Purificación Riquelme

**Purificación Riquelme Torres** is a major character in *The House of Flowers,* she is an spanish lawyer, sister of María José Riquelme, wife of protagonist Paulina de la Mora, she suffers from a psychosis that make her admire her sister to the point of literally wanting to be her, doing "the best" for her no matter the cost and even an insestual crush with her. She hates Paulina for hurting her sister and is willing to do anything to get rid of her.

She appears as a secondary antagonist in the second season and one of the two main antagonists of the third season, alongside Victoria Aguirre, she keeps this role for the first half of the season and then returns as the final antagonist of the series after Victoria's death.

She was portrayed by spanish actress María León who in real life is actually the sister of Paco León, the actor who portrays María José Riquelme.

## Second Season

On the second season, after the events of the first, Paulina and María José try to fix their relationship and return to Spain with their son, Bruno, living with María José's sister, Purificación, who deeply hates Paulina for hurting María José. One night Paulina wakes up in the middle of the night, thoughtful, she goes to the balcony and speaks with a neighbour on the other balcony, telling him that she is feeling homesick and wants to take revenge on Diego, ex-boyfriend of her brother Julian, who apparently stole millions from them, she's surprised by Purificación and goes back to sleep.

The next morning she gets a call from the family lawyer telling her someone contest her mother's will (who died between the first and second season), she tells María José and Bruno, but Purificación tries to convince them it's an excuse to take them back to México and take revenge on Diego, seeing that they're willing to go with her, Purificación burns her sister's and her nephew's passports, when Paulina doesn't find them, she blames Purificación and they argue, María José ends the fight by telling Paulina to go to Mexico, and they'll catch up after getting new passports.

Later in the series, they do catch up with Paulina, but seeing her so invested in the will's issue and her revenge on Diego, María José feels put aside and begins to reconsider her relationship with her, mainly after seeing the will's issue will take longer than expected, she decides to take a break and return to Spain, but Bruno refuses to go with her.

Back in Spain, Puri tries to convince her to stay forever, she even gives one of her cases to María José to make her feel better, but during the celebration Puri kisses her in the lips, María José is shocked but Puri excuses herself, claiming she was carried away with the excitement.

Meanwhile, Paulina has faked an alliance with Diego, who claims Virginia herself gave him the money after feeling humilliated by Julian's family, they re opened her father's cabaret but when trying to lift the business, Paulina hires escorts and builds rooms in the cabaret, turning it into a brothel, knowing this will bring trouble if police finds out, she makes Diego sign the contract, then she gives up Diego to the police but after seeing the evidence from Alejo (Virginia's lover during chemotherapy) that Diego wasn't lying, she feels guilty, mainly because him and Julian were starting to fix their relationship, so she confesses to the police and uses her last call to call María José and tell her she's sorry for everything, however, voicemail answers and it's Purificación who's listening to her, after she's done she throws the phone of the balcony.

## Third Season

Alejo (who started a relationship with Paulina, that she ended after finding out he was also with Virginia) contacts María José to ask for help, but Purificación offers herself to go instead of her, what María José doesn't know is that she dresses up as her and tells Alejo she is María José. once in Mexico, Paulina meets with "María José", after Puri reveals herself to Paulina, she tells her she'll do everything to not let her out of prision.

However after visiting a local lawyer's firm and presenting the case, they tell her that given that Paulina is a wealthy woman, she'll go out of jail easily, seeing her plans foiled, she lies to María José on the phone telling her that bureaucracy is delaying the process, meanwhile she tells the jail authorities to not let her speak to anyone from the exterior. The real María José keeps receiving notifications about the case on her new phone, puzzled, she decides to travel to Mexico once and for all to fix the case, she does and gets Paulina out of jail easily.

Feeling betrayed by Puri, it is revealed by María José that Purificación suffers from psychosis and hasn't been takin her madication, she locks María José in her hotel's room bathroom and again dresses up like her and leaves the hotel. Paulina finds María José locked and they go search for Puri, after deducing she'll go after Bruno, Puri, goes to the production coompany where Bruno's working, given that they're having a party, Bruno's drunk and mistakes the disguised Purificación for her mother, she tries to take him with her back to Spain but she's surprised by Paulina and María José who chase after her, the building's security tackle Purificación and she's later sedated and taken by her sister to a local mental hospital.

She remains locked for the second half of the season, until after some events, María José decides to remarry Paulina, she visits Purificación to inform her and Purificación fakes to feel joy about it, María José thanks her for her blessing and leaves, however the day of the wedding, Puri knocks down a nurse with a brick and steals her uniform, she sneaks outside the hospital and buys a gun, she goes to the wedding at Paulina's house and flower shop, waiting for the moment, after the wedding, Paulina is in the garden while Puri stalks her from the house, finally she shouts Paulina's name and points her gun at her, Paulina is to absorted in her own thoughts that she doesn't realizes that Purificación has been knocked downed by what is later revealed to be Virginia's ghost. It is unknwon what happened to her, but most likely she was locked in the mental institution again.