Chapter 4 - THE FOURTEEN MISSING MINUTES
Nicolás stared at the document.
“I never signed that.”
Leonor closed her eyes.
Valeria turned toward her.
“You knew about this.”
“It was part of a larger estate plan.”
“You knew.”
“I knew Adrián would manage the trust temporarily.”
“If Mateo died.”
Leonor’s mouth tightened.
“The clause was presented as a legal safeguard.”
Sofía looked at her.
“A safeguard for whom?”
Leonor ignored her.
Nicolás tore the monitor cable from the wall.
“Find Adrián.”
The security guards spread through the mansion.
Every gate was sealed.
Every vehicle was searched.
The underground garage was empty.
Adrián’s car remained where he had parked it.
Mauricio’s access card was found beside a service elevator.
Neither man was found.
Don Esteban pointed toward a stone corridor behind the wine cellar.
“There are old maintenance passages beneath the west wing.”
Nicolás looked at him.
“Why was I never told?”
“Your grandfather sealed them after the kidnapping attempt in 1998.”
“Were they sealed?”
Don Esteban’s expression darkened.
“I believed they were.”
Luca held Sofía’s hand.
“Is the baby safe?”
“For now.”
“Did the tall man want him dead?”
Sofía crouched beside him.
“We do not know everything yet.”
Luca looked at the succession document.
“He did not look scared when the baby cried.”
The simple observation cut deeper than any accusation.
Dr. Marín called from the medical wing.
Mateo’s breathing had stabilized.
The redness was beginning to fade.
Sofía wanted to return to him.
Before she left, Nicolás caught her arm.
“Do you believe Luca?”
“Yes.”
“You answered too quickly.”
“Children can misunderstand actions.”
Sofía looked toward the silver syringe cap.
“But they rarely invent small details adults do not expect them to notice.”
Nicolás released her.
“And my mother?”
“She is hiding something.”
“Did she try to kill him?”
“I do not know.”
“You always have an answer.”
“No.”
Sofía looked at him steadily.
“I simply refuse to replace missing facts with the answer that hurts most.”
Nicolás glanced toward Valeria.
“You think that is what I am doing?”
“I think someone wants you angry enough to stop thinking.”
In the medical wing, Mateo slept inside a plain hospital bassinet.
No silk.
No gold.
No perfume.
Valeria sat beside him wearing a cotton gown.
She had removed every trace of fragrance from her skin.
When Mateo woke, he looked at her.
His mouth trembled.
Valeria did not reach for him.
She waited.
Slowly, Mateo lifted one hand.
Valeria offered a finger.
He wrapped his hand around it.
She began crying without making a sound.
“He remembers me.”
“He never forgot you,” Sofía said.
A guard entered carrying a black folder.
“This was found in Adrián’s office.”
Nicolás opened it.
Photographs covered the first page.
Valeria leaving a hotel six months before Mateo’s birth.
Valeria sitting beside an unknown man.
Valeria embracing him outside a clinic.
Nicolás’s face changed.
Valeria stood.
“That man is my cousin.”
The guard handed Nicolás another paper.
It was a laboratory report.
The patient name was Mateo Velasco.
The document stated that Nicolás was not the child’s biological father.
Valeria snatched it from his hand.
“This is false.”
Nicolás looked at her.
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
“You went to a clinic with another man.”
“My cousin had cancer.”
“You never told me.”
“We were not together.”
“But you were carrying my child.”
“I was carrying Mateo.”
The distinction made Nicolás’s face colder.
Sofía took the DNA report.
The paper looked official.
The signatures appeared correct.
But the blood collection time was 3:14 in the morning.
“Who collected Mateo’s sample?”
Nicolás read the name.
“Dr. Rafael Montalvo.”
Dr. Montalvo had served the Velasco family for twenty-two years.
He had been the first specialist to declare Mateo healthy.
Sofía turned the report over.
A second sheet was attached.
It was an email from Adrián to Leonor.
The message contained only one sentence.
Once Nicolás believes the child is not his, he will sign everything.
Valeria looked at Leonor.
“You let them question my son’s blood.”
Leonor’s voice was almost inaudible.
“I wanted certainty.”
“You wanted him removed.”
“I wanted to protect this family.”
Valeria took a step toward her.
“My son is this family.”
A medical alarm sounded behind them.
Mateo’s oxygen level dropped.
Sofía spun toward the bassinet.
May you like
The baby’s intravenous line had turned cloudy.
Someone had injected a clear substance into it while every adult was arguing.
