EMPIRE OF LIES

Synopsis

Beautiful and successful art curator, Elisa Cantú, could never imagined that her trip from her hometown New York to her native Mexico to celebrate her birthday as a family would end in a sudden tragedy, changing her life forever. Destiny leads her to meet Leonardo Velasco, a handsome, honest and brave police officer in love with Julia, a simple teacher to whom he proposed that same night upon learning that they were expecting their first child.

 

After the happy evening, Leonardo drops Julia off at her home and meets with his friends Mario and Adriana at the police station to announce the happy news, but they receive an emergency call reporting two dead in the Ajusco area where Jose Luis, Leonardo’s older brother and head of the prosecutor's office, also attends. Upon their arrival, Leonardo witnesses the devastating finding, the lifeless body of his fiancée lying next to Augusto Cantú, a millionaire businessman and Elisa's father. This event generates a great deal of uncertainty, since no one is able to determine the relationship between a preschool teacher and a millionaire businessman. However, the answers begin to come in the worst way for Elisa when Dario, an art dealer, shows up at her father's funeral and warns her at gunpoint that she must return what Augusto stole from the organization, several priceless archaeological pieces; otherwise her family will suffer the consequences.

 

Elisa starts a frantic race against time hoping to protect her family and discover what motivated her father to get involved with these criminals. Leonardo in his own research begins to follow Elisa, sensing that she is part of the answers he is looking for. Dario and his men kidnap Maria Jose, Elisa's younger sister, to pressure her to work for them, as well as to make sure she does not report them to the police. Knowing Dario is hunting her, Elisa has an unexpected public meeting with Leonardo, and in a desperate act aware that she is being watched, she reacts by kissing him to prevent them from assuming she has given them away. From this moment on, both are engaged in a fictitious relationship, which will serve Elisa to keep her sister alive and gain time to try to collect the missing pieces.

 

This way Elisa and Leonardo, two perfect strangers, become accomplices, learning to trust each other, since they have no other way out. Elisa is far from imagining that Eugenio Serrano, her father’s best friend whom Elisa and her two sisters have always seen as an uncle, has engineered all this. Eugenio is the leader of an art trafficking organization and manipulated Augusto to use Elisa's art gallery as a front for his illicit activities. During her captivity, María José experiences the Stockholm syndrome by falling in love with Dario, her kidnapper, this romance will persist even when Leonardo manages to rescue the young woman.

 

Renata is Elisa's older sister and is married to Marcelo. She suffers from a mental disorder that frustrates her longing for being a mother. Eugenio manages to charm Victoria, Elisa's mother, a woman always worried about appearances and the main guardian to save Renata from getting pregnant since she is sure it would be a tragedy. Fernanda, Elisa's best friend, in fact has always envied her for possessing everything she always wanted and is determined to take over the Cantu's fortune, together with Fabricio, Eugenio's recognized son. Out of this dangerous journey towards the truth, the greatest love story between Elisa and Leonardo will be born, who will fight to defend it despite all the opposition they face and after discovering the painful truth hidden between Julia and Augusto, which involves both families. Now, Elisa is facing the dilemma of either continuing to collaborate with the mobsters and save her family, or telling the whole truth to Leonardo, the advocate of the law, knowing that by doing so she risks losing the great love of her life forever, thus drowning in an Empire of Lies.

Format

Telenovela

92 x 60’

Melodrama

Photo Gallery - Click to enlarge

Characters

Elisa Cantú - More

Leonardo Velasco - More

Victoria De Cantú - More

Eugenio Serrano - More

Renata Cantú - More

Marcelo Arizmendi - More