My Partner Kicked Me Out of His Mother’s Birthday, but the Unknown Man Who Came in the Rain Lost Color When He Heard My Answer

At the moment when Santiago Ferrer told me that I should marry him, I thought my six-year-old daughter was alone at home, and I was trembling with my whole body.

The rain washed the steps of the Spanish restaurant as if the city had to erase the traces of my humiliation. Santiago held a black umbrella over his head, while I stood barefoot on the cold paving stones. My high-heeled shoes had been thrown several meters away. In one of them, a broken mother-of-pearl clasp was still glimmering.

“Did I understand correctly?” I asked, barely recognizing myself in my own voice. “Are you telling me that now, in this condition, I should marry a stranger?”

“No,” he answered calmly. “I am telling you that I offered you a choice. And you still have the right to refuse.”

His calmness irritated me more than Rodrigo’s shouting. I knew Rodrigo, at least. I had known his laughter, his lies, his habit of hiding behind his mother’s back in difficult moments for seven years. Santiago, meanwhile, was only a black coat, the smell of wet asphalt, and unusually calm eyes.

“My daughter is at home,” I told him. “With the babysitter. And my phone remained with your friend Rodrigo.”

Santiago signaled to the driver to warm up the car.

“Then first of all we will pick up your daughter.”

“You do not know where I live.”

“I know.”

That one word pierced my heart like a knife.

“Why?”

Santiago shifted the umbrella slightly toward me. Water fell on his shoulder, while mine remained dry.

“Because I have been following Rodrigo Salazar’s affairs for three years. Your address appeared several times in documents in which it should not have appeared at all.”

He opened the car door for me, but did not touch me.

“First we will go to the apartment. You will change your clothes. I will wait outside. Then I will explain why I promised you that the Salazar family would soon no longer be able to humiliate you as they did today.”

His words did not sound like a threat. That was exactly what frightened me.

I got into the car. The leather seat was warm, but my hands still would not stop shaking. On the road, the streetlights broke apart in the raindrops. Santiago sat in front and gave the driver short instructions.

“If you want, I will let you out right now,” he told me. “But before you decide, you should know one thing. You were not thrown out today by accident.”

“What do you mean?”

“Rodrigo knew that you would be there. Teresa knew too. They wanted to humiliate you in front of everyone.”

“Why?”

He looked at me in the mirror.

“Because in a few days they will need someone to whom they can shift all the blame.”

The car’s tires went through a puddle full of water. I gripped the seat.

“What crime?”

Santiago did not answer. He only took a small, copper-colored key from the inside pocket of his coat. The number thirty-nine was engraved on the key.

“We found this among your mother’s belongings,” he said. “And after her death, someone tried very hard to make sure this key would never reach you.”

My breath caught.

!!! Amikor megvettem az első házamat, a szüleim bepereltek, hogy adjam át a húgomnak — azt hitték, soha nem merem megmutatni, honnan származott valójában minden egyes forint

“Why were my mother’s belongings with you?”

The car stopped in front of my building. Santiago got out, walked around the door, and this time looked at me for the first time as if he needed not my consent, but my truth.

“Because your mother came to me before she died.”

The entrance door opened. The sound of a child crying came down from the upper floor. Sofia.

Santiago placed the key in my palm.

“But before you enter the room, I must tell you what she left for you…”

“Why did my mother come to you?” I asked as we climbed the entrance stairs.

Santiago put his hand on the door handle, but did not open it. The sound of rain in the courtyard came through the walls, while Sofia’s crying above became clearer. My wet dress clung to my knees, and I still held the broken mother-of-pearl clasp together with the shoe.

“Three years ago,” he said, “your mother saved a case that had been started against my company. She told me that Teresa Salazar was creating false accounts and registering them in someone else’s name.”

“My mother was a cleaner.”

“Yes. And that is exactly why they did not believe her. She worked in one of the offices where these documents were printed. She saw what others failed to notice.”

“Why did she tell me nothing?”

Santiago lowered his eyes.

“Because by then they were already threatening her.”

Sofia’s voice sounded behind the door.

“Mom?”

My heart contracted. I opened the door and the girl immediately embraced me. Her warm pajamas smelled of lavender. She wrapped her arms around my neck and clung to me as if she had been waiting for my return all night.

“Where were you?” she asked. “Dad told me that you behaved badly.”

Santiago’s face hardened.

“Your father told you that?”

Sofia nodded.

