Page 26 of The Spanish Daughter (The Lost Daughters #5)

25

ARGENTINA, 1940

‘Valentina, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we always knew this could happen.’

Valentina sat stiff-backed as she faced the lawyer, trying her very hardest to maintain her composure and not crumble. Her breasts were still aching, her body craving the touch of the baby she’d left behind, and her heart felt as if it had splintered beyond repair, and yet she sat in the lawyer’s office in the last of her best clothes, trying to pretend as if her world wasn’t falling apart for the second time.

‘Just tell me,’ she said, forcing the words out as her throat felt like it was closing over. ‘I want to know everything that has happened in my absence.’

He nodded. ‘Very well. But let me assure you that once you’re in control, once?—’

‘Tell me the bad news.’

‘The company has been sold.’

Valentina’s eyes widened as she gasped. ‘Sold?’

‘Your mother appointed your brother director of the company, and it was sold four months ago. Unfortunately, from what I understand, there would be no way to reverse the sale—unless you could convince the new owner to sell it back to you, of course. Which I have to point out would need to be at a premium, most likely a greatly inflated amount over what they paid to secure it.’

‘Tell me the rest,’ she said, unable to contain her sigh. It was as if everything had collapsed in the short time she was gone. ‘I can tell there’s more.’

‘Your family home is up for sale, as is the property in Mendoza.’

‘So, she’s trying to sell everything? To erase every memory of my father,’ Valentina said bitterly.

‘Publicly, she’s the image of the grieving widow,’ he said. ‘I won’t paint the picture for you, I’m certain you can do that yourself, but she certainly knows how to act.’

Valentina looked out of the window for a long moment, before taking a deep breath. She’d given up so much to come back to Argentina, and she wasn’t going to back down now.

‘Lorenzo, I returned home for a fight, and I intend on having one,’ she said. ‘Are you still confident that my father’s last will and testament would be upheld in a court of law, now that I am an adult, when we contest it?’

‘I am.’

‘Then please go ahead with the annulment proceedings, so we can have that in place, and file whatever court documents are required on the matter of my inheritance. I want to start this fight tomorrow.’

‘Your instructions are clear, Valentina, and I will proceed immediately,’ he said, before adding more softly, ‘and I have a small apartment near my offices arranged for you. It’s very modest, but?—’

‘It will be perfect, thank you.’

‘I have to warn you, this could stretch on for months, and if your husband isn’t agreeable?—’

‘Offer him enough money that he would agree to sell his own mother,’ she said. ‘So long as he’s erased from my life, I don’t care how much it costs to extricate myself from him.’

‘Very well, but I will have to make it clear that any payment will need to be made after you challenge the contents of the will.’

‘All he’ll hear is the amount you’re offering—he won’t mind if he has to wait for it, I’m certain. Just, please, make it happen.’

He went on to show Valentina paperwork and have her sign documents, and by the time his secretary took her to the apartment he’d found for her, she was so exhausted she could barely stand. But in bed, curled into a ball as she prayed for sleep, all Valentina could think about was the beautiful little baby who should be cradled in her arms, which kept her from sleeping at all.

Te amo, carino . I miss you so much.

And she also thought of Felipe, and what she wouldn’t give to go and find him, to tell him that she was back, that they could finally be together. But she’d waited this long, and she knew that once this was all over, they’d have a lifetime together. She just had to be patient and wait.

Valentina had expected to feel differently when her lawyer personally called by to tell her about the annulment. It had just been granted, thanks to her husband agreeing to sign the petition, in exchange for the deeds to the Mendoza property and almost ten million pesos in cash, and she’d reluctantly given her consent. The money she was ambivalent about, but giving up the property had hurt, and made her feel as if she were betraying her papa. It was close to adjoining the land where her father had grown his best olives, land that he’d purchased when he’d first moved to Argentina, and she knew how much he’d have hated to see it let go. But with the business already sold, and the large piece of land with it, she could see no point in refusing to part with it.

Agreeing to this brings me one step closer to going home, and to returning for my daughter. Papa would have understood, and he’d have wanted me to do anything to regain control of what he left.

Only the day before she’d received a letter from Hope, telling her that her daughter was thriving, despite being unsettled the first two nights without her mother to hold her. It had given her the strength she needed to push on, knowing that she had to continue what she’d started. And so she’d signed on the dotted line, agreeing to give her husband what her lawyer had negotiated within six months of the date of annulment—something she could only do if she successfully challenged her mother. If she didn’t win in her court case, then she wouldn’t be able to fulfil the agreement with her husband.

And today was the day she would stand in front of the judge who would be deciding her fate.

Valentina dressed carefully in a demure black jacket, blouse and skirt—the same outfit she’d worn to her father’s funeral a year earlier, and the only good clothes she’d taken when she’d fled her marital home. It was also all she had that was appropriate, and it somehow felt like exactly what she was supposed to wear.

There was a knock at the door then, and Valentina looked at herself in the mirror. She held her head high, considered her appearance, and realised how much more mature she looked. Her face had lost some of its fullness, and the eyes staring back at her seemed older. It didn’t surprise her though, after everything that had happened, but she did have to remind herself just how young she still was.

‘I’m ready,’ she said, when she finally opened the door.

The lawyer looked her up and down, seeming happy with her appearance.

‘You’re feeling prepared?’ he asked.

‘I am. I’m ready for this to be over so that I can move on with my life.’

