Chapter 10 - THE CHILD WHO WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE FOUND
The ballroom became completely silent.
Everyone was looking at Noa.
The little girl who had walked into a room full of powerful adults and exposed a lie nobody else could see.
But now she was the center of a much bigger secret.
Inés immediately moved closer to her daughter.
“No.”
Her voice was firm.
“No one is going to say another word about my daughter until I understand what is happening.”
Mariana looked at her with sadness.
“I understand why you’re protecting her.”
“Then explain.”
Mariana took a deep breath.
“Six years ago, there was a mistake.”
Leandro stared.
“A mistake?”
“Yes.”
She looked at the old photograph in her hands.
“The night my baby disappeared, another newborn was moved from the same hospital.”
Everyone froze.
“Why?”
Mariana looked down.
“Because someone wanted to confuse the records.”
Inés held Noa’s hand tighter.
“You’re saying my daughter was involved?”
Mariana nodded slowly.
“I’m saying someone changed her identity.”
The words felt impossible.
Noa looked up at her mother.
“Mom… am I not your daughter?”
Inés immediately knelt down.
“You are my daughter. Nothing changes that.”
Tears filled Noa’s eyes.
“But why does that woman know about me?”
Inés had no answer.
And that scared her.
Because she had spent seven years believing she knew everything about her child.
Her birth.
Her past.
Her first day home.
Everything.
Then Mariana revealed something that shocked everyone.
“The hospital records were altered by someone inside the Montalbán family.”
Leandro’s face hardened.
“Who?”
Mariana looked at Bárbara.
Again.
Bárbara shook her head.
“No. I already told you. I didn’t do everything.”
That sentence caught Inés’s attention.
“Everything?”
Bárbara realized too late what she had said.
Leandro stepped forward.
“What do you mean by that?”
But before Bárbara could answer, the hotel security alarm suddenly sounded.
A guard rushed into the ballroom.
“Ms. Valcárcel…”
Inés turned.
“There’s a problem.”
“What problem?”
The guard looked nervous.
“Someone accessed the hospital archive files from the hotel system.”
Everyone stared.
“From here?”
The guard nodded.
“And they just deleted the original records.”
Inés felt a chill.
Someone wasn’t trying to hide the past anymore.
They were trying to erase it forever.
She looked around the ballroom.
The person responsible was still there.
May you like
And they were watching.
To be continued…
