Adrián.
I answered, forcing myself to sound normal.
“Hello, son.”
“Hey, Dad. How are those dizzy spells? Feeling any better?”
“A little.”
“Good. By the way, how was dinner at La Encina?”
I went still.
I hadn’t told Adrián which restaurant I was visiting.
“Why do you ask?”
He paused.
Then he laughed quietly.
“Someone mentioned that a pregnant waitress approached you tonight.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“I hope you didn’t believe whatever nonsense she told you,” he continued.
I said nothing.
His voice became colder.
“Listen carefully, Dad. Forget you ever saw Lucía.”
I looked through the glass window toward her hospital room.
Then Adrián added something that made me realize how much danger we were in.
“Because if you keep interfering, neither of you is going to be around to meet that baby.”
Part 3: My Son Threatened His Pregnant Wife and Tried to Take Over My Company—Then the Medical Tests Exposed the Truth
I remained frozen with the phone against my ear long after Adrián ended the call.
For thirty-five years, I’d defended my only son whenever someone questioned his behavior. I’d trusted him with my company, my finances, and eventually my health.
Now he’d threatened both me and his pregnant wife.
I returned to Lucía’s hospital room. She was sleeping with one hand resting on her stomach, unaware that Adrián already knew I’d found her.
I sat beside her and made a decision.
Whatever happened next, she wouldn’t face it alone.
The following morning, Patricia Beltrán accompanied me to another hospital for a complete medical examination. We also reported Adrián’s threats to the authorities and provided the information Lucía had shared.
Two days later, a toxicologist asked to speak with me privately.
“Mr. Salazar, your tests indicate repeated exposure to arsenic,” he explained. “We need additional testing, but this could explain several of your symptoms.”
I stared at my trembling hands.
I’d spent months believing that exhaustion and age were catching up with me. Now there was medical evidence suggesting that someone had deliberately exposed me to a dangerous substance.
I gave the results to the investigators.
I didn’t want accusations based only on suspicion. I wanted evidence that could establish exactly what had happened.
Meanwhile, Patricia hired an independent forensic accountant named Rebeca Solís.
Rebeca compared Lucía’s saved documents with our original accounting records and bank statements.
Within days, she identified eighteen million pesos transferred to three apparently fictitious suppliers.
Two companies were connected to a relative of Verónica Montes. The third had received funds through an account controlled by Adrián.
“The transactions were deliberately concealed,” Rebeca told me. “Someone also altered authorization records using employee credentials.”
I immediately remembered Luis Mendoza and Rafael Torres.
I’d fired both men after Adrián accused them of stealing company money.
The realization that I might have punished innocent employees made me feel physically ill.
Then Rebeca uncovered another document.
Someone had attempted to increase my life insurance coverage to forty million pesos while keeping Adrián as the beneficiary.
The application contained an electronic signature I didn’t recognize.
The insurer had already begun reviewing the irregularities.
I sat in silence, looking at the paperwork.
My son hadn’t merely been waiting to inherit the business.
The evidence suggested he’d been preparing to benefit financially from my death.
That afternoon, I asked Adrián to meet me at my office.
I didn’t reveal everything the investigators had discovered. I wanted to hear what he would say when questioned directly.
He arrived looking confident.
“Dad, we really need to discuss your retirement,” he began. “The board is concerned about your health.”
“Are you concerned too?”
“Of course. You’re my father.”
I looked directly at him.
“Then why did you threaten Lucía and her unborn baby?”
His expression changed.
“She’s manipulating you. You can’t trust anything she says.”
“She’s your wife, Adrián. She’s been working long shifts just to survive.”
“She left because she wanted to!”
I asked him about the missing eighteen million pesos.
He claimed the transfers were necessary business decisions.
When I mentioned Verónica, he abruptly stood.
“Everything you’ve built is supposed to be mine someday!” he shouted. “You can’t take it away because of that woman!”
I finally understood how he saw us.
Lucía was an obstacle to be discarded.
And I was simply the person standing between him and the company.
“I’m not taking anything that belongs to you,” I replied. “But I won’t allow you to keep controlling money you have no right to take.”
With the support of the company’s uninvolved board members, I suspended Adrián’s signing authority and access to corporate accounts pending the investigation.
He stormed out, convinced he could still intimidate me.
Lucía, meanwhile, was discharged to a secure residence where she could continue receiving prenatal care.
With her permission, I contacted her parents, Rosa and Manuel, in Saltillo.
They arrived the following day, overwhelmed with relief.
Manuel looked at me with tears in his eyes.
“You had the money to protect her, Mr. Salazar. We only had the willingness. And your son made us believe helping her would put her in danger.”
I couldn’t defend myself.
I apologized to all three of them.
As the investigation continued, authorities obtained additional purchase records, surveillance footage, and witness statements connecting Adrián and Verónica to the suspected poisoning.
For the first time, I was beginning to understand the full extent of their plan.
Then, three weeks later, Lucía went into labor earlier than expected.
We rushed her to the hospital.
While Rosa and Manuel waited anxiously beside me, Patricia arrived with alarming news.
“Ernesto, Verónica tried to enter the maternity ward using someone else’s identification. Security stopped her.”
I felt my chest tighten.
Patricia continued.
“And Adrián has been spotted near the hospital.”
I looked toward the doors behind which Lucía was giving birth.
Even after everything we’d uncovered, my son was still trying to reach her.
Part 4: My Son Tried to Reach His Wife in the Maternity Ward—But the Police Were Already Looking for Him
Patricia’s warning sent a wave of fear through me.
Lucía was in labor, her baby was arriving earlier than expected, and the two people she’d spent eight months hiding from had appeared near the hospital.
“Where is Adrián?” I asked.
“Security has been notified,” Patricia replied. “The authorities are also on their way.”
Verónica had already been stopped after attempting to enter the maternity ward using someone else’s identification. Hospital staff refused to give her any information about Lucía.
I immediately asked the nurses to restrict visitors to Lucía’s parents and me.
Rosa sat beside Manuel, gripping his hand. Neither of them had forgotten how Adrián had threatened their family when Lucía first tried to escape.
“Will they get to her?” Rosa whispered.
“Not if I can prevent it.”
I wasn’t making another promise I intended to leave unfulfilled.
Over the previous weeks, investigators had gathered financial records, witness statements, and evidence related to the suspected poisoning.
They had also received messages Adrián sent Lucía, demanding that she withdraw her statements in exchange for leaving her and the baby alone.
Those threats were now part of the case against him.
When officers arrived at the hospital, Patricia provided the information needed to locate Adrián and Verónica.
Both were detained under the judicial orders already issued in connection with the investigation.
I saw Adrián as the officers escorted him toward a police vehicle.
For a moment, I barely recognized him.
This was the boy I’d taught to ride a bicycle, the young man whose graduation I’d celebrated, and the son I’d trusted to help run the business I’d spent my life building.
Now he was facing the consequences of his own decisions.
“Dad!” he shouted when he noticed me. “Tell them it was Verónica’s idea! She planned everything!”
I stopped a few feet away.
“Adrián, you had opportunities to stop.”
He shook his head.
“You can’t let them do this to your own son!”
I felt a pain that had nothing to do with the illness I’d been fighting.
“I should have listened when Lucía tried to warn me,” I said. “I won’t make that mistake again.”
His expression hardened.
“So you’re choosing her over me?”
“I’m choosing to protect the people you’ve hurt.”
I turned away before he could respond.
