“Please . . .”

“Just a tiny bit more, Ariadna. Afterward we’ll give you your medication, and you’ll be able to rest.”

“I told him the truth. That I was pregnant.”

“I don’t understand. Pregnant? Who by?”

“By Ubach.”

“Your father?”

“He wasn’t my father.”

“Miguel Ángel Ubach, the banker. The man who had adopted you.”

“The man who had bought me.”

“What happened?”

“At night he would often come to my bedroom, drunk. He told me his wife didn’t love him, he said she had lovers, that they no longer shared anything. He would start crying. Then he’d rape me. When he got tired of it, he said it was my fault, he said I tempted him, he said I was a whore, like my mother. He beat me and assured me that if I said anything about this to anyone, he’d have my sister killed. He knew where she was, he said, and a call from him would be enough to have her buried alive.”

“And what did David Martín say when he heard that?”

“He stole a car and got me out of there. I need the medicine, please . . .”

“Of course. Right now. Thank you, Ariadna. Thanks for your frankness.”

12

“What day is it today?”

“Tuesday.”

“It was also Tuesday yesterday.”

“That was a different Tuesday. Tell me about your escape with David Martín.”

“David had a car. He’d stolen it, and he kept it hidden in a garage in the Carabanchel district. That day he told me that the following Saturday he’d drive it around to one of the gates of the park at noon. When Doña Manuela fell asleep, I had to start running and meet him in the entrance opposite Puerta de Alcalá.”

“And did you?”

“We got into the car and hid in the garage until it was dark.”

“The police accused your tutor of having been an accomplice in your kidnapping. They interrogated her for forty-eight hours, and then she was found in a ditch on the road to Burgos. They’d broken her legs and arms, and then shot her in the back of the neck.”

“Don’t expect me to feel sorry for her.”

“Did she know that Ubach abused you?”

“She was the only person I ever told.”

“And what did she say?”

“To keep quiet. She said important men had their needs, and that in time I’d realize that Ubach loved me very much.”

“What happened that night?”

“David and I left the garage with the car and spent the whole night on the road.”

“Where were you going?”

“We traveled for about two days. We would wait until it was dark, and then we’d take byroads or country lanes. David made me lie down in the back seat, covered with blankets so no one could see me when we stopped at gas stations. Sometimes I’d fall asleep, and the moment I woke up I could hear him talking, as if there was someone with him, sitting in the passenger seat.”