"¡ Buenas tardes!" Emmanuel greeted his friend upon returning from his most recent trip to Santa Pedro.

Diego was sitting at his desk, just glancing at the wall and seemed to not even notice him.

"Diego! Diego?"

"Emmanuel! You're back!" He remarked as he finally heard him.

"Yes. I am… You, however, seem far away. Is there something wrong?"

"I'm not sure…" He answered. "Something doesn't fit… Risendo killed his mother today…"

"What?"

"As you heard. He shot her dead in the middle of the plaza, in front of everyone… "

"That means it's over, then? He will hang…"

"Yes… But there's something unsettling about the entire affair."

"I can imagine that… Do you know why he did it?"

At that point, the tall caballero suddenly stood up, folded his arms across his chest and started pacing the room. "He seemed angry with her… He reproached her for having takin him from his true family; for having lied to him."

"I am not sure I understand…"

"Neither do I…" Diego said, shaking her head. "Before she died, that awful woman had accused my father of having shot his brother, blaming a lieutenant of his, Antonio Cordoba, for the crime. My father and some friends of his had captured the former lieutenant, turned highwayman, this very morning, almost 30 years after my uncle's death. He had already been sentenced to death years ago but had managed to escape at the time. So, today, he was executed for his crimes. In fact, he had been hung just before Señora Risendo arrived in the plaza.

"She referred to that thug as her 'poor Antonio'…"

Emmanuel shook his head. "You think… she could have had some kind of vendetta against your father because of that bandit?"

"I begin to think so… But that is not all… Before she died, Inez said that she still won because 'he' would now watch his son die. And I can't make heads or tail of that… And there is also another thing Gilberto said – he said that Inez's actions had led him to cause the death of his brother… I keep wondering what he meant…"

"Perhaps you should just ask him," Emmanuel suggested.

"I doubt he will tell me anything. He challenged me to a duel a while earlier… We fought in the garden, and I almost told him who I was… I would have, had he not suddenly just given up and run away…"

"I missed quite an interesting day, it seems," Emmanuel noted with some regret clear in his voice. "Maybe Juliana could help… He is about to be executed, and her child is all he leaves behind. Perhaps he might confess his reasons to her…"

"I don't like the idea of using her like that."

It was just as he uttered those words that Felipe came running inside the cave, a pair of saddlebags on his shoulder. Stopping next to Diego, he reached inside one and took out several stacks of bound letters, putting them on the desk, before he reached into his sash and took out a folded sheet of paper, offering it to his guardian.

"What is all this?" The young man asked.

The boy looked distressed as he signed that he should read it.

Diego took it and unfurled it. Heading for his desk, he tried to straighten it a little before he started reading it.

"What's wrong?" Emmanuel asked as he saw the blood draining from his friend's face.

Diego didn't answer. He continued reading, then glanced at Felipe. "Where did you get this?" He asked.

The boy signed that he had followed Risendo home earlier, arriving there just as he was leaving the house. Realizing there was no one else inside, after taking his time to study the premises, the boy had entered. He had done so in the hope that he might find something helpful to Diego. And it paid off.

After carefully searching the other rooms, he eventually came across the letters. He first read some of the opened ones, then noticed the one that had been crumpled and took it to see what it said. After reading it, he gathered all the letters there, put them in his saddlebags, and brought them home with him.

"What does it say that's so important?" Emmanuel inquired.

Diego just handed him the paper without another word.

"My dear Antonio,"Dos Santos started reading. After those three words, he glanced inquisitively at his friend who, with a nod, encouraged him to continue. "Today I have put into motion my plan. The plan to avenge you and to bring about the demise of Don Alejandro de la Vega, the man responsible for his brother's death and your exile. Given that his actions prevented us from ever being together, from having the family we have so wished for, my vengeance will be to rip everything from him."

"You were right, it seems," Emmanuel mentioned at this point, turning the letter to notice it was signed "Inez".

