Chapter 15 - THE VOTE AGAINST ALEJANDRO
The consequences of the previous chapter followed them into Aranda Holdings boardroom, where every answer created a new reason to keep going.
The boardroom filled before sunrise with directors, attorneys, trustees, and independent auditors who had been kept away from family affairs for years.
Alejandro entered without Esther or Marcela at his side for the first time in his career.
What they learned about the grandchild trust forced everyone to revisit an explanation that had sounded convenient only hours earlier.
Alejandro heard the reference to the boardroom power struggle and felt another piece of his old certainty give way.
The stakes around the grandchild trust were growing because medical evidence, inheritance rules, and corporate records were beginning to overlap.
Alejandro said, "Every vote today will be recorded."
Gabriel smiled.
They treated the boardroom power struggle as a lead rather than a conclusion, a discipline Alejandro had learned too late but was finally practicing.
Before the tension around the grandchild trust could settle, another detail redirected the room.
Gabriel accused Alejandro of endangering the company through public family conflict, unauthorized investigations, and threats against senior executives.
He proposed immediate suspension pending a competency review.
The problem with Gabriel's role was not that it proved everything, but that it made the easiest denial much harder to sustain.
Gabriel understood that the wider timeline would now be tested against records rather than protected by family status.
The issue around Gabriel's role showed how easily private intimidation could be converted into legal or corporate leverage.
Gabriel said, "This company cannot be governed by a domestic crisis."
Alejandro replied, "The domestic crisis was funded through company accounts."
Valeria insisted that anything tied to the wider timeline be copied before another person in the family had time to make it disappear.
The answer about the wider timeline did not close the subject; it opened a more dangerous one.
Alejandro presented the audit trail linking Gabriel-controlled vendors to security payments, private medical suppliers, and shell consulting companies.
He did not claim every transfer was criminal, only that outside investigators were examining them.
By itself, the security records might have meant little, yet beside the other discoveries it carried uncomfortable weight.
Alejandro wanted to act immediately over the financial trail, but he forced himself to wait for proof instead of repeating the bedroom mistake.
The more they learned about the security records, the clearer it became that the plan depended on several people doing small wrong things without asking about the whole.
Alejandro said, "You asked the board to protect stability."
He added, "I am asking it to protect evidence."
The record involving the financial trail mattered because it came from a source outside the family's usual circle of control.
By the time they finished with the security records, someone else had already moved to protect the next secret.
Marcela entered unexpectedly and distributed sealed paternity-test results that appeared to show Alejandro was not the father of Valeria's baby.
The boardroom erupted before anyone verified the laboratory.
The new question was no longer whether the boardroom power struggle looked suspicious, but who had known enough to use it deliberately.
Marcela understood that the paternity scheme would now be tested against records rather than protected by family status.
Whoever controlled the story around the boardroom power struggle also understood that a custody narrative could affect the grandchild trust.
Marcela said, "The trust has no relevance if the child is not an Aranda."
Alejandro went completely still.
For once, the discussion of the paternity scheme ended with a request for verification instead of a demand for loyalty.
The problem with the paternity scheme was that it pointed toward a person nobody was ready to accuse without stronger proof.
Valeria attended by secure video and watched Alejandro look at the paper that could repeat the original betrayal in a new form.
She said nothing because she needed to see whether he would ask for evidence or surrender to humiliation.
Even a small fact about the new evidence became dangerous once it was placed in the correct order with the other events.
Valeria had spent too long being told she was overreacting, so she treated the timeline as something to verify rather than fear.
If the new evidence had been manipulated deliberately, the scheme was no longer about humiliating Valeria; it was about controlling what happened after the baby was born.
Alejandro looked into the camera.
He said, "I am not discussing my wife's pregnancy until the test is independently verified."
The fact connected to the timeline did not solve the case, but it narrowed the next question enough to make somebody nervous.
What followed made the argument over the new evidence look like only the outer layer of the scheme.
Marcela tried to provoke him by asking whether he was afraid of the answer.
The tactic failed because Alejandro finally recognized it.
The detail involving Marcela's involvement changed the emotional temperature because it could be checked instead of merely argued about.
Marcela understood that the wider timeline would now be tested against records rather than protected by family status.
The stakes around Marcela's involvement were growing because medical evidence, inheritance rules, and corporate records were beginning to overlap.
Marcela said, "You defended her before and she made you look weak."
Alejandro replied, "Believing you without verification made me weak."
They wrote down the reference to the wider timeline before anyone could soften the wording later.
The next discovery would connect the wider timeline to a part of the Aranda family history Alejandro had never questioned.
Gabriel insisted the paternity result created enough uncertainty to pause the grandchild trust and postpone any related audit.
His speed revealed why the document had appeared precisely that morning.
Once the grandchild trust entered the timeline, the family could no longer reduce the scene to a clash of personalities.
