Chapter 9 - VALERIA TAKES CONTROL
For the first time since the ordeal began, Valeria stopped waiting for the Aranda men to uncover their own history.
She took control.
Sofia filed three motions.
One secured Valeria’s exclusive medical decision-making.
One challenged every document signed under the disputed authorization.
One requested an independent trustee to protect the unborn child’s potential interests.
Esther’s attorneys called the filings aggressive.
Valeria called them overdue.
Then she requested a full forensic audit of the medical subsidiary using her standing as a potential guardian of the descendant trust.
César objected.
The court granted limited access.
That was enough.
Valeria assembled a team independent of Aranda Holdings.
No Alejandro.
No Esther.
No family accountant.
When Alejandro offered resources, she said:
“I need you to understand something.”
“What?”
“I cannot discover the truth if every road still runs through you.”
He nodded.
It hurt.
He accepted it.
That mattered more than promises.
The audit showed Esther had authorized millions in payments over years.
Some funded secrecy surrounding Rafael’s fertility history.
Some paid confidential settlements with former staff.
Some went to Diego.
But Esther had not enriched herself significantly.
César had.
He controlled consulting companies that collected fees from the system.
Yet even his theft did not account for everything.
Nearly nine million euros had been transferred to one recipient labeled:
A.M.
Valeria’s pulse quickened.
Arturo Montes?
Had her father taken money too?
She hated the possibility.
Sofia did not protect her.
“We investigate everyone.”
“Yes.”
That was the rule now.
They traced A.M.
Not Arturo.
Alma Moreno.
A former laboratory director.
Seventy-one years old.
Living quietly in Seville.
When Valeria visited, Alma nearly closed the door.
Then she saw Valeria’s face.
“Your mother’s eyes.”
Valeria froze.
“You knew Elena?”
Alma began crying.
Inside the small apartment, the story changed again.
Alma had managed a private reproductive medicine laboratory used by wealthy European families.
Nineteen years earlier, Esther and Rafael came seeking a donor.
The procedure was legal.
The secrecy extreme.
But César insisted on additional confidentiality agreements because of the Aranda trust.
Later, when Arturo began auditing family medical expenses, he discovered the clinic.
He did not expose Alejandro.
“He said the child was innocent,” Alma told Valeria.
That mattered.
Her father had protected Alejandro’s identity even while challenging fraud.
Then Alma revealed why she had received money.
“Silence.”
“From Esther?”
“At first.”
“And later?”
“César.”
“What were you hiding?”
Alma looked terrified even after nineteen years.
“The donor.”
Alejandro leaned forward.
“Who was he?”
Alma looked at him.
“I never knew his name.”
“But?”
“The sample did not come through normal donor channels.”
“Then where?”
“A private physician delivered it.”
“Whose physician?”
Alma hesitated.
“Mateo Aranda’s.”
Alejandro’s grandfather.
Silence.
Mateo himself had arranged the biological donor.
Why?
Alma gave them one final item.
A photocopy of the original laboratory code.
Sofia’s genetic consultant analyzed the old record.
The donor had been selected for a reason.
Not anonymous genetics.
Family proximity.
A related donor.
Alejandro stared.
“How closely related?”
The consultant could not tell from the code alone.
Brother.
Cousin.
Possibly another close male relative.
Then Valeria understood.
“If the donor was an Aranda relative…”
Alejandro looked at her.
“The bloodline challenge might fail.”
Exactly.
Someone had filed the challenge assuming Alejandro was not biologically Aranda.
But Mateo may have secretly ensured he was.
Why?
To preserve the trust.
To give Rafael and Esther a child who was still biologically part of the dynasty.
They needed the donor’s identity.
Alma only knew one clue.
The physician had referred to him as “the younger son.”
Alejandro’s grandfather Mateo had two sons.
Rafael.
And César.
The room went completely silent.
Alejandro slowly looked toward the photograph of his uncle.
May you like
If César had been the donor—
then the man undermining his inheritance might also be his biological father.
