Chapter 2 - THE OTHER DINNERS
Alejandro did not sleep that night. Mateo stayed with his nanny in a secured suite at the Vega Grand Hotel while Alejandro, Valeria, and his personal attorney met with Dr. Helen Brooks, the physician who had reviewed the restaurant sample. Brooks would not speculate about how long the substance had been used, but she said repeated exposure could explain the periods of unusual fatigue and fragmented memory Alejandro had described.
Valeria had written down the dates of those episodes. Alejandro had mocked the list when she first showed it to him two weeks earlier. Now he watched his attorney compare the dates against his calendar and felt embarrassment slowly replace irritation. Three episodes followed private dinners arranged through the Vega Family Office. A fourth happened after a board retreat at one of the company’s resorts.
The most recent incident was six weeks earlier. Alejandro remembered dinner with his older sister, Lucia, and Sebastian Hale, the attorney who had managed Vega family trusts since Alejandro was a teenager. He remembered arguing about whether Vega Hospitality should accept an acquisition proposal from Northline Capital. After dessert, his memory blurred. The following morning, Sebastian congratulated him for finally agreeing to a “continuity framework” that would protect the company if Alejandro’s health deteriorated.
Alejandro had assumed they meant the discussion, not a signed document.
His attorney retrieved the board files. There it was: an amendment bearing Alejandro’s electronic signature. If he became medically unable to act, temporary voting control over his shares would pass to a continuity committee chaired by Lucia and supervised by Sebastian.
Alejandro stared at the page. “I remember refusing this.”
Valeria asked the obvious question. “Do you remember signing it?”
“No.”
The restaurant waiter became their first concrete lead. His name was Evan Mills, twenty-seven, employed there for only six weeks. Hotel security reviewed kitchen footage and found that Alejandro’s original entrée had been prepared normally. Minutes before service, Evan carried it into a blind section of the service corridor, remained there for twenty-three seconds, and emerged with the same covered plate.
When police questioned him, Evan denied adding anything. He claimed he had only checked an allergy instruction because the reservation contained a special note. The note had been entered through the restaurant’s executive reservation system by someone using credentials from Vega Hospitality.
That sounded damning until they identified the account.
Lucia Vega.
Alejandro’s sister.
Lucia was forty-six, vice chair of Vega Hospitality, and the person who had spent most of their adult lives accusing Alejandro of being too sentimental to run the company their father built. She supported the Northline sale. Alejandro opposed it.
The motive appeared almost too convenient.
Lucia would gain temporary voting authority if Alejandro became impaired, and her executive credentials changed the dinner reservation where someone tried to sedate him.
Alejandro called her from his attorney’s office. Lucia answered angrily because investigators had already contacted corporate security. When Alejandro asked whether she changed his restaurant reservation, she said yes. Sebastian had asked her to move the dinner into a private room because reporters were expected in the main dining area.
“Did you change my entrée?”
“What?”
“There was an allergy note.”
Lucia sounded genuinely confused. “I don’t even know what you ordered.”
Alejandro wanted to believe her because she was his sister. He also knew Lucia could lie without changing her breathing.
Then Valeria asked a question Alejandro had not considered. “When was the last time you felt unusually tired after a family dinner?”
Lucia went silent.
Alejandro frowned. “Lucia?”
His sister answered more quietly. “Why?”
“Answer her.”
Another pause followed. “The night Dad’s foundation gala. Three months ago.”
Alejandro remembered that evening. Lucia left before speeches ended because she said she had a migraine. Two days later, she signed a voting authorization Sebastian described as routine.
Valeria leaned closer to the phone. “Do you remember signing it?”
Lucia became angry immediately. “Who the hell are you to question me?”
But she never answered.
The first proof had pointed toward Lucia.
Her reaction opened a second possibility.
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Someone might not be using her to control Alejandro.
Someone might be using both of them.