“He told me that you did not apologize to Grandma.”

I knelt down.

“Mommy did not do anything wrong, my darling.”

“Then why was Dad angry?”

I could not answer. Sometimes an entire life collapses in one child’s question.

Santiago remained in the living room while I changed in the bedroom. There were only a few dry clothes in the wardrobe, because Rodrigo always postponed taking my belongings out of his house. As if my life had been allowed in his home only temporarily.

When I came out, Santiago was standing by the window. In his hand he held my mother’s copper-colored key.

“Where did you find it?”

“In the wall of the old storage room. Your mother had a small cabinet there. We opened it yesterday.”

“Why were you examining her belongings?”

“Because my surname was written in the last letter.”

He placed a thin folder on the writing desk. The brown cardboard was slightly damp from the rain. In the corner of the folder, one letter written in my mother’s hand was visible.

“M.”

My fingers moved toward the paper, but Santiago stopped my hand.

“First you should know that this is not only your mother’s story. Rodrigo took out a loan in your name.”

“Impossible. I did not sign anything.”

“That is exactly why it is dangerous.”

!!! A maffiafőnök anyja némán próbált szólni hozzám, én pedig egyetlen mondatot jeleltem — Dante arca hirtelen elsápadt

“How much?”

“Enough to make you appear insolvent and give him grounds to demand custody of your daughter.”

It was as if the air disappeared from the room. Sofia rocked a small wooden horse on the sofa, while I watched each of her movements and thought how one person’s signature could make it possible to take my child away.

“Rodrigo would not do this.”

Santiago smiled bitterly.

“Today he threw you out in front of more than fifty people. Do you still think there is a line he cannot cross?”

At that moment my home telephone rang. The number was unknown.

“Mariana,” said a man’s voice, “if you want Sofia to remain with you, tomorrow at ten in the morning you must come alone to the notary.”

“Who are you?”

“A person who has Rodrigo’s signature and knows how to make your mother’s last secret disappear.”

The call ended.

Santiago opened the folder. Inside lay one small memory card, and beside it was written: “Listen only when you are no longer alone.”

Santiago picked up the phone, connected the card, and looked at the screen.

“Mariana,” he told me, “now you must hear a voice that may destroy this entire family…”

Santiago started the recording. At first, only the clinking of glasses and the monotonous hum of the air conditioner could be heard. Then Teresa’s voice sounded.

“Rodrigo, the girl still must not understand what is happening.”

I immediately took Sofia’s hand and pulled her toward me. In the room, the wooden child’s horse rocked slowly and lightly touched the floor with every movement.

I recognized Rodrigo’s voice.

“We will easily convince Mariana that she signed. She trusted her mother and signed all the documents with her eyes closed.”

“And if she asks questions?” Teresa asked.

“Then we will say that she took the money. Her mother is gone, her job means nothing, and we have enough connections.”

My stomach clenched. Sofia rested her head against my chest.

The rustling of papers was heard in the recording.

“The best thing is,” Rodrigo continued, “that if we make a scene at the birthday, everyone will think she is emotionally unstable. Tomorrow I will file for custody.”

Santiago stopped the recording.

I could not speak.

“When was this recorded?” I asked with difficulty.

“Two days ago. My employee was in Teresa’s office.”

“My mother’s letter?”

Santiago pushed the folder toward me. Inside were several sheets written in my mother’s hand. On each one were a date, an account number, and an amount. And at the end, one sentence:

“Mariana, if you are reading this, they are already trying to blame you.”

My eyes blurred.

“Mother knew.”

“She knew everything,” Santiago said. “Teresa transferred the money belonging to my company to her hotels. Then she altered the documents so that I would be blamed for the loss. Your mother was the only person who found the old versions of the documents in the printing room.”

“And was she killed because of that?”

Santiago fell silent.

That silence was worse than an answer.

“The doctor said it was a heart attack,” I said.

“The doctor worked at Teresa’s private clinic. We are still checking the records.”

!!! Soțul meu s-a căsătorit în timp ce eu eram operată, iar când am început să-mi golesc casa, a încremenit în prag

At that moment someone knocked hard on the door.

Sofia jumped.

“Police!” a man shouted from outside. “We have a temporary court order. The child must be handed over to her father.”

Santiago looked toward the window. Rodrigo stood in the courtyard, and beside him were two uniformed men. Rodrigo held a folder in his hand, and on his face was the calm expression that appeared only when he considered himself victorious.