"I will take everything away," he continued, "and I will do so by using his own blood: his firstborn son," Emmanuel paused there to again glance at Diego as a feeling of dread started to engulf him. "his firstborn son," he read again, " whom he doesn't even… know… exists." Again Emmanuel paused, drew in some air, and then continued reading. "The stupid doctor never realized Doña Elena de la Vega was to have twins. But I knew. I listened."

I will call him Gilberto, like we always wanted to name our own son. I will raise him to hate his family. When he will be ready, he will be the one to bring about the end of the De la Vegas, then become the master of whatever it is left after their demise. That will be my ultimate vengeance, Antonio! Our vengeance for Don Alejandro's crime and for him forever separating us. Yours, always, Inez.

"This can't be true…" Emmanuel said as he finished, shaking his head.

"Yet it explains everything…" Diego replied. "All those pieces that didn't fit together… they do now…"

"He's your brother?"

"Twin brother… I have a twin. I have had one my entire life… And this is how I find out? The day before he is to hang?"

"What he did… "

"Is unforgivable… And yet… Was he truly the one to blame? Or was he just a victim, as I was? As my mother and my uncle were? My entire family was destroyed because of a traitor and the lie he chose to tell…"

"Gilberto made his own choices."

"Yes. But he made them based on whatever lies that wretched woman had told him. He was stolen as an infant; never allowed the chance to meet his true mother; to be raised by his true family…" Diego pointed out pensively. "What if I had been born first?"

Emmanuel opened his mouth to reassure him that he would have behaved differently but closed it without making a sound. He had no way of knowing how things would have turned out had Diego been the baby Inez had stolen.

"If he dies, she wins," Diego said. "She was right about that…"

"Perhaps…" Emmanuel said after some consideration, "Perhaps there is a way to have justice and, at the same time, make sure she doesn't prevail."

ZZZ

The evening came and went, the customers not giving Victoria a moment of respite, which caused her to almost forget the Count's promise to visit her. It was almost midnight when her last patrons, one by one, headed home, with Don Alejandro and his friends being the last ones to leave.

After taking her goodbyes from the elderly caballero and his companions, the she finished washing the dishes, and was about to bolt the main doors when heading for the taproom, she saw the Count standing in the doorway, as if uncertain whether to enter or not.

"¡ Buenas noches!" He greeted her.

"I wasn't expecting you at this late hour," she said reproachfully.

"I promised I would come, so I did." He replied. "Besides, I truly need to talk to you, Victoria."

"It's late." She replied.

"I know. Just as I know how this looks… Me, coming to you when I know you are alone in the tavern. But I promise you are in no danger from me." He answered.

Something about him, about his entire demeanor, not only about his words, was just not right, and the young woman wondered if she should sit with him or escape while she still had the chance.

"I didn't think I was… I know the kind of man you are, Don Sebastian." She eventually replied as if trying to convince herself that she had nothing to worry about.

He nodded. "Do you mind if I bolt the door? What I need to say is for your ears only."

She hesitated but ended up nodding.

"What is wrong?" She asked kindly after he made sure they would not be disturbed. There was a sad look in his eyes, and she instantly felt compassion for him, though she couldn't even suspect the reason for his melancholy.

"Many, many things…" he answered in the same strange tone of voice, sitting down at the nearest table.

"Do you want to tell me about them?"

"It's part of why I am here. Because there is an important decision I must make, and it also depends on your stance on a few matters."

"Oh? What decision?"

"I will get there… But before that, there is a story I must tell you."

"A story?" Victoria asked as she sat down across the table from him.

"Yes… My story…" After saying that, though, he went silent.

"Well?" Victoria asked a while later, slightly frustrated.

He looked at her, then averted his eyes. "I was just wondering where to start…" he explained. "Perhaps… Perhaps with the death of my uncle. Yes… I guess it all started then. You see, my uncle was murdered."

"I am sorry to hear that."

"I hear he was a good man, though I never knew him. He died before I was born."

"Oh?"

"And, even if I never met him, his death started a chain of events that resulted in me being the man I am today, and in all the bad things that happened during the last decade, not only to me but to my entire family." He continued.

