Chapter 4 - The Blackout

Valentina screamed once.

Marisol immediately pulled both girls down behind the sofa.

Diego shouted.

“Nobody moves!”

Emergency lights should have activated.

They did not.

The mansion remained completely dark.

Then came the sound of glass breaking.

A security guard yelled from the east corridor.

Someone ran.

Diego followed the footsteps.

He reached the side entrance just as a dark figure disappeared through the garden doors.

“Stop!”

The person kept running.

Diego chased him across the wet lawn.

A black SUV waited beyond the gate.

The stranger jumped inside.

The vehicle accelerated away.

Diego saw only the final digits of the license plate.

But when he returned to the foyer, the black metal case was gone.

Paulina was still there.

She smiled.

“Looking for something?”

Diego stared at her.

“You planned this.”

“You can’t prove that.”

Lucia suddenly spoke.

“He didn’t take everything.”

She reached beneath her dress.

From a hidden inner pocket, she pulled three folded pages.

Marisol stared.

“When did you take those?”

“Before the lights went out.”

Lucia handed them to Diego.

One was a bank transfer.

One was a hospital log.

The third was a handwritten note.

Diego recognized the signature immediately.

His father’s.

Remove the second child.

No record.

No scandal.

P.R. will handle the mother.

Diego read it twice.

Then he noticed another name beneath his father’s.

Paulina Serrano.

Paulina saw where he was looking.

“That proves nothing.”

“It proves you were there.”

“I was nineteen.”

“You helped him.”

“I obeyed him.”

“You kept obeying him after he died.”

Paulina’s calm finally cracked.

“You have no idea what that family was like!”

Diego stepped closer.

“I was part of it.”

“No.”

She laughed bitterly.

“You were the prince.”

“You never saw what happened underneath you.”

Lucia suddenly looked toward the garden.

Her face tightened.

“He’s coming back.”

Diego turned.

“Who?”

“The man from the car.”

“How do you know?”

“He found Elena.”

Diego crouched beside her.

“Lucia, where is Elena now?”

Lucia looked terrified.

“At the old convent outside San Miguel.”

“Is she safe?”

Lucia shook her head.

“She told me if I reached you, I had to make you go back for her.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Because she said someone in your house would try to stop you.”

Diego looked toward Paulina.

Lucia shook her head again.

“Not her.”

Everyone became still.

Diego stared at the child.

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Lucia pointed toward the security chief standing behind him.