Once In A Lifetime

Chapter 44: Arturo

Love is not a consequence. Love is not a choice. Love is a thirst. A need as vital to the soul as water is to the body....To take it from a man dying of thirst and give it to another whilst he watches is cruelty..."

-------

Mr. Aragon studied carefully the latest information presented by his men regarding Arturo. His real name is Arturo Santos, being an acknowledged son of Don Joaquin, and not Arturo Quilaico. It was the reason why Mr. Aragon's men had a hard time tracing him the past days with that name.

The name Quilaico was just a masquerade Arturo used when he joined his father's company right after he finished his studies.

He studied in the US using his father's name, graduated from a famous university earning the degrees in business management and social work.

Records also revealed, a testimony from someone who knew Arturo very well. Based on the testimony, Arturo would come back to the country every year as arranged by Don Joaquin, where they would spend some clandestine summer vacations together in his mother's hometown, a place where Arturo's father was never known.

It was also in that place that Arturo met a woman. They fell in love with each other. Only the girl's family was against their relationship.

When he went back to the US to continue his studies, news came upon him, that his girl was pregnant with his child. He promised her to come home after she had given birth to marry her. But when he returned, he learned that she died giving birth to their son.

He was devastated, so much more when he discovered that their son was abandoned by her parents in the street bearing the birth mark akin to the mother of the babe, the woman he loved. He looked for the child, but nobody knew where the babe was.

That year, he went back to the US and never came home to his country for some years until he finished his studies. Then, he joined the company under the pleadings of his father, where he worked with Carlo. It was Don Joaquin's way of bringing them together and to introduce him slowly to the family. But this never happened. After a year of being in the company, Don Joaquin died with his twin daughters in a car accident.

Carlo took over the company. They spent some beautiful and productive years together as friends and business partners until Carlo and his wife died in a car accident also.

He grieved secretly when his brother died, in the same way when Don Joaquin died. Nobody knew, that he was a family. For he was Arturo Quilaico to everyone. Although, there were rumors that he was the illegitimate son of Don Joaquin whose share to the family's wealth was given by his father ahead of time to secure his inheritance.

As to the plantation where the mysterious house was located near the cliff, the same was registered under his name but designated Pacita as the administrator. The property was bought years after the mansion was burned to give a home to Pacita and her family. The house underwent a complete renovation just a year ago after it was heavily damaged due to strong typhoon that hit the place.

The investigation reports also disclosed that Arturo left the country few years after the ancestral house of the Santos was burned, lived as immigrant in the US, running a successful company inside and outside the country, established a foundation whose beneficiaries are orphans and street children in many countries. Most of his business trips were connected to his philanthropic role in the foundation. Immigration records showed, his latest entry in the country was a week ago.

Then, Mr. Aragon recalled the conversation in the mysterious house. The old woman's claim that Arturo had knowledge about Denise being alive only recently had some sense in it.

How would he ran after Denise' life when from the start, he knew her dead? After knowing she's alive, she saved her out from the accident. He could have kill her right away, if it was his intention to amass the inheritance in her name. Being the acknowledged son of Don Joaquin, he could have inherited everything in the absence of any heir. But he didn't not kill her.

The fact that they didn't bring Denise to the hospital when she needed it badly after the accident, could mean, they did not want to expose her further to whoever was threatening her life.

Mr. Aragon thought, maybe Arturo was following Denise since the day he arrived to ensure her safety. It would explain why he got hold of Denise so suddenly leading to her disappearance.

What the investigator could not explain was the accident took place coincidentally, of all the places, in a vicinity few meters away from Arturo's property. Then, he remembered the light he had encountered in the woods leading to his discovery of the house. Until now, it was something he could not explain. But for Caroline, it was God's way.

With the report, he was convinced that Arturo was never the culprit for all the mysterious death in the Santos family. His father, Don Joaquin, had given him the love, wealth and identity of being his son. There would be no reason enough to establish his involvement in the killing, unless somebody want to trap him. Besides, he tried to protect Pacita and Linda before the house was burned.

Mr. Aragon was in deep thought when something flashed on his mind. Again, he replayed the conversation between Pacita and Crispin.

They treated us like dogs Inang.

Who could treat them like that when the old woman claimed that she was treated as a family until the last patriarch, that's Don Carlo, died? Something was missing in the picture.
Something that only Pacita and Crispin were aware of.

From the case folder on his table, the pictures of the Santos mausoleum on top of the other documents caught his attention. He picked them up, scrutinizing them one by one.

Why it has to be guarded? What's in there, aside from the dead? He asked himself. And when he was thinking to set an appointment with Father Luis regarding this matter, the phone rang breaking the silence in his office.

He answered the phone. For quite sometime, he stood dumbstruck by what he heard. Speaking on the other line was Arturo himself.

-------

Few more chapters and its over...
Thanks once again.😇