Chapter 30

Valerie’s pov.

I sat at the same booth Theo and I always sat at whenever we’d come to his favorite restaurant. It was the same place where he'd offered to free me from Martinez Corporal Group, and the very same spot where he told me I was his long-lost granddaughter.

I looked around as I drank my chai, waiting for my grandpa to join me at the table. I was 15 minutes early so I knew I’d be waiting a good 5 to 10 minutes before the man would come and The nerves in my stomach churned as I waited for my grandpa to join me.

Today was the day I would finally confront my grandpa about what happened between him and Pedro. I wasn't going to settle for vague answers like "he's a snake" or "he betrayed my trust." I wanted the full story, especially now that I was going to marry into the Martinez family.

Oliver and I had discussed this since Monday, and it was now Thursday. I was nervous, but it was time to face the truth.

A few minutes had passed by and my grandpa entered the restaurant, a warm smile growing on his face when he spotted me and walked straight to me. “Hello, Valerie, how have you been?” he asked as I got up. We hugged for a moment then went to sit down.

“Pretty good gramps, after the meeting on Monday Morena has decided to give it a shot with us,” I smiled and watched as he skimmed through the menu, particularly the sheet with some new items.

“That’s great. I’m glad you’re loving your job but I’m much happier that you’re excelling at it too,” he chuckled, proud of me and I rolled my eyes playfully.

After some light conversation, we placed our orders, and Krishna brought us our usual coconut strawberry lassi. It was time to ask the important question.

"Grandpa," I said, setting my drink down, "what truly happened between you and Pedro? Why did you turn against each other?"

"He backstabbed me, Valerie," he replied shortly, avoiding eye contact.

"Surely you know that's not enough, right? I'm marrying into this family, and I deserve to know the whole story," I gently pushed for answers.

My grandpa sighed, realizing it was time to open up and share the truth.

He remained silent for a long time before letting out a sigh. “Fine…” He scooted closer to the table. “Decades ago, and I’m talking about way before your dad was born. It was still my junior year of high school when Pedro and I first met. We easily became great friends and even had plans for the same college,” he began to tell me and I could picture it all.

I’d seen the photos from when they were younger.

“Pedro didn’t have an easy life and I didn’t either, however, we felt lucky to have each other. I mean I very much so cared about him as my friend, I even went through the length to get him back in contact with his childhood friend from when he lived abroad. That woman became his wife– all that is beside the point,” Grandpa revealed and that surprised me, intrigued me as if I didn’t already know how the story ends.

“We’ve known each other for years. Halfway through college, we decided we had learned enough, it was time to set up our own company which was possible since we had some money from our parents plus we worked at construction sites– back then you could earn a lot there,” he continued and I struggled to picture this man on a construction site.

“Wow, you’re a great storyteller,” I muttered and he just smiled before continuing his story.

“We weren’t always like this. We decided to set up our own companies midway through college. He started a carpentry company, and I began an electrical one. As we referred clients to each other and secured big projects, we expanded our businesses into stocks, real estate, and turning smaller businesses into bigger businesses,” he explained and I just nodded along.

“You have to understand, We were fortunate to do this during our country's peak, building our empire and working together. Our bond made us unbreakable, and by the time other companies realized the strength of unity, it was too late – we dominated the market," He gestured with his hand, a proud look on his face from his accomplishments.

“So where did it all go wrong?” So far everything seemed to have been going quite well.

“It all went wrong when we had a meeting with a big client. You see, I acquired this potential client for us, Pedro was hesitant at first but still, he scheduled the meeting and such. The day of the meeting I got to the location only to find out there was no one there. Not the potential client and not a single Martinez. I tried contacting Martinez but he never budged. It wasn’t until the meeting was over that I finally got a call from him. He had changed the location, kept me out of the meeting, and had the audacity to let me know he acquired the client. However there was a problem, the client only wanted to work with Pedro because he didn’t take me seriously since I missed the meeting. Martinez had sabotaged me. I was sure of it.” I gasped softly as he informed me.

“When I tried to confront him he acted offended. I mean all I wanted was for him to admit he was wrong but he never did so and went as far as lying, trying to act like nothing had happened at all,” Grandpa cleared his throat, “That was only the start of it all. Martinez now began to blame me for the loss of a few clients of his.”

“Why were you blamed?”

