Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN BEFORE RENATA
By sunset, the wedding guests were gone.
The flowers remained.
So did the abandoned chairs.
Alejandro stood alone beneath the arch where he should have married Renata.
The empty first-row chair still had Lucía’s pink bow.
He removed the gold card.
Reserved for Daddy’s Princess.
He folded it carefully and put it in his pocket.
Mateo approached.
“We found something.”
Alejandro turned.
“What?”
“Renata’s car was abandoned twenty kilometers away.”
“Where is she?”
“Gone.”
“Her parents?”
“Also gone.”
Alejandro clenched his jaw.
Mateo handed him a tablet.
“I asked someone at the office to search old public records.”
“For what?”
“Renata and Mariana.”
A photograph appeared.
Alejandro stared.
It had been taken nine years earlier at a charity event in Mexico City.
Mariana stood near the center.
Beside her was a younger Renata.
Alejandro felt his skin crawl.
“They knew each other.”
Mateo swiped.
Another photograph.
Then another.
Same social circle.
Same events.
Alejandro couldn’t understand it.
“Mariana never mentioned her.”
“Maybe she did.”
“What?”
Mateo looked uncomfortable.
“Do you remember Mariana’s friend who caused trouble before you got married?”
Alejandro thought.
There had been someone.
A woman Mariana stopped speaking to.
He remembered arguments.
Phone calls.
Mariana had once said the woman was obsessed with status.
But Alejandro had never met her.
“Mariana called her Reni.”
Mateo nodded.
Alejandro stared at the photograph.
“Renata.”
The name felt poisonous now.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then Renata spoke.
“You should have married me.”
Alejandro’s entire body went rigid.
“Where are you?”
“You embarrassed me in front of everyone.”
“You locked my daughter in a room.”
“She destroyed everything.”
“She is eight.”
“She always gets between us.”
Alejandro closed his eyes.
“Where is Mariana’s phone?”
Renata went silent.
That silence answered him.
“You have it.”
“You don’t understand what you found.”
“I haven’t found anything yet.”
“You will.”
“Did you know Mariana?”
Renata laughed softly.
“I knew her better than you did.”
Alejandro gripped the phone.
“Tell me where you are.”
“No.”
“Renata.”
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“Ask your perfect dead wife why she stole everything from me.”
The call ended.
Alejandro stared at the screen.
Mateo had heard enough.
“What did she mean?”
“I don’t know.”
A message arrived.
One photograph.
Mariana’s old phone.
Sitting on a table.
Beside it was a lighter.
Then another message.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT WHAT’S LEFT.
An address followed.
Mateo read it.
“You’re not going alone.”
“She expects me to.”
“Exactly.”
Alejandro looked toward the room where Lucía was sleeping beside Elena.
Then back at Mateo.
“I need that phone.”
“And she knows it.”
Alejandro put on his jacket.
Mateo grabbed his arm.
“This could be a trap.”
Alejandro looked at him.
“It probably is.”
“Then don’t walk into it.”
Alejandro’s expression hardened.
“My daughter was locked away because of whatever is on that phone.”
He pulled free.
“My wife died without ever telling me why she was afraid of Renata.”
“Alejandro—”
“And I almost married the woman who may know the answer.”
He walked toward the door.
The address led to an abandoned house outside Querétaro.
And when Alejandro arrived forty minutes later, the front door was already open.
May you like
Inside, Mariana’s phone was lying on the floor.
Still burning.
