Chapter 2 - The Room Beneath the Library

Diego ran.

The west corridor was already filling with smoke.

Two security guards followed him toward the library.

Marisol stayed behind with the girls.

Paulina tried to follow Diego.

Marisol blocked her.

“You’re staying here.”

Paulina stared at her.

“You forget who you work for.”

Marisol’s voice shook.

“I stopped working for you nine years ago.”

Paulina’s face changed.

Valentina heard every word.

“Mom?”

Marisol looked at her daughter.

“We need to get outside.”

Lucia shook her head.

“No.”

Everyone turned toward her.

“The papers are downstairs.”

Marisol froze.

“How do you know that?”

“The woman who raised me told me.”

Lucia pointed toward the library.

“She said if I ever got inside this house, I had to find the room under the books.”

Paulina suddenly grabbed Lucia’s wrist.

“You lying little—”

Marisol slapped her hand away.

“Don’t touch her.”

Paulina stared at Marisol with pure hatred.

“You should have disappeared when you were told.”

The words landed like a gunshot.

Valentina looked up.

“Who told her to disappear?”

Paulina realized her mistake.

Too late.

Marisol pulled both girls behind her.

“You did.”

Paulina said nothing.

“You came to the hospital.”

Marisol’s voice grew steadier.

“You told me my baby had died.”

Diego appeared at the end of the corridor.

His shirt was streaked with soot.

He had heard enough.

Paulina turned.

“Diego—”

He walked toward her.

“My daughter died?”

Paulina’s lips parted.

“That isn’t what happened.”

“Then explain what happened.”

“The hospital made mistakes.”

“Did you tell Marisol her baby was dead?”

Paulina looked toward the guards.

Neither moved.

Diego stepped closer.

“Answer me.”

“Yes.”

Valentina squeezed Marisol’s hand.

Diego’s face became dangerously still.

“Why?”

Paulina lifted her chin.

“Because your father demanded it.”

That stopped him.

“My father?”

“He knew about Marisol.”

“He knew she was pregnant.”

“And he knew what would happen if you threw away your future for a maid.”

Marisol flinched.

Diego did not.

“You told me she left.”

“She did leave.”

“After you told her our child was dead.”

Paulina said nothing.

Lucia spoke quietly.

“There were two.”

Diego turned toward her.

Paulina closed her eyes.

Lucia continued.

“There were two babies.”

The silence became unbearable.

Marisol shook her head.

“No.”

Lucia looked at her.

“Yes.”

“No.”

Marisol backed away.

“I held one baby.”

“You held Valentina.”

“No.”

“The nurse switched the bracelets before they brought her to you.”

Marisol stared at Lucia.

“How could you know that?”

“Because she told me.”

“The nurse in the photograph?”

Lucia nodded.

“She raised me.”

Diego looked toward the smoking library.

“What’s her name?”

“Elena Cruz.”

Marisol nearly collapsed.

Diego caught her.

“You know her?”

“She was the nurse who told me my daughter had died.”

Lucia shook her head.

“She tried to save us.”

Paulina interrupted.

“She kidnapped you.”

Lucia looked at her.

“No.”

“You stole me first.”

Paulina’s face went blank.

Diego turned to his guards.

“Take Paulina’s phone.”

She stepped backward.

“You have no authority to—”

“This is my house.”

One guard removed the phone from her hand.

The second guard spoke into his radio.

“Fire department is four minutes out.”

Lucia pulled Diego’s sleeve.

“The room.”

He looked down.

“If those papers burn, you’ll never prove anything.”

Diego turned toward the library.

Smoke rolled from beneath the doors.

He grabbed a fire extinguisher.

Marisol caught his arm.

“You can’t go down there.”

He looked at Valentina.

Then Lucia.

“For nine years, somebody decided what I was allowed to know.”

He pulled free.

“Not anymore.”

Inside the library, flames crawled along one wall.

Diego knocked them down long enough to reach an old bookcase.

Lucia had said the room was under the books.

He searched the shelves.

Nothing.

Then he remembered the crest.

The same crown engraved on the golden button.

A bronze version of it decorated one shelf.

Diego pressed it.

A hidden latch clicked.

The bookcase moved.

Behind it was a narrow staircase descending underground.

Smoke poured upward.

Diego switched on his phone flashlight.

At the bottom stood a steel door.

It was open.

Inside, dozens of file boxes were burning.

But one black metal case sat beneath a desk.

Diego grabbed it.

A beam above him cracked.

He ran.

He reached the library seconds before part of the ceiling collapsed behind him.

Outside, firefighters rushed through the mansion.

Diego dropped the black case onto the marble.

Its surface was scorched.

But it was locked.

Paulina saw it.

For the first time that night, she looked genuinely terrified.

Diego noticed.

He held up the case.

“What’s inside this?”

Paulina whispered.

“Nothing that belongs to you.”

Diego stared at her.

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