PART 2
The ambulances turned the quietest street in Lomas into a spectacle. Neighbors came out in bathrobes with their phones out, watching paramedics carry Rodrigo covered only in a blanket, Teresa unconscious, and Valeria wearing one of Ana Lucía’s sweatshirts.
The rumors started before the ambulances had even left.
At the hospital, doctors stabilized Rodrigo and detected severe poisoning from a veterinary compound. The doctor explained the case had to be reported to authorities, since it didn’t look accidental.
Ana Lucía played surprised.
Teresa, freshly recovered, reacted with venom.
—You did this. No one else would touch ranch medicine.
Valeria cut in:
—Rodrigo was sleepwalking. He came into my room disoriented. I screamed because he started convulsing.
Teresa backed the lie, claiming her son had a history of sleepwalking as a teenager.
When Daniel arrived, still wearing his reflective construction vest, he listened in silence, but his expression shifted when he saw his wife in someone else’s sweatshirt.
—If he was sleepwalking, why were they both naked?
No one answered.
Rodrigo lowered his eyes. Valeria started crying. Teresa accused Daniel of destroying the family with “sick ideas.”
Ana Lucía only added:
—The doctor said it was livestock medication. Not a sleeping pill.
Daniel punched the wall and demanded the truth. Still, Teresa insisted on a family meeting once they were back home. There she fabricated another version: Rodrigo had come in half-asleep, mistakenly drunk from a glass with medication in it, and torn both their clothes during the seizure.
Daniel didn’t believe a word of it, but decades of obeying his mother kept him frozen.
Ana Lucía surprised everyone.
—Maybe we should leave it at that. Family comes first.
Teresa smiled with relief. Rodrigo brought her flowers the next day. Valeria walked around the house again like nothing had happened.
They believed Ana Lucía had accepted the lie.
They had no idea that a month earlier, she’d installed a hidden camera in the room, disguised as a smoke detector.
Once she was home alone, she pulled the memory card and found footage recorded two weeks earlier. Valeria appeared in a sheer robe on the main sofa. Minutes later, Rodrigo walked in, closed the curtains, and kissed her.
The recording ran 45 minutes.
Ana Lucía watched all of it.
Then she opened her online banking. The joint account where six years of his salary had been deposited held only 82,000 pesos. More than 2,700,000 was missing.
The transfers led to a car for Valeria, jewelry, trips, and rent for a space in Polanco for a pilates studio she’d be running.
Rodrigo wasn’t just cheating on her. He’d been funding his mistress with his wife’s money.
Ana Lucía saved the video, the bank statements, and the business plan in multiple copies. Then she remembered Teresa’s 65th birthday was in seven days, and she’d be gathering businesspeople, family, former students, and club members at the house.
Teresa herself had asked her to put together a family video to play during the toast.
Ana Lucía smiled.
—It’ll be unforgettable.
While everyone believed the crisis was over, she began editing the truth that would tear the Santillán family apart forever.