"As I said, my uncle was killed. The man who killed him fled before he was captured, then wrote to the woman he was engaged to marry. In his letter, he accused my father of having framed him for murder. It was a lie, of course, but she believed it.

"So, seeing how all her dreams had suddenly fallen apart, she decided to punish my father for all her unhappiness. She did so by stealing his firstborn son, my twin brother, and, at the same time condemning my mother to an early grave."

"That's awful…" Victoria replied.

"Yes… I loved my mother very much. Though, most of all, it breaks my heart to think that she died without knowing that my twin brother even existed…"

"But… That's not possible. Is it? She was the one who gave birth to him!"

"There's a substance, you see – Dorodurma. It was initially used on women needing a caesarian – to alleviate their sufferance. It puts one into a deep sleep and, through that effect, it can even cancel the pain caused by childbirth.

"In time, doctors started noticing a pattern: those taking this substance would die about fourteen or fifteen years later, of gut cancer. The same disease that caused my mother's death." He explained. "But… Returning to my story, this woman I mentioned, was hired by my grandfather as a midwife and, from what I was able to deduce, must have used Dorodurma on my mother. It's how she stole my brother, at the same time, making sure my mother didn't know that she had given birth to another child before me."

"But how can you know all that?"

"I knew bits and pieces before today. This afternoon, a letter reached me: one detailing the woman's plan to take vengeance on my family. She mentioned in it that she had taken advantage of the fact that the doctor who was supervising my mother at the time had not realized my mother was going to have twins, and stole the firstborn son. As for how she did it… let's say that I put two and two together."

Victoria didn't say anything, for she had a hard time finding her words.

"So," he restarted his account, "as I mentioned, I was the second-born son, but, since nobody in my family knew of my brother's existence, and Dorodurma also causes infertility, meaning that my mother never gave birth again. I, thus, grew up as an only child. And I had a blessed childhood. My parents were the best parents I could have wished for. They were also wealthy, so I lacked for nothing during those years. Besides, I had friends… Friends and the love of the most wonderful young woman I have ever met.

"Meanwhile," he continued, "my brother was raised by that woman who had stolen him. She was not rich, nor was she kind, so I doubt he had a very happy childhood. Whatever the case, he was raised to hate his entire family, which set him on a course of vengeance.

"I first met him during a fencing competition, in Madrid." – Victoria raised her head at that, staring carefully at the young man before her – "He made quite an impression on me. I didn't know who he was, nor could I have even imagined it. He took an interest in me, doing his best to pretend that he wanted to be my friend. He did show his true face, though, one night, when, after a bottle of wine, he challenged me to a duel. When he won, he came quite close to killing me. My best friend, who intervened at that point, had always been certain he would have gone through with it…

"He didn't have the chance then, but, soon enough, he came up with an even more perfidious plan.

"One Spring day, I found myself arrested and put in jail. Nobody told me of the charges brought against me. I was certain it would soon be revealed that there was no reason for me to be there. That there had been a mistake, and, once that came to light, I would be freed.

"This young man, whom I had no idea at the time, was my brother, came to visit me. He even promised to see if he could help me. At the time, that gave me hope…

"A few days later, however, I was put into a barred wagon and sent to France, to Chateau d'If. It's a prison, mainly used for political prisoners: traitors, rebel leaders, and so on… I was put in a cell and, when I tried to reason with them, to tell them that a mistake had been committed in my case, I was taken to the courtyard and whipped."

"That's how you got those marks on your back." Victoria realized.

"Yes… Though I didn't get them all at once. The warden made sure to commemorate my arrival there with a lashing each year during my incarceration.

"Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months, and months turned into years. I lost track of time after a while. I had no one to talk to… no one but the rats and the spiders that visited my cell. In winter, I only had a thin blanket to protect me from the freezing cold. In summer, the smell was more than most men can endure.

"For a long while, I was certain that salvation would come. That someone would surely get me out of there. My family; my friends… Someone.

