by Helena Rose
He threw one last sad look at the family hacienda before getting into the carriage, bound for Veracruz, the first leg of his journey. Only Lucas saw Hector leave, as he stopped to watch the carriage until it disappeared down the main street that led to the entrance.
"Has he gone?" Raquel asked her maid, Penelope, who was combing her long black hair.
"Yes Doña Raquel," replied Penelope.
"Well, now we just have to wait for the birth of my baby. Then I'll take care of that little bastard Lucas.”
"Have you thought about what to do with him?"
"Not yet in detail. I'll see him driven out of this house. You’ll help me, of course?”
"I’m always at your service, ma’am ," answered Penelope, sweetly.
Raquel, with a wave of her hand, ordered Penelope to stop brushing her hair. She rose from the dressing table.
" Your services will cost a lot, won’t they?"
Penelope shrugged her shoulders.
"You know very well that I'm not going to be a servant all my life."
"Yes I know, ever since we were little girls you have annoyed me with your passion for witchcraft and herbal remedies."
"My passions have helped you on more than one occasion, ma’am."
Raquel did not answer but could not help but agree with Penelope. With her powers, real or imagined she had spun charms and hexes and frightened her enemies, her herbs had fixed several unpleasant situations; she used animal blood for her rites that had served to deceive Eduardo on their wedding night. Her services were very expensive, but undoubtedly, Penelope was useful. However, she knew she had to be careful not to depend too much on her. She could become a hazard.
"Is Eduardo at the plantation?"
"Yes, I saw him just now." Penelope seemed to hesitate a moment, "A strange thing happened early this morning."
"Tell me, what did Eduardo do?" Raquel asked abruptly.
Penelope bit her lip.
"Come on, speak!" ordered Raquel.
"This morning he came into the kitchen. And he began to ask questions.”
"What kind of questions?" Asked Raquel alarmed.
"About Hector. And about you. Then I came along and he chose not to continue querying the rest of the servants. Of course, I ordered everyone to shut up and not to disclose silly gossip, especially about their master."
"Damn Hector!" Said Raquel furious. "He must have said something before he left that made Eduardo suspicious!"
She turned to Penelope.
"You have to make sure that no one says anything to Eduardo!" Said Raquel wringing her hands. She knew that sometimes she and Hector had been imprudent. Some of the servants could have seen one of them leaving the other’s bedroom at night.
"Be especially attentive of that meddling Amparo," ordered Raquel. Amparo was the hacienda’s stout cook. She was already in service when Eduardo and Hector had been born. And maybe she was the only one of the servants not to fear the new mistress. And with good reason: Eduardo was very fond of her and up till now Raquel had not been able to get rid of her.
"Of course, Doña Raquel." Said Penelope hastening to add. "Stay calm. All in all, she is proving to be an inadvertent ally. She is very loyal to her master and the Navarra y Reyes name, and she is trying to nip in the bud any gossip that might tarnish the good name of her beloved Don Eduardo. And those silly servants consider her an authority in this house."
"It's important then that she doesn’t believe these rumors, otherwise I’ll be lost." Replied Raquel, sighing. Unfortunately, she could not be calm. Eduardo was very much in love with her, but she knew he was no fool. I can’t allow my whole plan to fail. I'll do anything to ensure that all of the Navarra y Reyes’s fortune is mine and my child’s!
The years passed quickly at the Navarra y Reyes hacienda.
One day after supervising the laborers’ shifts with the administrator and organizing some future activities, Eduardo returned to the hacienda earlier than usual. He saw his two boys playing together: Lucas now close to early adolescence, tall, slender, with thick and unruly black hair and green eyes, Federico, just five years old, still characterized by the softness of childhood, with lighter hair and eyes as blue as the sky. Hector’s eyes, Eduardo found himself thinking almost involuntarily. Should he believe the rumors that he had collected from the servants and the plantation laborers ?
