Chapter 11 - The Woman Before Us
Valeria had worked as a housekeeper for Ricardo and Teresa.
She was twenty-six.
Her daughter was eleven months old.
Both disappeared in October four years earlier.
Ricardo told police Valeria had stolen money and fled.
No body was found.
No bank activity followed.
No confirmed sightings.
The case went cold.
“Why was this file hidden with the family footage?” I asked.
Lucía paused the video.
“Watch Teresa.”
Valeria stood near the fountain, crying.
Teresa held an envelope.
“She’s offering money,” Daniel said.
“Or demanding it,” Lucía replied.
The audio was damaged.
Only fragments remained.
“…tell him…”
“…not your child…”
“…Daniel can never…”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Play it again.”
Lucía did.
The final words were clearer.
“Daniel can never know.”
He stared at the screen.
“Know what?”
Lucía placed another photograph on the table.
It showed Valeria’s baby.
Dark hair.
Large brown eyes.
A small birthmark near the left ear.
Daniel touched the photograph.
He had the same birthmark.
So did Sofia.
“No,” he whispered.
Lucía said nothing.
Daniel pushed the photograph away.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“What are you thinking?”
“My father had an affair.”
Lucía nodded.
“We found financial transfers from Ricardo to Valeria.”
Daniel stood so quickly his chair fell.
“So the baby was my sister?”
“Possibly.”
“And they disappeared?”
“We don’t know what happened.”
Daniel paced toward the wall.
“My mother knew.”
“That appears likely.”
I thought of Teresa standing in Elena’s apartment with the altered medicine.
Not frightened.
Not confused.
Prepared.
“What if Sofia wasn’t the first child they hurt?” I asked.
Daniel stopped.
Lucía closed the file.
“We searched Ricardo’s properties.”
“And?”
“One property was never listed in his official financial records.”
She unfolded a map.
A ranch outside Tala.
“The ownership is hidden behind three companies.”
Daniel recognized the name of one company.
“Javier manages that account.”
Lucía’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
“When?”
She stood.
“We need to go.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“They found Javier’s car near the ranch.”
“Is he there?”
Lucía reached for her jacket.
“There’s blood on the driver’s seat.”
Daniel tried to follow.
She blocked him.
“You’re still injured.”
“He helped me.”
“You have a daughter who needs you alive.”
Daniel looked at Sofia sleeping in the next room.
His hands curled into fists.
Lucía left with two officers.
An hour later, Javier called Daniel from an unknown number.
His breathing sounded weak.
“I found the baby,” he whispered.
Daniel stood.
“Where are you?”
“She isn’t a baby anymore.”
“Javier, tell me where you are.”
A door creaked on the other end.
Javier stopped breathing.
Then Ricardo’s voice came through the phone.
May you like
“You should have left the past buried.”
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