"As time passed, though, I started losing hope. Everybody I knew was far away, and the times were perilous.

"Eventually, I convinced myself that any attempt to find and free me could mean death for my loved ones. That it would be far better if I died, as long as that meant offering them closure and ensuring they do not risk their lives in a futile attempt to save mine."

Slowly, Victoria shook her head at that.

"It was how," he continued, "one day, I ripped my shirt to shreds, and made myself a noose; then I hanged myself."

"Good God!" The young woman uttered, on the brink of crying.

"To my despair, I didn't die right away, but had to endure the pain of suffocation… That until the noose broke before achieving its goal…

"After that first failed attempt to end my life, I tried to starve myself to death. I would have succeeded, too, had God not decided to intervene, once again.

"He did so by sending me a priest. An abbot, who was just as innocent as I was. After a decade spent in that wretched place, he decided to escape and dug a tunnel. But he miscalculated and, instead of reaching the outer wall, he reached my cell.

"The man saved me in more ways than I can count. Not only did he save my life, but he gave me back my hope. He also helped me figure out who had put me there: the man who, today, I found out was my brother, together with a former university colleague of mine, who, at the time, considered me responsible for his expulsion.

"That revelation, I must admit, gave me the strength and the will to go on; the will to find a way back to freedom, so that I might make sure they received their just punishment.

"For about three years the abbot and I dug a new tunnel. We were finally nearing the exterior wall of the fortress when the tunnel we were digging collapsed on top of him. I pulled him out, but it was too late, and he knew it. Before he died, he convinced me to take his place in the sack they used to put dead bodies in, and escape that way. He also entrusted me with his most valuable possession: a treasure map.

"Five years after being sent to Chateau d'If, I was, thus, thrown from it into the sea, a cannonball tied to my ankles."

"How did you survive?" Victoria wondered.

"I was lucky enough to miss the cliffs. And I always was a good swimmer. Besides that, the abbot had also left me a knife; one he had made from a bone. I had taken it with me when I sewed myself into the sack, and it saved my life.

"After freeing myself, I started swimming. Some smugglers eventually pulled me out of the water, but forced me to join them in return for not turning me over to the authorities. A few months later, though, they took pity on me, and left me on a shore, south of Marseille.

"From there, I traveled to northern Spain, where chance reunited me with my best friend. Together, we went searching for the abbot's treasure, on the Island of Dragonera."

"Where you found it!" Victoria said with a smile this time.

"Yes. And it was, indeed, far beyond anything we had expected. A large part of it, though, I gave to King Ferdinand, in return for my title, several pardons, and a few other documents he was kind enough to sign."

"And your family? What happened to them?"

"My brother happened. He first caused the death of my grandfather, who suffered a heart attack when he informed him of my fate. After that, as soon as he had the opportunity, he turned his attention towards my household, set on destroying my father and everything he loved. He sent his cohort first – the former university colleague I mentioned earlier – then he followed suit."

"What did you do?"

"I went home. But not as myself. I couldn't risk being recognized while my enemies were there, considering I didn't know their plans."

Victoria held her breath, tears gathering in her eyes again as she began suspecting that she knew the rest of that story. Parts of it, at least. "How did you go, then?" She inquired.

"First, disguised as a priest. An abbot... I needed to get a sense of what I had returned to, you see."

Victoria stared at him for a while as she was processing his words. "And… What did you find out?" She asked, becoming more and more certain of who she was truly talking to, yet fearing to get her hopes up.

"I found out that my enemies were set on ruining my father; that my ward, a 14-year-old child was in jail, despite also being quite innocent of the accusations against him; that the place I grew up in, the town I love, was in the hands of one of the men who had plotted to ruin me, and who behaved like a tyrant; that much sufferance had occurred in my absence; and that the people were craving justice as much as I did. I also found out that the woman I loved was still waiting for me."

"She was?"

"Yes. As it turns out, despite the many years we have spent apart, she never stopped loving me, nor has she given up on me…"

"She didn't?"

