn’t know how to react. Sofia isn’t like that! She’ll apologize, I swear! I was under pressure, ashamed of the incident!”
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