Doubt was consuming him. No, now he knew that it was no longer a doubt. It had all started with Hector’s departure. And then the servants’ voices, who were terrorized by Penelope. But people love to talk too ... and poor sweet Amparo, who did not want him to suffer, and who strenuously denied everything. Certainly not because of a feeling of loyalty to Raquel, indeed, she considered her almost a usurper to the role that had fallen to the first lady, but out of loyalty and love for him. Amparo, with her naive simplicity, refused to believe anything that would either upset Eduardo, who she had raised with immense affection, or that would blacken Hector’s name.
How could he have been so blind ... Hector had warned him. Keep an eye on Lucas, when the other baby is born. And he had had to fight, to fight against Raquel who had tried in every way to get him to send Lucas away, to kick out his eldest son ...
The love, that at one time he believed he had had for her, was now extinct. Raquel had proved, hard, cruel, cold and extremely ambitious. Eduardo knew that when she was very young, her family had suffered financial ruin. Raquel had had to fight to survive, but he did not think what she had been so deeply marked. Raquel who had once fascinated him, after his premature widowhood, and who had reawakened his passions, had turned into an icy and unattainable statue.
He decided to go to find Raquel and invite her to join him in the horse-drawn carriage for a ride in the center of Tampico. He searched for her but could not find her in the living room where she would usual have been. He asked a servant where she was. The girl, a bit intimidated, replied that she was in her room due to a headache and in Penelope’s company.
Eduardo went up stairs and walked towards Raquel’s apartment. The door was not fully closed and the two women were talking in rather angry voices.
"All these years we have failed, but I definitely want that bastard Lucas to be cast out of this house!" Raquel was ranting, "even now they are playing together, and I don’t want them to be close. I want my son to crush him like a bug. "
"Don Eduardo protects him extremely well, all our attempts have so far been in vain." Replied Penelope, trying to calm her down. "I'm afraid you’ll have to be resigned to the fact ..."
"Never! It must be Federico who inherits everything, not Eduardo’s son ... I’ve done everything to get to this point and I can’t give up now. I seduced Hector, I fooled Eduardo, passing off his brother’s son as his own. It certainly won’t be a child that blocks my path and hinders my plans!"
Eduardo listened transfixed. The truth that he had feared, had finally been revealed to him in all its glory, revealed by the very person who had hatched this diabolical plan.
That demon woman had tricked, mocked, humiliated him, had destroyed his and Hector’s life and was now trying to plan with frightening accuracy a way to destroy his only son!
Stunned by the shock, Eduardo hesitated. But the thought of Lucas shook him like a thunderbolt. I have to save Lucas at all costs from this wicked woman!
In the grip of fierce anger, he burst into the room. He saw that Penelope was applying perfumed ointment to Raquel’s manicured hands.
"Leave us alone." He said resolutely to Penelope who, frightened by such vehemence, withdrew without asking permission.
Raquel, surprised by Eduardo’s sudden firmness, rose from her chair without having the courage to open her mouth.
Eduardo approached her and taking a firm hold of her forearm continued:
"How could you have deceived me for all these years?"
"What's got into you Eduardo? What do you mean?" Stammered Raquel her face as white as a sheet.
"No more lies, now
I know everything ... you lied to me and have publicly insulted my honor and the Navarra name!"
"How dare you!" Raquel said between her teeth, trying to free her arm.
Eduardo squeezed even harder.
"You're a slut of the worst kind, you cheated on me with Hector and you tried to expel my only son from this house, the true heir to Navarra y Reyes."
"But I ..." She tried to protest.
Eduardo quickly silenced her. The rage and the desire for revenge dominated him.
"Don’t say anything, I heard you talking a little while ago with your accomplice! What you’ve done will never be forgiven, I’ll disown you, and throw you and your bastard son on to the streets ... so that all Tampico and Mexico know what the distinguished Doña Raquel has done."
Raquel found herself trembling without meaning to. Eduardo glanced at her furiously, he had never seen her this way before.
