All Chapters of The Professor’s Canvas : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

47 Chapters

031: The Offer

~Elena’s POV~I watch the footage three times before my brain accepts what I’m seeing.My father. Alive, healthy, months ago. Standing in Mateo’s office with David, positioning cameras with surgical precision.“Higher. You need the angle to capture the desk.” Papa’s voice is clear, unmistakable. “And one more by the window for backup. Make sure the timestamp is visible.”David follows instructions. “You are sure about this? If Elena finds out…”“She won’t. She will think it was me acting alone.” David’s voice. “You are just the concerned father protecting his daughter.”“I am protecting her.” Papa steps back, examines the camera placement. “From making the same mistakes her mother and I did. From throwing away her future for a man who collects broken women.”The video ends.I’m standing in the courtyard, phone trembling in my hands, when Sofia appears.“Elena? What is wrong? You look…”I show her the video without speaking.She watches. Goes pale. “No. That is not possible. Your fathe

032: Betrayed

~Elena’s POV~My chest tightens. “What?”“It’s exile essentially but it clears my name. Let me start over somewhere else. London, maybe. Or New York.”“And if you don’t take it?”“Then I fight the charges. Probably go to prison for conspiracy I didn’t commit. Evidence is circumstantial but damning…the emails, the phone calls, the timing. Isabella made sure it looks real.”I sink onto my apartment floor. “When do you have to decide?”“Twenty-four hours. They need an answer by tomorrow night.”“What do you want to do?”“I don’t know. If I leave, I will lose you. If I stay, I lose everything else.” His voice breaks. “So I’m asking…if I stay and fight, will you wait, or is this already over?”The question I’ve been avoiding.“I don’t know,” I admit. “My father tried to destroy us while pretending to support us. Your family actually destroyed us while being honest about it and we…” My voice cracks. “We destroyed ourselves by being too selfish or too stupid or too desperate to stop.”“So th

033: The Meeting

I’m at the police station in forty minutes.Marina meets me at the entrance, briefcase in her hand, expression grim. “Don’t say anything, not one word. They’re building a conspiracy case and every syllable will be used against you.”“There’s hotel footage. From the night I met Mateo. My father had us followed…”“I know, Rebecca sent it to the prosecutor an hour ago.” Marina pulls me aside. “Elena, that footage doesn’t help you. It shows you approaching Mateo, propositioning him, initiating everything. Combined with the office cameras showing the same pattern, it looks like you deliberately targeted him.”“I didn’t know who he was…”“But your father did. He knew Mateo would be at that bar. The PI’s report shows he had been tracking Mateo’s movements for days.” She shows me a document. “Your father knew Mateo went to that specific bar every Friday, alone, vulnerable.”My stomach drops. “You think my father sent me there? To that exact bar?”“I think your father mentioned it casually. Su

034: Partners

I read Mateo’s words with shaking hands.*I attempted to maintain appropriate boundaries with Miss Vega after discovering she was my student. She pursued contact repeatedly. Appeared at my office uninvited. Initiated physical encounters despite my verbal objections. I take responsibility for not reporting her behavior or removing myself from the situation, but I want the record to reflect that I was not the initiator.*The words blur.Marina grabs the document. “This is coerced testimony. What did you offer him?”“Nothing. He volunteered to it.” Ruiz speaks for the first time. “Professor Sandoval is cooperating fully. Providing details of every encounter, every attempt he made to establish distance, every time Miss Vega contacted him first.”“He’s lying to save himself…”“Or he’s telling the truth and you’ve been lying to save yourself.” Morales sits again. “So here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to give us your version of events. Every detail. Every encounter. Every conversat

035: The Decision

~Elena’s POV~I drop the phone.Marina raises the gun higher. “Pick it up, slowly.”“You’ve been working with my father this whole time? The lawsuit, the surveillance, all of it.”“Your father approached me two years ago, after Mateo’s divorce. Antonio knew Mateo’s pattern, knew the Sandoval family’s weakness for covering up scandals.” Marina steps further into the apartment. “We just needed the right plaintiff. The right circumstances. The right amount of documented evidence.”“So you…waited for Mateo to fuck another student?”“We created the opportunity. I suggested Mateo apply for the Barcelona position. Your father enrolled you in his art class. I made sure you were desperate enough financially to accept questionable arrangements.” Her smile is cold. “You were so easy to manipulate Elena. One sabotaged grant application and you were willing to pose naked for cash.”“David sabotaged my grant…”“On your father’s instructions. Antonio paid David twenty thousand euros to tank your app

