Chapter 6 - RAUL CHANGES SIDES WITHOUT BECOMING GOOD
Raul asked Eleanor to meet him privately.
Eleanor refused.
“If Elena’s involved, Elena hears it.”
So the meeting happened at Maya’s office.
Raul entered in a charcoal suit and spent the first ten minutes defending himself.
“I never touched her.”
Elena almost stood up.
Maya touched her arm lightly.
Raul continued.
“I told Victor to stop.”
“When?” Elena asked.
He looked at her.
“Before.”
“Before what?”
“Other arguments.”
“But not that night.”
Raul’s mouth closed.
“No.”
“Why?”
He stared at the table.
“Because I thought he was frightening you, not…”
He could not finish.
Elena did it for him.
“Not beating me badly enough to create consequences for you.”
Raul accepted the insult because it was accurate.
Then he talked about Helena.
She had become obsessed with Elena after Robert Vale—Raul and Eleanor’s father—died years earlier.
Elena frowned.
“I never met him.”
“No. But Victor inherited his temper.”
Eleanor’s face hardened.
Raul noticed.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Yes, it is,” Eleanor said.
Raul looked exhausted.
Then he revealed the part Elena did not expect.
Helena had collected “behavior files” before.
Not videos.
Notes.
Emails.
Descriptions of arguments.
Years earlier, when Victor was twenty-two and involved with a woman named Paige, Helena documented Paige’s “instability” after she threatened to end the relationship.
That relationship ended quietly.
Elena looked at Eleanor.
“You knew?”
“I knew Helena called Paige unstable.”
“You didn’t know she was collecting things?”
“No.”
Raul rubbed his forehead.
“Helena believes documentation protects the family.”
“From what?” Elena asked.
“Scandal.”
Of course.
Helena could forgive cruelty.
She could not forgive embarrassment.
Raul admitted he suspected Nora’s filming had that purpose but chose not to ask because he did not want another war with his wife.
It was cowardice disguised as marriage.
Elena understood it because she had practiced her own version for years.
Raul’s loyalty shifted for a selfish reason.
Helena was now blaming him.
According to Raul, she planned to say he encouraged Victor’s drinking and aggressive behavior.
Raul did not suddenly develop courage.
He developed fear of becoming the family scapegoat.
Still, his account mattered.
It confirmed Helena’s pattern predated Elena’s pregnancy.
When the meeting ended, Eleanor remained seated.
“There’s something Raul didn’t say.”
He stopped at the door.
Eleanor looked at him.
“What happened to Paige?”
Raul’s face changed.
“She left.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
He looked at Elena.
Then away.
“She signed an agreement.”
“What kind?”
Raul said:
“A confidentiality settlement.”
Elena’s stomach tightened.
May you like
Now the family’s obsession with filming her looked less like preparation for custody.
It looked like preparation for leverage.
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