HERNAN AND GABRIELA BOOK 2

CHAPTER 109

The days fly by quickly, and soon it is Wednesday, the day of the first trial. Everyone who had to be there and could was there. Luisa and Clara were however not there as Luisa was with her daughter Rosa and Clara and was helping her. Claudia too was there. The judge's name is announced and everyone stands then sits. Isabella turns then glares at Gina, who ignores her.

Their full names (Alejandro Cortes, Horacio Saenz, Isabella Velez, and Marianna Peralta), as well as the charges against them, are read out. They are then told to plead. They all plead not guilty. Gina rolls her eyes. She says that she can't believe that they would blatantly lie in court after what they did. She adds that hopefully, enough evidence can be found soon, to send all four of them to jail.

Meanwhile, at the mental hospital,

John ( Gabriel) is in his room. He cannot stop thinking about his twins. Where are they? He holds his head and sits down. He says that he doesn't know if he will be able to handle not knowing what happened to them. He then has a flashback of a day when he came home from work. Gabriela was in the dining room, with her crayons and coloring book. When she sees him, she smiles and runs screaming daddy and hugs him. He then remembers the day of Hector's party. He remembers Gina's surprised, then happy look and how she rushed to hug him. He then says that it felt very similar and familiar, like when Gabriela would hug him as a child.

Back in the small town,

The investigator is at a hotel. He sips his coffee then looks at the pages of files and reports and shakes his head. He asks himself just where Hector and Gina Ortiz came from because it feels like they appeared from nowhere. He adds that the case is one of the most difficult he has ever dealt with. He adds that he needs to find the exact dates the children were found.

Sometime after, at the courthouse,

Hector and Antonio have just finished giving their statements and they have been questioned by both counsels. It was now Adrianna's turn. She takes a deep breath. She looks at Hector who smiles reassuringly at her. She takes her oath and begins. Adrianna says that she met Marianna (points to her) while working at Montes De Alba inc. She adds that she became obsessed with Hector quite quickly. Marianna stands up and accuses Adrianna of lying. There is some loud chatter in the court and the judge brings the court to order and calls for silence. He then looks at Marianna and tells her to calm down or he will detain her and hold her in contempt of court.

Her lawyer tells her to sit and calm down. Hector smiles and says to himself that she should continue showing how crazy she is because that works in their favor. Adrianna continues and says that Marianna would flirt with Hector at every opportunity despite knowing that she ( Adrianna) was with him. Adrianna then says that this continued until one Friday when Hector and Antonio went out for drinks together. She adds that they came back the next day drunk, with nasty hangovers and with little recollection of what happened.

She says that she asked Hector what happened and he told her that he had woken up in Marianna's bed and thinks she drugged him because he didn't go with her and doesn't recall seeing her at the club. Adrianna says that Marianna always insisted that she didn't drug him. She then adds that they both discovered that they were pregnant and Marianna claimed that her child was Hector's. Marianna adds that throughout their pregnancies, Marianna refused calls to reach an agreement on her daughter, despite Hector meeting her and willing to discuss a custody and co-parenting deal.

Adrianna adds that Marianna would keep on harassing them and insisting she would ruin their relationship. Adrianna says that things continued in pretty much the same way until they gave birth. She continues and says that Alejandro then approached her and told her that her daughter was his, and told her the story about getting her inseminated during a routine hospital visit. She adds that he then used that to threaten and blackmail her into marrying him. She adds that before that happened, her real daughter fell sick and tests were done and Isabella was the perfect match.