036: Impersonation

~Elena’s POV~Sofia bursts through the door. “I heard gunshots…” She stops, her eyes picks the scene. “What the fuck happened?”Behind her Mateo appears. “Elena, I followed you from the station. I needed to explain…” He sees Marina’s body. Goes white. “No. No, no, no…”“She tried to kill us,” I say before he can speak. “She was working with my father. Planning to steal your inheritance through a fake marriage between us.”“Marina?” Mateo is shaking his head. “That’s impossible. She has been my lawyer for years…”“She has been planning this for years.” I show him my father’s phone with all the messages. “She orchestrated everything Mateo. Your divorce, your move to Barcelona, us meeting. All of it.”He reads, face draining of color with each line.“And now she is dead,” Sofia says quietly. “So what happens now?”We all look at each other. Four people in a room with a body and a choice.“We call the police,” Mateo says. “Tell them the truth, well tell them it was self-defense. She threa

037: Settlement

“What the hell happened here?”Patricia stands, shows her ID. “Patricia Sandoval. Private investigator. I have evidence of conspiracy, attempted murder, and fraud involving Marina Castillo and Antonio Vega. The shooting was self-defense. I have it all on recording.”She holds up a small device. Still recording.“She filmed everything?” Sofia whispers to me.“Everything,” Patricia confirms. “From the moment Marina walked in until now. Including her confession to murdering Antonio.”The paramedics lift Mateo onto a stretcher. His vitals are crashing.“We’re losing him!” one shouts. “We need to move!”They rush him out. I try to follow.Morales stops me. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re all staying until we sort this out.”“My boyfriend is dying…”“And two people are dead. Until I understand what happened, nobody leaves.”I watch through the window as the ambulance pulls away. Lights flashing, Mateo inside. Possibly dying.“He will make it,” Sofia says. She doesn’t sound convinced.Pat

Chapter 38: The Ex-Wife

~Elena’s POV~I shove past the doctor into Mateo’s room.“You can’t be in here…” A nurse reaches for me.“I’m not leaving him.” I’m at his bedside, grabbing his hand. The one without an IV. “Mateo, don’t you dare. We didn’t survive all of this for you to die now.”The machines scream. Flatline.“Clear!” The doctor charges the defibrillator.Mateo’s body convulses. The line stays flat.“Again. Clear!”Another shock. Still nothing.I’m squeezing his hand so hard I might break bones. “Come back. Please. Come back to me.”“Miss Vega, you need to step out…”“No.”Third shock. The monitor blips. Once. Twice. A rhythm establishes.“We’ve got him.” The doctor’s voice is a cautious relief. “Sinus rhythm. Stabilizing.”The machines settle into steady beeping. Mateo’s chest rises and falls with the ventilator.“What happened?” I’m still holding his hand.“Internal bleeding we missed. Damaged blood vessel finally gave out.” The doctor checks his vitals. “We need to take him back to surgery. Now.

039:

~Elena’s POV~Patricia checks her phone. “The police want formal statements in the morning. From all of us. They’re charging Marina posthumously, apparently you can do that for conspiracy to commit murder. Your mother’s shooting will be ruled self-defense.”“And my father?”“His crimes died with him. Technically he was a victim of Marina’s conspiracy. The cameras he installed will be listed as coerced actions.” She pauses. “Your father’s reputation stays mostly intact. That was his final gift to you, taking the fall for Marina’s plan so you wouldn’t have to.”“He was still manipulating me. Even in death.”“Yes. But he was trying to protect you while doing it.” Patricia heads for the door. “I’ll be around if you need anything. Testifying. Evidence. Someone to explain all this to Mateo when he wakes up.”“If he wakes up.”“When.” Patricia echoes my earlier correction. “When he wakes up. Because men like Mateo Sandoval are too stubborn to die from something as mundane as a bullet wound.”

40: The Truth

I spend seventy-two hours at Mateo’s bedside while he stays comatose.Sofia brings me changes of clothes. My mother calls twice, says nothing useful both times. Isabella sends flowers with a card: *Fighting for him in every way I can.*The MIT offer ticks down. Forty-eight hours becomes twenty-four. Becomes twelve.“You need to decide,” Sofia says on the third morning. “The deadline is tonight.”“I can’t decide until he wakes up.”“What if he doesn’t wake up before midnight?”“Then I decide without him.”“And if he wakes up but doesn’t remember you?”I don’t answer because I don’t know.The doctor reduces his sedation at noon. Says he should wake within hours if he’s going to wake at all.I hold his hand and wait.At 3 PM, his fingers twitch.At 4 PM, his eyes flutter.At 4:37 PM, they open.“Mateo.” I’m leaning over him instantly. “Can you hear me?”His eyes track to my face. Confused. Searching.“Do you know who I am?” The question costs me everything.He blinks slowly. His mouth mo

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