"You wouldn’t dare Eduardo ... I swear that I ..."
"Quiet... I don’t want to hear a single word! You have until tomorrow to collect your things and get out of this house together with your bastard ... and from now on, I forbid you to use the Navarra name! "
Raquel opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted again.
"Is it clear?" Cried Eduardo.
Raquel regained control and jerked her arm from Eduardo’s grip.
She looked at him straight in the eye, challenging him with a gaze full of hate.
Then, in a cold voice she replied to Eduardo’s accusations, abandoning any attempt to delay or deny them.
"I’m glad that you have finally found out about everything, now I’ll not be forced to lie or to hide the disgust I feel for you! For all these years, I’ve lived in the shadow of the memory of your first wife, whom you adore like a holy saint! For you I’ve never been up to being a Navarra y Reyes ... "
She paused to wipe away a tear with the back of her hand that without her wanting it to, streaked down her cheek.
Eduardo parted his lips as if to give a reply, but she continued, recovering all her self-confidence and haughtiness.
"Yes, Federico is not your son, and I'm glad that he is not ... Your brother Hector is a hundred times more of a man in bed than you are ..."
Eduardo's eyes widened and he raised his arm ready to strike her, but then stopped. Raquel had not even tried to move out of the way, her eyes black as smoldering coal, challenged him with unmatched hatred.
Eduardo lowered his arm.
"I despise you. You have until tomorrow to leave!"
Raquel said nothing she continued to stare at him without saying anything.
Eduardo, his eyes still burning with anger left the room without uttering another word
"Never ... I’ll never be kicked out of this house," whispered Raquel.
Still furious, Eduardo went into his study. He did not notice that Penelope was watching him.
He sat down at his desk. I have to resign myself to the truth. Therefore, I must protect Lucas in case anything happens to me before the separation. Eduardo wrote, with his usual graceful calligraphy, his last will and testimony; In case of death, all my belongings, all my money and the whole hacienda, goes to my only son Lucas Navarra y Reyes...
Eduardo drew up two copies. One he locked with a key in the drawer of his desk. He addressed the other to the lawyer Giacomo De la Vega, and slipped it in his pocket. Giacomo, his old friend had gone to Spain with his wife and son. I mustn’t underestimate Raquel and her plots; even though tomorrow she’ll no longer be in this house she could still try to jeopardize me and Lucas. He got up and lit a candle. He took the blotting paper with which he had dried the two manuscripts and burned it. Then he hurried off to look for Amparo. I'll tell her to send the letter when she goes to Tampico to get the usual kitchen supplies. I can trust her. I’ll tell her not to tell anyone what I ask her to do.
Penelope saw Eduardo leave and as soon as he turned away, she walked cautiously into the study. She saw at once the burning blotting paper in the silver plate used for the post. By now, the fire had consumed almost all of the paper, but some words were still distinguishable. All my belongings will go to my son Lucas ...
Penelope immediately ran to warn Raquel.
She found her still sitting where Eduardo had left her. Her eyes were staring coldly into space.
Penelope approached her cautiously.
"Ma’am, what’s the matter?"
"He’s discovered everything Penelope ... Eduardo and I have argued bitterly, now he knows that Federico is not his son but Hector’s."
She paused, staring at Penelope.
"Eduardo wants me out of here." She said, saying every word without the slightest hint of emotion.
Penelope gasped at the unexpected news. She put her hands to her mouth to stifle a groan.
"That's why Don Eduardo wrote his will!"
Raquel jumped up.
"What are you talking about?" She cried, "tell me now!"
"Ma’am, I just saw Don Eduardo write a letter in which he has left all his possessions to Lucas."
Raquel interrupted.
"I’ll never allow this!" She shouted in anger. Furious, she sent the crystal pitcher and glass that were on the table crashing to the floor.
"You have to think of something, Doña Raquel. You have to destroy that document.” Suggested Penelope.
