Griselda, meanwhile, had vanished from the apartment.

But the machinery of the law had her name now, and the evidence, and it does not tire the way a man does.

Chapter 18 — The Introduction

A month later, Santiago was stronger — still thin, still healing, but upright, and clear-eyed, and himself.

And Aurelio, who had spent his life announcing acquisitions and openings to rooms full of important people, arranged one more announcement, the only one that had ever truly mattered to him: he gathered hundreds of guests to present, publicly and proudly, his grandson.

Santiago stood before that crowd — not in borrowed clothes now, but not hiding either — and he did not talk about the Barrera fortune, or the mansion, or the name he had suddenly inherited.