"No… For all I know, in fact," he said as he finally looked right into her eyes, "she is still counting the days since we last saw each other… just as we promised each other…"

At that point, quite certain of who he was, the young woman let out a cry, tears springing to her eyes. "Diego…" She uttered.

The young man nodded and proceeded to take off his fake beard and wig, returning to his normal look. "Forgive me for taking so long in telling you the truth," he said.

Slightly shaking her head, Victoria slowly reached across the table to caress his face. Through her tears, she could barely see him, but it didn't matter. For, in truth, she could not stop crying even if she wanted to.

In turn, Diego stood up and walked around the table. He helped her stand, and gathered her into his arms with a comforting embrace, one that lasted for several minutes while Victoria continued crying into his chest.

"All this time," she finally said through sobs, enjoying the feeling of his arms around her, "you've been right here…"

"Yes… But I couldn't tell you!" He replied. "Not without risking that De Soto and Gilberto might find out the truth."

"De Soto and Gilberto…" She repeated, drawing back a little, to look at him.

"Ignacio and I were colleagues in the University. Just before he graduated, I saw him losing some papers after an exam, and hurried to pick them up. I was trying to be of help… A professor saw their content, and realized he had been cheating. They expelled him, and he always blamed me for it." He explained. "As for Gilberto… As it turns out, his name… his true name, is De la Vega. He is my brother, Victoria."

"He is set to die tomorrow…" She uttered, just realizing the magnitude of his conundrum.

"Yes. And I can save his life. But should I? After all the pain he has caused… to me and many others… Is the fact that he was robbed of his family, lied to, and used in another's revenge enough to save him? Is the child inside Juliana's womb a reason for him to live?"

"Juliana's baby is his?"

"Yes… And he did not reject her. Inez sent her away, lying about his disinterest in her."

"How can you know that?" Victoria inquired, wiping away her tears.

"His latest servant, Jacopo, was my spy in Risendos' household. He told me."

"You had a spy in his house? Does Juliana know that he did not send her away?"

"Yes. I thought it right to tell her."

"He said something earlier today… Before he shot his mo… that woman…" Victoria corrected herself. "He said that he had killed his innocent brother."

"For all he knows, he did."

"He seemed remorseful…"

"I thought the same. But, if I intervene on his behalf, can we ever be certain that he would not try to harm us again? Could we ever trust him? He almost poisoned you…"

"What? When did he almost poison me?"

"That small bottle in the front pocket of his jacket. The night when you agreed to talk to him in private… the powder he wanted to give you was Dorodurma. Though I no longer believe he knew of its true effects… I think his plan was to bed you in order to force you to marry him."

"That conniving son –" she didn't finish for she just realized she'd be insulting Diego's dead mother rather than Inez. Stopping herself just in time, Victoria then thought about that incident for a short while. "But how can you know that? Only Zorro knew. Is Zorro also working for you?" She asked the young man.

"In a way…"

"In a way? In what way? Enough with the secrets, Diego! Please!"

"Well… He doesn't so much work for me as he… is… me… I am Zorro, Victoria…"

Her mouth slightly dropped open at that, then she let out a laugh. "Your father and I were just discussing the possibility of you being Zorro a few days ago! We were right?"

Diego nodded.

"That's why you encouraged me not to give up hope…"

"I certainly couldn't allow you to give up on me when I knew we'd soon be able to marry."

"Marry? We can finally get married?"

"If you'll still have me. My love for you has never wavered…" He replied.

"Of course, I'll still have you! I've spent over eight years waiting for you!"

"But I am no longer the man you once knew, Victoria. There are wounds inside me not even your love might be able to heal…"

"It doesn't matter… You are the love of my life, Diego! True, I fell in love with you before leaving California. But I also fell in love with the Count… and with Zorro. I may have not known you were both those men, but my heart still recognized you!"

A smile on his lips and tears in his eyes, he nodded, then embraced her again, kissing her on her head and holding her tight. Inwardly he gave thanks to the Lord for the wonderful woman in his arms, forgetting all about Gilberto for a while.