She turns her face to him. There are no more tears, only apathy. “Everyone saw. They don’t know me. They’ll believe I did it.”
“They won’t,” I interrupt. “No one will doubt you. We’ll clear up this mess. I won’t stop until your name is cleared.”
“It’s the only thing I have. My mother always said that. The only thing we have above any wealth is our reputation. I’m a newcomer here. What are the chances they’ll believe me?”
“Shhhh . . . Everything will be alright,” he says. “Guillermo, come with me for a moment.”
I hesitate before leaving her, but at the same time, I know we need to plan how to act, so after giving her a kiss, I follow him to the other room.
The same lawyer who went to the hospital the night Layla died awaits us, and after greeting him briefly, I get straight to the point. “What needs to be done to clear her name?”
He sits in the armchair I indicate and rests his elbows on his knees. His apparent calm contrasts with how I feel at the moment. “It depends. How far are you willing to go?”
“Whatever it takes. I won’t spare any effort.”
“Well, from what we found out from the cameras, while she was being detained, there was a considerable number of people filming the incident, and I have no doubt that these videos are now circulating on the internet.”
The anger I feel is almost uncontrollable. “Where are the three being detained?”
“They were taken to the police station. The detectives will wait for us to arrive before they start the interrogation.”
“And the footage?”
“I’ll hand it over to the police. I ordered copies to be made first, though,” Joaquín replies.
“What are you thinking?” I know my brother well enough to know he already has a plan.
“We should release them anonymously to the media. That woman, Charlotte, putting the wallet in Olívia’s bag.”
“That could result in negative repercussions for the hotel or even the entire chain. If the employees themselves are capable of such actions, no one is safe,” the lawyer points out.
“No. I have an idea. We know who organized everything, and I have no doubt that her accomplices will start talking quickly once they realize the kind of mess they’re in,” Joaquín continues. “When we prove that it was Kathleen behind the scheme against Olívia, we’ll sell the story as the act of a jealous woman, which is not entirely untrue, although now I question her mental sanity as well.”
“How can you be so sure that the press will accept that Miss Freitas is innocent?” the lawyer asks again.
Before my brother can answer, I intervene because I already understand his reasoning.
“Because it’s one thing to set up a young and unprotected girl...” I begin.
Joaquín finishes, “...and it’s a completely different thing to create a hoax involving the name of the CEO ofCaldwell-Oviedo’s girlfriend out of sheer spite. We might have a substantial amount of publicity in the coming days, but tabloids love a love story. When Guillermo publicly acknowledges his relationship with Olívia, and as soon as we distribute the footage to specific websites, the whole world will root for them, and her innocence won’t be questioned.”
Chapter 39
“We’re not driving?”
“No, I prefer the helicopter. We’ve had more than enough for today to deal with traffic as well.”
“Okay.”
Now that the initial shock has passed, I’m slowly starting to think clearly.
Everything happened so fast that I didn’t even have time to understand. One moment I was walking to meet Guillermo, the next, one of the security guards—whom I used to greet every day at the start of my shift—grabbed my arm, saying I couldn’t leave.
It didn’t take long for people to stop what they were doing to pay attention to me.
I’ve never felt so ashamed in my life.
I’ve never had trouble with being poor. I never dreamed of wearing expensive clothes, and not even when I lived in that tiny room was I ashamed, but the moment I was publicly accused of being a thief, I thought I was going to faint.