He gestured for her to go ahead, and they walked downstairs and to the waiting car. It was only a short drive, and when they arrived at the court, she was surprised to see a crowd outside.

‘Is there something happening here today?’ she asked. ‘It looks like these people have gathered for a protest.’

She looked back at Lorenzo when he didn’t answer her, surprised to see him smiling.

‘Valentina, all these people worked for your father. They’re here for you.’

‘For me?’ she asked, incredulously.

‘I made a few calls, and it turns out your father was even more loved than perhaps we realised, and all of these employees knew that it was you whom he intended to take over the business one day.’

She stared back out at the crowd as the car pulled up at the kerb.

‘It may have helped that I told them just how much your father generously bequeathed them in his will,’ Lorenzo said with a chuckle. ‘And that you intended on reinstating that wish. But I think we can divulge information on a need-to-know basis.’

If Valentina could have, she would have thrown her arms around the man beside her, but before she knew it the door was being opened for her and she was stepping out onto the pavement. The crowd saw her immediately, and all of the men took off their hats as she approached, holding them to their chests and calling out greetings to her.

‘Thank you all for coming,’ she said, raising her voice even as it began to wobble. ‘I know you all meant so much to my father, Basilio, and I only wish he could have seen how many of you came today to support me.’

Each man greeted her as she passed, and Valentina was pleased for the distraction as she entered the courtroom and saw her mother already seated, straight-backed and looking as elegant as ever. She was clutching a handkerchief to her breast, as if she might burst into tears at any moment, and Valentina knew then that she was about to see a performance like no other.

‘Keep walking and don’t make eye contact with her,’ her lawyer said. ‘If she addresses you, nod your head and say hello in return. Remember, we want you to seem like the better person at all times, no matter what performance she delivers.’

Valentina felt an anger she’d never known before flaring inside her, but she forced it down, knowing this was not the time or place. She would have her chance to show her mother how much she’d hurt her, but it wasn’t now. Now, she was to be the perfect daughter.

And when the judge entered and they all stood, she realised that her mother wasn’t the only one capable of a performance. If all those people were anything to go by, she was doing what was right, honouring her father, and she didn’t intend on leaving the courtroom without what she’d come for.

An hour later, Valentina had her chance to speak, and she turned her back slightly so that she couldn’t see her mother as she did so. Her only distraction was the arrival of a very familiar face—José—and it warmed her heart to see the man who’d meant so much to her father there in the room to show his support. Although she couldn’t help but search the other faces for Felipe, hoping that he might have slipped through the door with his father, but if he was there, she couldn’t see him.

‘The contents of your father’s will are being challenged here today, Mrs Ruiz, and we’ve already heard petitions about whether he was or was not of sound mind at the time of writing his last will and testament,’ the judge said.

‘Excuse me, your honour, but it’s Miss Santiago,’ she said, saying what they’d rehearsed countless times in her lawyer’s office.

The lawyer looked down his glasses at her.

‘Your honour, my daughter is lying! She’s a married woman!’

Valentina stood patiently as her mother was sanctioned by the judge, before being asked, ‘Could you please advise the court of your marital status? I was expecting your husband to be here challenging the contents of the will with you.’

‘I recently received an annulment,’ she said. ‘My lawyer has the documents here to show you. Unfortunately, the marriage was arranged by my mother as part of her plan to ensure my father’s wishes were not adhered to, hence the annulment.’

Valentina stood patiently as her lawyer presented the document, breathing a sigh of relief when the judge addressed her again.

‘Apologies, Miss Santiago. I would very much like to hear what you have to say about your father’s wishes, and why you would like me to uphold his original will.’

‘My father was a man of honour before anything else. His word was as good as a signed contract, and he spent his life ensuring that those around him were taken care of and provided for. I think the fact that so many of his former employees have gathered outside today, taking an unpaid day off work, is testament to how much they cared for him.’

The judge nodded. ‘Please go on.’

‘My entire life, my father was preparing me to take over his company. He told me many times what he expected of me, what I was to do with the business and his property, and I assured him that I would follow his wishes. But when he died, unexpectedly and of sound mind, I was only a minor and could not challenge my mother.’

The lawyer looked down at his papers. ‘But you are now of age?’

‘I am. And I want my father’s wishes to be followed. I want to gift his employees the money he earmarked for them in his will, I want to buy back the business that my mother sold without my consent and without the best interests of our family in mind, and I want to ensure that our family estate is retained and preserved for generations to come.’ She paused, taking a breath and remembering to smile. ‘I am my father’s daughter, and I will spend the rest of my life honouring his memory and fighting to uphold his wishes.’

‘I would like to ask if there is any chance this could have been settled out of court?’ the judge asked. ‘Given that this is a family matter.’

Valentina closed her eyes, letting her shoulders fall. ‘Your honour, I haven’t set foot in my family home for almost a year. I’ve been effectively exiled from the home that was left to me, but that has instead been given to my brother, who had no biological connection to my father, and whom he never intended on leaving anything.’

Her mother called out then, but Valentina ignored her, continuing to answer the judge’s questions, before being taken back to her seat and watching as Felipe’s father was called. She only wished that Felipe was there too—what she would have given to have him holding her hand, or smiling across the room at her, telling her that she was doing the right thing.

By the end of the day, she’d know whether she was going home or not, and it was enough to break her heart. But she had to believe that the truth would prevail. Because if it didn’t, she’d be left with nothing.