Page 45 of Distrustful

Chapter 21

Trinidad feels her body freeze when Maria shows her the screenshot where Ismael appears at the charity gala. The air becomes thick, almost unbreathable, while a kind of irrational fear settles in her and she can't help but start imagining what could have happened if she had run into him face to face.

"May I see it, Ms. Maria?" asks Benjamin, who was with Trinidad when Maria arrived.

She hands him her phone, watching as the bodyguard examines the image with a clinical eye.

"He's changed a lot," Benjamin frowns, "still, I don't remember seeing him, I would have recognized him anyway."

"I didn't see him either," Trinidad says slowly shaking her head.

"That doesn't matter, the point is he was there and he could see you, probably when you went to talk to Ursula, who was hosting the event."

Trinidad sighs and rests her elbows on her knees. Maria strokes her back softly to try to comfort her.

"Now we need to know what he was doing there, because he wasn't on the guest list," the lawyer continues, "so he probably came with someone."

"Do you have the list here?" Benjamin asks.

"Yes, on my tablet, why?"

"We've been investigating all day and discovered he got married a couple of years ago, probably his wife appears on the list as a guest," Benjamin responds.

"What's her name?"

"Sandra Guirnalda."

It doesn't take Maria long to find the name.

"I don't understand why he's looking for you if he's with someone else," Maria frowns.

"I told you, it's a matter of pride, if I'm not his, I'm nobody's. It doesn't matter if he's with one woman or ten."

"Don't worry," Maria pulls her close and kisses her forehead so spontaneously that Benjamin smiles and she blushes, making Trinidad smile too as she returns the kiss without caring about the bodyguard's presence. "Anyway, what you need to do is stay here, we have our investigators working on this and we won't stop until we discover his intentions."

"No," Trinidad says firmly, surprising both Maria and Benjamin with her tone.

"No?" Maria asks confused.

"I'm tired of hiding. You want to help me? Contact him and set up a meeting."

"What?" Maria recoils, "you can't let that monster near you. He could do anything to you, we know what he's capable of," the lawyer says anxiously.

Trinidad smiles and slowly shakes her head.

"That's why I have Benjamin," she says looking at her trusted man, who winks at her while nodding, apparently agreeing with Trinidad's decision.

"And what are you going to do when you face him?" Maria asks incredulously.

"Make things clear to him. Back then I was a woman without resources, belittled by him and sheltered under his wing. I'll tell him if he doesn't stay away from me I'll press charges and this time I'll go all out, I don't care about his family and contacts, I have them now too," she says with a sudden burst of courage she hadn't felt until now.

"I don't know, I'm not sure it's a good idea to confront him and threaten him," Maria doubts, "he's always seen you as someone weak, he could take it as a provocation, even as a challenge or game, and make his desire to come after you stronger."

"We can summon him with his wife," Benjamin says, "she probably doesn't know anything about what happened with Ms. Trinidad."

"He's probably doing the same thing to his wife that he did to me," Trinidad says.

"Well, that depends, he kept you isolated and without resources, this Sandra is loaded, she's the daughter of a real estate developer, maybe your husband only approached her for money or pure strategy, who knows."