PART 1
“Octavio paid for that man to marry his daughter because no one else would bear to look at her,” a woman whispered in the front row.
The phrase traveled the Expiatory Temple of Guadalajara as a spark. Renata Villaseñor heard it from the entrance, surrounded by flowers, cameras and two hundred people who had not gone to wish her happiness, but to check if the rumors were true.
At twenty-nine years old, Renata was tall, strong-bodied and firm-looking. A wine-colored spot covered part of his left cheek and descended to his neck. Near the temple, the hair grew thinner. Since childhood she had heard nicknames that her own father never stopped: monster, shame, the daughter that no one would choose.
That’s why he walked without a veil.
At the altar was expected by Sebastián Alcázar, heir to a family business ruined by a financial scandal. His father had died accused of diverting money, the accounts of the Alcazar Group were frozen and his younger sister had dropped out of college.
Octavio Villaseñor offered to save everything: pay the debts, reopen his father’s case and clean up the family name.
In return, Sebastian was to marry Renata.
Three weeks earlier, during their only meeting, she had been direct.
“My father says you’re desperate.
And they told me that you hate lies.
“You’ve also been told I’m horrible.
Sebastian held his gaze.
“They told me a lot of things. I prefer to know it before repeating them.
It wasn’t love. But no one had spoken to Renata without feigned compassion or cruelty disguised as a joke. That’s why he agreed.
She also needed to escape.
Her mother, Elena, had died twelve years ago when she fell from the gallery of the family residence in Chapala. The report spoke of an accident. Renata never believed it. Since then, Octavio has kept her among private doctors, sedatives and diagnoses of “emotional instability.”
The night before the wedding, Renata found a small key hidden in Elena’s seamstress. She was sure she opened an old file that her father kept closed.
He sewed it inside the corset of his dress.
Hours later, two men sent by Octavian broke into his room. They squeezed his arms, searched his drawers and demanded to know what he had taken out of the office. Renata didn’t confess anything. They didn’t check the dress.
During the signing of the record, Octavio laid a hand on his daughter’s shoulder to pose before the photographers.
Renata shuddered so much that the feather fell to the ground.
Sebastian saw it.
That night, on the La Cumbre estate, an employee found blood on the back of the dress. Renata locked herself up and turned down her father’s doctor.
Sebastian knocked on the door.
I will not enter without permission. But I need to know if you’re hurt.
After a long silence, the bolt opened.
Renata was by the bed, her dress unbuttoned. The key had passed through the cloth and cut off his skin. However, that was not what left Sebastian without air.
She saw old marks around her wrists, scars on her ankles and pale lines on her back, as if she had been immobilized for days.
“Who did this to you?” he asked, kneeling so he wouldn’t stay above her.
Renata squeezed his lips.
“My father. And the doctors I paid to say it was all for my sake.
Then Sebastian understood that he had not married the woman everyone was calling a monster.
She had married the only survivor of a family still trying to destroy her.
And Octavio Villaseñor had just discovered that Elena’s key was no longer where she should.
PART 2
Sebastian cleaned the wound without calling anyone. He asked before touching her, left the door open and promised that no doctor chosen by Octavio would re-enter the hacienda.
Renata didn’t fully believe him, but it was the first promise he didn’t feel like a threat.
Over the next few weeks, marriage built as a business began to change. Renata reviewed the accounts of La Cumbre and discovered false charges that harmed workers. Sebastian replaced the administrator and returned the money. When a Polish dressmaker spoke of “hiding” Renata’s body under dark fabrics, he expelled her; then she apologized for deciding without consulting her and let Renata choose who to hire.
It wasn’t love yet. It was respect. To her, that already seemed like a miracle.
But Octavio was still inside the house.
Dr. Salcedo appeared without a date saying he should assess Renata’s mental health. Sebastian rejected it in front of everyone. Two days later, Monica, Renata’s personal assistant, mistakenly drank a cup of chocolate destined for her patroness and fell unconscious.
An independent doctor confirmed that the drink contained a dangerous sedative.
“It was for me,” Renata said by Monica’s bed. My father never thought to let me live after the wedding.
That same night, she led Sebastian to Elena’s file, transferred to La Cumbre on instructions from a will that Octavian had not been able to ignore.
The key turned.
Inside they found letters, bank statements and a notebook written in code. Renata recognized the system: her mother hid real figures under domestic expenses. “Candles” meant bribes. “Laundry”, withdrawals from the trust. “Repairs”, payments to officials.
For days they deciphered each page
