Telenovela Guide: Rosalinda Episode 1, Part 2

To read the story of Rosalinda from the beginning, check out Episode 1, Part 1 of this compelling Latino Telenovela.

Decades before, a young woman is her late 20s by the name of Soledad Romero is in a parking lot with the wealthy Alfredo, a lawyer. Soledad is a beautiful woman of medium height, and brown-reddish hair. Alfredo is dark-haired man with a soft voice, and a thin frame, but quite elegant. Soledad and Alfredo go into Alfredo’s car. Another man Fernando de Altamirano (who we will learn later is Alfredo’s brother-in-law) watches from afar, and smirks. Neither Alfredo nor Soledad are aware the he is watching them.

Inside the car, Soledad worries to Alfredo that Valeria, Alfredo’s sister will never accept her as part of the family. She (Soledad) is after all Alfredo’s secretary. Her social status is much lower compared to that Alfredo. Alfredo expresses his desire to make their secret marriage known to everyone. They kiss passionately, but Alfredo looks a little ill-at-ease, and seems wary that someone will see them.

How long will they have to keep their marriage a secret, Soledad wonders. Soon, Alfredo promises, he will let it be known to everyone.

Meanwhile at the grand Altamirano mansion, Valeria Altermirano asks Berta the maid if her husband Fernando has called. Berta replies no. Valeria is a well-dressed woman, attired in a designer suit, with a sophisticated hair style. The Altamirano mansion is an elegant house, with lush furnishings. It’s obvious that it belongs to the affluent.

Soledad take the elevator to go upstairs to the hotel room where Soledad and Alfredo will be spending their secret honeymoon. Alfredo, meanwhile, goes to the hotel gift shop downstairs to buy Soledad a gift.

No sooner that Soledad has entered the room, then the phone rings; the caller doesn’t identify himself. He blows Soledad a kiss on the phone.

“You drive me crazy,” his sinister voice whispers.

Suddenly, upon hanging up the phone Soledad realizes that it’s him: Fernando de Altamirano, her secret husband’s brother-in-law! Despite being married to the wealthy Valeria, Fernando de Altamirano nourishes a perverted desire for Soledad.

When Alfredo comes back upstairs, Soledad tells him that she no longer wants to work as hi secretary for the good of both of them. Alfredo presents her with the ring he has purchased for her at the gift shop. She doesn’t tell him anything about the lewd phone call she received from Fernando. Clearly, she wants to maintain the peace between the two men. She realizes, no doubt, that to continue working in the law firm where both Alfredo and Fernando work, will subject her to continued danger. And to make Alfredo aware of Fernando’s harassment will probably result into a confrontation between the two men. And who knows how Valeria would react.

Little does she know then, that keeping her silence will lead to a great deal of trouble.

Alone in his office, Fernando de Altamirano vows that Soledad will not escape from him. Though he is a handsome, debonair man, Fernando de Altamirano is obviously not of good moral character.

Later, Valeria is on the phone with Fernando. She nags him, asking him when he will return from Vera Cruz. He says he will stay longer. In the next breath, she accuses him of spoiling their son Fernando-Jose beyond reason, whom she says, is more his son then hers. He rudely hangs up the phone on her.
Fernando asks the receptionist to send Soledad to his office. Upon entering Fernando’s office, Soledad is grabbed, and thrown on the couch. Fernando tries to kiss her forcefully, but she struggles against him. She slaps him twice, but he overpowers her. The receptionist can hear Soledad’s pleadings and cries from her office, but she (the receptionist) is unsure of what to do. Fernando drags Soledad out of the office and forces her into the elevator.

A few minutes later, Alfredo arrives in the office, and the receptionist tells him that Fernando has just taken Soledad into the elevator by force, and that he had been trying to kiss her, and who knows what else.

There is a wharf outside the Altamirano office, and Fernando takes Soledad on a speedboat, as she pleads with him to let her go. Alfredo finds another speedboat and uses it to follow Fernando. As Fernando’s speedboat drives away, Alfredo yells for him to stop. Minutes later, to Soledad’s chagrin, Alfredo’s suffers an accident, and falls into the water.

Fernando’s speedboat arrives at the landing, and he and Soledad descend the boat. Fernando forces Soledad on the sand, ready to take sexual advantage of her. The pervert! Soledad breaks free from him, but he soon runs after her, and catches her. As she struggles against him, there is a gun shot. Then another. Fernando’s body collapses in the sand. Soledad looks and sees that it is Alfredo, a pistol in hand, who has shot Fernando to defend her. Apparently, he had recovered from his fall in the water, and had subsequently his pursuit of the speedboat. Soledad and Fernando weep in each other’s arms. Alfredo says solemnly that his sister Valeria will never forgive him for having killed her husband. Soledad tells him that no one has to know that he killed Fernando. Soledad advises Alfredo to get away from the murder scene, before anyone sees them on the lone beach. She tells him that she will think of something. She takes the pistol that Alfredo had dropped in the sand. Alfredo, taking her advice, swims away to the other side of the beach, while Soledad thinks of what to do next. Soledad can hear Fernando’s breathing, but it’s barely audible. He’s seconds away from death. The police siren can be heard at this point.

Safely ashore, Alfredo is glad that he listened to Soledad’s advice. Upon arriving on the scene, the police find Soledad hovering over Fernando’s body, with a pistol in her hand. The police officers ask her what’s happened, but she does not answer, either because she is still in shock, or because she still hasn’t thought of a clever explanation. In any case, one of the police man conclude that she is the murderer. Soledad shakes her head in denial, but neither can she open her mouth to tell them what really happened.