"Of course I’ll destroy it, stupid," Raquel sat down again. She rubbed her temples energetically. I must think ... think ... To calm herself, she decided to take the matches and light the candles that were in the luxurious snow-white silver candelabra. She stared into the flames. Ever since a child she had always liked to stare into a fire, the flickering tongues of the flame in the darkness ... she immediately felt her nerves relax.
"Don Eduardo keeps important documents in the drawer of his desk," she said quietly.
"It won’t be a problem to pick the lock," added Penelope.
"No. There may be no need to open the lock on the sly," said Raquel. "But I need some trusted men. Your brother? "
Penelope shook her head.
"No, he’s loyal to his master. Don Eduardo allowed his son Santos to study and my brother has named his newborn daughter, Yolanda, after Don Eduardo’s mother. "
"Then find someone else, maybe there’s someone in Tampico. You’ll organize an ambush today, that will leave Don Eduardo dying ... I’ll never be kicked out of this house." Raquel’s orders came out peremptory, cold and inhumane.
"All right Doña Raquel."
"Can you falsify the document by changing the name of Lucas with that of Federico?"
Penelope nodded.
"I know how to make a mixture of herbs that makes ink disappear. I also know a forger who can help us to imitate Don Eduardo’s handwriting. "
Raquel grinned.
"My dear Penelope, you really know all Tampico’s scum." She remarked sarcastically.
Penelope smiled.
"The scum can be very useful, Doña Raquel. And don’t forget that even the scum have a price."
Raquel took her eyes off the candles’ long flames for a moment.
"Fear not, you too will have your share."
"At the end of this, I no longer want to be a servant, Doña Raquel. I want to have enough to live on and dedicate myself to my passion. "
"You're not going to abandon me, are you Penelope?"
Penelope patted Raquel’s shoulders.
"I’ll be there when you need me," she whispered in a faint voice. "For an appropriate reward, of course."
Raquel nodded.
"I know how to be generous. But now let's get to work. It’s the right time to take the plunge: Eduardo eliminated and Lucas disinherited, I’ll drive them out along with that damn Amparo. And I’ll be the sole and undisputed mistress of the Navarra y Reyes hacienda."
Alone, Raquel stared at her reflection in the mirror: her fists clenched in anger: damn Eduardo! I swear I’ll not rest until I’ve destroyed you and all of your offspring ... Yo
ur hours are numbered but I won’t feel satisfied until I’ve sunk Lucas into poverty. I’ll never let him rise again ... what you had planned for me and Federico to suffer, Lucas will suffer! My only regret is that you won’t be here to see his downfall: you'll watch his destruction from the flames of hell!
Chapter 1
Voices from the market woke Lucas up from a deep sleep that he had been immersed in. He stretched his limbs and decided to get up. After washing, he went downstairs, where he quickly prepared breakfast. After Amparo’s death, there had no longer been anyone to look after of him, so he lived alone in a small, modest house in Tampico. Poor, sweet Amparo. From when, still a child, he had been expelled from the Navarra hacienda, she had followed him, protective and motherly as always. How she had sweated and worked, to care for him, to feed him and give him an education.
They had lived in abject poverty, surviving only thanks to Amparo’s work as a seamstress and cook and the charity of the good Father Julian Tampico’s priest.
Why did my father do this to me? This question had nagged him since the day Raquel had informed him that he had to leave the hacienda. Your father didn’t want to have anything to do with you ... do you know the last thing he told me? He believed that you weren’t his son. Yes dear Lucas, your father doubted this from your birth, and having seen his last wishes he must have been convinced of this... Lucas had lashed out against Raquel who had just insulted him. He would not allow anyone to humiliate the memory of his mother. Father Julian, who had just officiated Don Eduardo’s funeral, had had to intervene. Doña Raquel, what sense does it make to torment him in this way? His father has just been buried! Lucas once again saw Raquel’s beautiful but evil face contract in disappointment. These are just the wishes my husband left and that you have had the opportunity to see ...