“There was a scandal of theirs technically only I knew. The news found out about it though and I carried the blame for exposing it even though I had helped to cover up, still, Martinez believed I had done it,” he explained, “They believed I did it to retaliate for the missing meeting.” His tone was convincing, I could tell he couldn't have done it. He was vengeful but that seemed like stooping too low for Theo Sinclair.

“I honestly believe they did this themselves, they were looking for something to hold against me, against my company because starting that day they started pulling some of my clients towards them and well, I did the same, the game was on,” He sighed, rubbing his hands over his cheeks then shrugged as if he was defeated, “when the time came I never renewed our partnership. It was every man for himself and Pedro hadn’t expected that.”

“And that was the end of our friendship and partnership.” Theo clapped his hand and took his lassi back.

“I’m sorry, I can see you cared about him,” I rubbed the back of his hand. I wondered what it would be like if they never had their falling out if I was never stolen from them. Would Oliver and I still be as we are today?

“I did, but the end is the end,” He sighed and looked over at the waiter with a huge grin. “Ah look, our food came. Now tell me about your plans for next week.”

As we shifted our conversation to lighter topics, the sadness in Grandpa's eyes seemed to fade. Losing the friendship and bond with Pedro still affected him deeply, despite all the provoking they did.

After work, Oliver and I had plans to spend the evening together at our home. He would cook dinner on the grill, and I'd indulge in some gardening. There was something so serene about relaxing at our place, spending time with each other in such a domestic way. It wasn’t exactly what I thought I’d want, I never dreamed of this yet it seemed exactly like what I needed.

In the backyard, we talked about our grandfathers, trying to uncover the truth behind their feud. However, our narratives differed, with each of us defending our own family. Frustration grew, and our conversation became heated.

"Oliver, my grandfather would never expose secrets like that. It sounds more like something your grandpa would do." I glared at him, setting the plates on the table.

"Excuse me? What guarantees you that?" Oliver raised an eyebrow, stepping away from the grill.

"He said he helped with the cover-up. Why would he risk exposing himself?" I pointed out, feeling my frustration intensify.

"I have no clue, but my Abuelo would never do the things Sinclair accused him of," Oliver defended his family, "We're not the ones who stole clients and ended the partnership."

"Your family isn't innocent in all this either! My grandpa did so much for his friend," I reminded him, my emotions running high.

"We need to put a pause on this conversation," Oliver said, taking a deep breath and approaching me.

"What we need is straight answers," I sighed, realizing that we were both fiercely protective of our families.

"None of them are giving us that," Oliver agreed. "Then I suggest we get someone to look into it?" He hugged me, and the idea seemed unbiased and fair.

"That's- That's actually a good idea," I acknowledged, forcing a smile as I looked up at him. "Sorry I got so defensive," I said, reaching up to kiss his cheek.

"It's okay. I acted the exact way," he reassured me.

“I’ll hire my PI and you can hire yours, that way we can avoid saying they were biased,” Oliver then suggested, carefully running his fingers through my hair as he looked at me. I thought about it for a minute and nodded in agreement.

“I think that would work perfectly,” I hummed. “Now I have to research who the best PI in the city is,” I sighed dramatically.

“Can’t you just hire the one your parents hired to find out about your kidnapping?” Oliver suggested, returning to the grill to turn the corn.

“I told you that?” I frowned, not being able to recall ever telling him about it. I mean it certainly was a while ago since my parents offered to investigate it.

“I think so. How else would I know?” Oliver shrugged and turned to face me.

“True, well, the man makes progress but he’s rather slow… Anyways he has it busy with my case, I don’t want to give him another and end up with even slower results,” I rambled, pouring sweet tea into our cups.

“So he still hasn’t found anything?” Oliver wondered.

“He has but it doesn’t trace far enough,” I groaned. By now it’d been months, and I wasn’t even sure if I should still hold hope that the man will find out just enough information. The last piece of information he had was that a nurse helped from the inside but when he went to find her it was rather difficult. She had changed her identity and completely disappeared off the face of the earth.

“Well whatever it may be, I’m just happy you found yourself back to your family, you belong with them and you belong with me,” Oliver winked and came over to hug me then leaned down to kiss me down my jaw, neck.

“Can you be any more sappy?” I asked teasingly, looking to the side to give him more access.