Gabriel understood that the paternity scheme would now be tested against records rather than protected by family status.
The issue around the grandchild trust showed how easily private intimidation could be converted into legal or corporate leverage.
Gabriel said, "We can resolve this privately."
Valeria said through the screen, "That sentence has protected you for years."
The investigators preserved the material connected to the paternity scheme in a separate record so the chain could be checked independently.
They left the question of the grandchild trust open, and that unfinished question became the pressure point of the next confrontation.
Camila arrived with her lawyer and admitted her family foundation had paid the laboratory that issued the paternity report.
She claimed Marcela told her the test was legally authorized by Alejandro.
The reference to the paternity scheme gave the investigators something concrete to compare with earlier statements.
Camila understood that Marcela's involvement would now be tested against records rather than protected by family status.
The more they learned about the paternity scheme, the clearer it became that the plan depended on several people doing small wrong things without asking about the whole.
Camila said, "I was told it would end the scandal."
Marcela shouted that she was lying.
No one was allowed to rely on memory about Marcela's involvement once a timestamp, message, invoice, or device record could settle the point.
For a few minutes, Marcela's involvement seemed like the most important clue they had, until another message arrived.
The laboratory report contained a barcode that Mateo recognized as belonging to a different sample type from Valeria's noninvasive prenatal blood draw.
The mismatch was visible without exposing private medical details.
Until then, the paternity scheme had seemed like one isolated problem, but in context it pushed the pattern in a darker direction.
The issue of Mateo's medical evidence made Alejandro confront the cost of every decision he had delegated without looking closely.
Whoever controlled the story around the paternity scheme also understood that a custody narrative could affect the grandchild trust.
Mateo said, "This report cannot correspond to the sample described."
Several directors stopped taking notes and started calling lawyers.
That made Mateo's medical evidence more than atmosphere; it became another item that could be matched against access and motive.
The room moved on from the paternity scheme, but nobody forgot who had tried hardest to dismiss it.
Gabriel attempted to adjourn the meeting, but the independent trustees refused and voted instead to freeze payments to the vendors under investigation.
For the first time, Gabriel lost control of the agenda.
The mention of the household food and drink mattered precisely because no one had expected it to become part of a formal record.
Gabriel understood that the grandchild trust would now be tested against records rather than protected by family status.
If the household food and drink had been manipulated deliberately, the scheme was no longer about humiliating Valeria; it was about controlling what happened after the baby was born.
Gabriel said, "You are panicking the market."
A trustee answered, "No, we are preserving records."
The timeline around the grandchild trust was still incomplete, but at least it could no longer be rewritten without leaving contradictions.
By then, the truth around the grandchild trust was close enough to frighten the people who had depended on silence.
The vote to suspend Alejandro failed by two votes after directors who had once deferred to Gabriel chose to abstain.
Alejandro remained CEO temporarily but agreed to cede payment authority during the investigation.
What they learned about the boardroom power struggle forced everyone to revisit an explanation that had sounded convenient only hours earlier.
Alejandro heard the reference to the financial trail and felt another piece of his old certainty give way.
The stakes around the boardroom power struggle were growing because medical evidence, inheritance rules, and corporate records were beginning to overlap.
He said, "I should never have held unchecked authority anyway."
Valeria heard a change deeper than strategy.
They treated the financial trail as a lead rather than a conclusion, a discipline Alejandro had learned too late but was finally practicing.
Before the tension around the boardroom power struggle could settle, another detail redirected the room.
As security escorted Marcela from the boardroom after she tried to seize the paternity envelope, she leaned close to Alejandro.
Her voice was too low for most of the room.
The problem with the hidden recordings was not that it proved everything, but that it made the easiest denial much harder to sustain.
Marcela understood that the security records would now be tested against records rather than protected by family status.
The issue around the hidden recordings showed how easily private intimidation could be converted into legal or corporate leverage.
Marcela said, "You still think Mother is the one you should fear."
Alejandro asked, "Who should I fear?"
Valeria insisted that anything tied to the security records be copied before another person in the family had time to make it disappear.
The answer about the security records did not close the subject; it opened a more dangerous one.
Marcela smiled with exhausted bitterness and looked past him toward Gabriel.
She said, "Ask him what happened the night Father signed the final trust amendment."
By itself, the grandchild trust might have meant little, yet beside the other discoveries it carried uncomfortable weight.
Marcela understood that Gabriel's role would now be tested against records rather than protected by family status.
The more they learned about the grandchild trust, the clearer it became that the plan depended on several people doing small wrong things without asking about the whole.
Gabriel's face lost color for the first time.
The boardroom doors closed between them.
The record involving Gabriel's role mattered because it came from a source outside the family's usual circle of control.
By the time they finished with the grandchild trust, someone else had already moved to protect the next secret.
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The chapter closed with the vote against alejandro no longer looking like an isolated secret, and the next confrontation already taking shape.