Valeria, who is at her house, gets a phone call informing her that her husband has been shot and is in the hospital and in dire condition. She denies to the officer that his being shot had anything to do with a mistress. She tells them to keep Fernando alive, and that she’s on her way.

At the hospital, Fernando gives up his last breath. The doctors realize that there’s nothing more that they can do. Valeria precipitates into the room, but lamentably her husband has died. She weeps inconsolably, and leans her head on her dead husband’s chest.

At the police station, the police chief asks Soledad to declare all that she knows. Before Soledad can even open her mouth, Valeria calls her a killer. The officers restrain Valeria, who from the looks of it, looked as if she were going to physically attack Soledad. Soledad doesn’t say much. She has a dilemma before her; she didn’t kill Fernando Altamirano, but if she were to tell the police the truth about who did kill Fernando, she would be putting Alfredo the man she loves, in danger. And he (Alfredo) had killed only in defending her. And there was Alfredo’s reputation to think about. Alfredo is a wealthy man, from a wealthy family, and being known as a murderer wouldn’t exactly be good for his reputation.

Valeria screams at Soledad, accusing Soledad of having attempted to seduce her husband Fernando, and full of rage at having failed, resorted to shooting Fernando, her honorable husband. Clearly Valeria is delusional about her husband’s true personality. In her mind, he was an angel. One of the officers asks Soledad if Valeria’s claims are true, but Soledad remains silent. Seeing her innocent face, and noticing her shyness, the officer asks Soledad if she is protecting someone. She replies, “No.” Valeria screams that Soledad is not protecting anyone, and that she (Soledad) is the real culprit.

At the murder trial, the judge condemns Soledad to 25 years in prison. “No,” screams Soledad. But what did Soledad expect? She’s never opened her mouth to defend herself, leaving the law to decide her faith. She nobly chose to protect Alfredo. Needless to say, Valeria, present in the courtroom, smiles happily when the verdict of “guilty” is announced.

Alfredo eating breakfast the next day, reads a newspaper. He sees the headline and newspaper article announcing the verdict. He curses himself for having allowed Soledad to take the blame for him.

Valeria visits Fernando’s grave with her young son Fernando-Jose. She tells him that his father is forever gone. His face shows all the disappointment that he feels.

Alfredo visits Soledad in prison. He didn’t show his face at the murder trial, so I suppose that this is the least he could do. Alfredo asks her pointedly why she chose to take the blame for Fernando’s murder. She says that there was no other solution. She tells him that she has nothing to lose. He obviously has a lot to lose, of course. There’s his reputation (he is from a wealthy, well-known family). He tells Soledad that it pained him to remain silent, but that he feared his sister Valeria’s reaction, had she (Valeria) know that it was him who killed her husband. Soledad tells Alfredo that she’s resigned herself to being in prison; she tells him to go and never return; to forget about her, and to annul their secret marriage. Soledad asks him to comfort himself with the thought that she did something noble for their love.

Soon thereafter, Soledad finds out that she’s pregnant with Alfredo’s child. She’s stunned. She tells herself that she was willing to sacrifice herself, but not her child.

Meanwhile, at the Altamirano mansion, Valeria, starring at a portrait of Fernando de Altamirano, is full of hate for Soledad. She vows to hate Soledad for all times, not imagining that it’s her brother Alfredo, and not Soledad, who killed Fernando de Altamirano.

Months later, Soledad gives birth to a little girl, that even the doctors in the prison delivery room declare beautiful. Soledad ponders on the life that awaits her daughter, but tells herself that Alfredo is worth all her sacrifice.

One day, while feeding her baby, Soledad is visited by her friend Dolores. Dolores has just lost her infant son. Her husband was in another city, working when this occurred, so he does not yet know of the baby’s death. Soledad has an idea. Dolores can comfort herself with Soledad’s daughter. And for Soledad’s part, giving her daughter to Dolores would mean that the baby would not grow up in prison, but would be in the care of a caring, loving woman, who would provide a wonderful, nurturing home. Dolores says she does not like the idea of deceiving her husband Javier, but takes the baby girl from Soledad’s arms. When Dolores leaves, Soledad cries.

Twenty years later, Soledad’s daughter, whom Dolores has been calling her own over the years, has grown into a beautiful young woman, with breath-taking beauty. She sells flowers at the local market, and always has a white lily flower pinned to her hair. Her name is Rosalinda. In the meantime, Soledad wonders if she can ever forgive herself for giving up her daughter to another.

Rosalinda, who has come from the hospital, from seeing her “mother” tells a friend about the ill health of her mother. She tells her friend that Fiedra, her older sister, works in an upscale office, and does not have the time to tend to their mother. The old man who works at the market tells Rosalinda to continue working and stop socializing.

Now grown, Fernando-Jose, the son of Valeria and the deceased Fernando Altamirano, thanks his mother for always honoring the memory of his father. Fernando-Jose asks her if she still harbors hatred for the woman who murdered his father. Valeria answers that her hate for Soledad Romero will never die, and that his hate for her, should never die either. Valeria tells him that he must hate Soledad and everything that has to do with his father’s murderer. Everything!

One day, while Fernando-Jose is taking a drive in his flashy, red sports car, he notes that a young woman from across the street, stumbled and dropped a case of flowers. It’s Rosalinda. Fernando-Jose gets out of his car to help her. He is immediately struck by her beauty, and she by his kindness and handsomeness. Rosalinda smiles, showing her beautiful white teeth. She doesn’t know that she is the daughter of Soledad Romero. And he doesn’t know that she is the true daughter of the woman his mother Valeria has taught him to hate all his life.

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Rosalinda is a telenovela produced by Televisa, but the summary above is the property of TelenovelaGuide.com