CHAPTER 3 — THE CHILD THEY TRIED TO ERASE
Mariana didn't react.
Not when she read Lucía's message.
Not when Rodrigo smiled across the breakfast table.
Not when Teresa happily fed Bruno strawberries while Emiliano sat alone on the kitchen floor with a plastic bowl containing nothing but cold oatmeal.
She lowered her phone, took another sip of coffee, and smiled.
"Rodrigo," she said pleasantly, "I'd like to spend today with Emiliano."
Teresa's expression darkened immediately.
"That won't be necessary."
"The child becomes impossible when people spoil him."
Mariana tilted her head.
"I've been away for two years. Surely no one objects to a mother spending time with her son."
Paulina laughed.
"Just don't blame us when he starts screaming."
Rodrigo shrugged.
"If that's what you want."
He had no idea that Mariana already knew every word he had spoken the night before.
The moment Rodrigo left for the company and Teresa drove Paulina and Bruno to a private pediatric appointment, Mariana locked the front door.
Only she, Emiliano, and the housekeeper remained inside.
The elderly housekeeper, Rosa, quietly approached her.
For nearly twenty years, Rosa had worked for the Villarreal family.
She had watched Mariana grow up.
Today, tears filled her tired eyes.
"I've been waiting for you to come home."
Mariana gently took her hand.
"Tell me everything."
Rosa looked toward the security cameras mounted in the hallway.
"They're recording."
Mariana immediately understood.
She unplugged the home's internet router.
Every camera instantly went offline.
Only then did Rosa begin to cry.
"They wouldn't let me help him."
"What do you mean?"
"Every time I gave Emiliano real food, Doña Teresa threw it away."
Mariana felt her stomach tighten.
"I secretly brought him fruit."
"They caught me."
"They cut my salary."
"The second time..."
Rosa wiped away her tears.
"They threatened to accuse me of stealing jewelry."
Mariana wrapped her arms around the trembling woman.
"You stayed."
"I couldn't abandon him."
Rosa nodded toward Emiliano, who was sitting quietly in the corner, carefully arranging toy blocks into perfect straight lines.
"He stopped talking almost a year ago."
"He only spoke when nobody else was around."
Mariana slowly walked toward her son.
He looked up nervously.
She placed a small toy airplane in front of him.
"The one I brought yesterday."
"You never got to play with it."
For several seconds, Emiliano didn't move.
Then, with shaking fingers, he picked it up.
His eyes sparkled.
"My airplane?"
Mariana smiled through tears.
"Yes."
"It's yours."
He hugged the toy tightly against his chest.
No one had ever told him something belonged to him.
An hour later, Mariana gently helped him take a bath.
As the dirt washed away, she finally saw the full extent of the abuse.
Old bruises.
Fresh bruises.
Tiny burn marks on one shoulder.
A scar behind his ear.
Long scratches across his back.
She could barely breathe.
"Emi..."
"Who hurt you?"
The little boy froze.
He stared at the bathroom door as if expecting someone to burst inside.
Then he whispered,
"Grandma says accidents don't count."
Mariana closed her eyes.
"What kind of accidents?"
Emiliano slowly pointed to the scar behind his ear.
"She pushed me."
Another scar.
"Hot soup."
Another bruise.
"Belt."
Mariana nearly collapsed.
"Belt?"
He nodded.
"When Daddy gets angry."
Her knees gave out.
Rodrigo.
Not just Teresa.
Rodrigo had hurt his own son.
That afternoon, Lucía arrived disguised as a representative from an international insurance company.
Rodrigo had no reason to suspect anything.
Inside Mariana's private study, Lucía opened a laptop.
"I traced the payment."
She turned the screen around.
A wire transfer.
$480,000.
Recipient:
Carlos Méndez.
Position:
Senior Inspector.
National Child Protection Agency.
Mariana frowned.
"What does he do?"
Lucía answered quietly.
"He approves emergency placements for abused children."
Mariana's face turned pale.
"They paid the man responsible for protecting children..."
"...to take mine?"
Lucía nodded.
"And there's more."
She placed another folder on the desk.
Inside were photocopies of forged medical reports.
Diagnosis:
Severe developmental disorder.
Violent behavioral episodes.
Risk to other children.
Recommended:
Permanent institutional care.
Mariana slammed the folder shut.
"These are lies."
"They are."
"The signatures are fake."
"The examining doctor retired five years ago."
Someone had manufactured an entire medical history.
Someone powerful.
That evening, Mariana decided to search Rodrigo's home office.
She waited until everyone was asleep.
Using the fingerprint mold she had secretly made from a wine glass earlier that day, she unlocked his desk drawer.
Inside were company documents...
Bank statements...
Luxury watch receipts...
And one thin blue envelope marked:
PRIVATE.
She opened it carefully.
The first page made her blood freeze.
DNA TEST RESULTS
She stared at the names.
Father:
Daniel Herrera.
Mother:
Paulina Salazar.
Child:
Bruno Salazar.
Mariana blinked.
She read it again.
And again.
Daniel Herrera?
Not Rodrigo Villarreal.
Bruno wasn't Rodrigo's son.
He never had been.
Rodrigo had destroyed his own child...
Abandoned his own family...
Stolen millions from his wife's company...
All for a woman whose child wasn't even his.
Mariana barely had time to process the discovery before she heard footsteps outside the office.
Someone was coming.
She quickly returned everything to the drawer.
Locked it.
Slipped behind the curtains.
The office door slowly opened.
Rodrigo entered.
But he wasn't alone.
Paulina walked in behind him.
She wrapped her arms around his neck.
"We're almost there."
Rodrigo smiled confidently.
"One more week."
"Then Mariana signs the merger papers."
"And after that..."
Paulina kissed him.
"...she won't be a problem anymore."
Rodrigo looked directly toward the closed curtains where Mariana stood hidden, holding her breath.
Then he said six words that turned her growing suspicion into absolute terror.
May you like
"Accidents happen every single day."
END OF CHAPTER 3
