CHAPTER 2 – THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
“You look exactly like your mother.”
The words echoed inside Claudia's head.
For a moment, she forgot the hospital, her injured mother-in-law, even her husband standing beside her.
“My mother died when I was eight,” she whispered.
The man in the dark suit smiled.
“No, she didn't.”
Claudia's knees nearly gave out.
“What are you talking about?”
Esteban Fuentes folded his hands calmly.
“Your mother disappeared. That's very different from dying.”
Rogelio suddenly stepped between them.
“Sir, this isn't the place.”
“Then where is the place?” Esteban asked coldly. “After twenty-five years of searching, I finally find her daughter, and you expect me to stay silent?”
Claudia looked from one man to the other.
“You know him?” she asked her husband.
Rogelio lowered his eyes.
Her heart sank.
“You knew?”
“I… found out recently.”
“You knew something about my mother and never told me?”
“Claudia, please…”
She took a step back.
It felt as if everyone around her had suddenly become a stranger.
Twenty-five years earlier, Claudia's mother, Elena Vargas, had vanished without explanation.
The police never found her.
No body.
No evidence.
Nothing.
Claudia had spent her childhood believing her mother abandoned her.
Every birthday, she would sit by the window hoping to see her return.
Every Christmas, she left an extra plate on the table.
By the age of fifteen, she stopped hoping.
By twenty, she stopped asking questions.
And now…
A stranger was telling her that her mother might still be alive.
“Tell me everything,” she demanded.
Esteban's expression darkened.
“Your mother worked for my company.”
“My mother was a nurse.”
“She was also a researcher.”
Claudia stared at him.
“No.”
“Yes.”
He reached into his briefcase and pulled out an old photograph.
Her hands trembled as she took it.
The picture showed five people standing in a laboratory.
One of them was unmistakably her mother.
Younger.
Smiling.
Wearing a white lab coat.
On the back of the photograph were four words:
Project Aurora – 2001.
Claudia felt dizzy.
“This can't be real…”
“It is.”
“What was Project Aurora?”
No one answered.
“Tell me!”
Esteban sighed.
“It was a skin-regeneration project.”
“Regeneration?”
“A formula capable of rebuilding damaged tissue.”
Claudia frowned.
“Like medicine for burns?”
“Much more than that.”
He lowered his voice.
“If perfected, it could make millions… perhaps billions.”
Suddenly, everything clicked.
The prototype.
The cream.
The secrecy.
Her husband's panic.
“That's what was inside the jar?”
Esteban nodded.
“But something went wrong.”
“What?”
“The formula became unstable.”
“How unstable?”
He looked toward the emergency room.
“Your mother-in-law is the answer.”
A chill crawled down Claudia's spine.
The doors of the emergency room suddenly opened.
A doctor came out looking pale.
“Family of Mrs. Irma Salazar?”
Rogelio stood up immediately.
“How is she?”
The doctor hesitated.
Then he said:
“She's alive… but we have a problem.”
“What happened?”
“The burns are spreading.”
Claudia frowned.
“What do you mean spreading?”
“The damaged skin isn't the only issue.”
The doctor swallowed.
“New tissue is forming underneath.”
Silence.
“What?” Rogelio whispered.
“We've never seen anything like it.”
The doctor handed them several photographs.
Claudia gasped.
The skin on Doña Irma's face was changing.
Some areas looked younger.
Others looked horribly distorted.
It was as if her face couldn't decide whether to heal or destroy itself.
“This isn't possible,” Rogelio murmured.
Esteban looked horrified.
“Dear God…”
The doctor frowned.
“You know something.”
No one answered.
“Sir, if you know what caused this woman to look like this, you need to tell us now.”
Esteban remained silent.
Then he spoke.
“Move her to a private room. I'll pay whatever it costs.”
“That's not the issue.”
“It is now.”
The doctor looked uncomfortable.
But before he could respond—
A scream tore through the hallway.
Everyone turned.
A nurse came running.
“Doctor! You need to come quickly!”
“What happened?”
The nurse looked terrified.
“The patient… she woke up.”
“So?”
“She keeps repeating the same name.”
“What name?”
The nurse looked directly at Claudia.
“Yours.”
A few minutes later, Claudia entered the room.
Doña Irma lay in bed covered in bandages.
Half of her face looked burned.
The other half looked twenty years younger.
It was horrifying.
The old woman slowly opened her eyes.
When she saw Claudia, she started shaking.
“You…”
“What?”
“You can't be here…”
“What are you talking about?”
Doña Irma grabbed her hand.
“You have to run.”
Claudia blinked.
“What?”
“You're in danger.”
The room fell silent.
Even Rogelio looked confused.
“You hate me,” Claudia said. “Why would you warn me?”
Tears rolled down the older woman's face.
“Because… this is all my fault.”
Nobody moved.
“My fault?” Claudia whispered.
Doña Irma nodded weakly.
“I should have told you years ago.”
“Told me what?”
The woman looked at Esteban.
Then at Rogelio.
Then back at Claudia.
And finally she said:
“I knew your mother.”
The world seemed to stop.
“What?”
“She didn't abandon you.”
Claudia's breathing became uneven.
“She was trying to save you.”
“Save me from what?”
Doña Irma burst into tears.
“From them.”
She pointed directly at Esteban.
The room exploded into silence.
“You're lying,” Esteban said sharply.
“No,” she cried. “I've kept this secret long enough.”
Claudia couldn't move.
Her entire life was falling apart.
“What secret?” she whispered.
Doña Irma looked straight into her eyes.
Then she spoke the words that changed everything.
“The night your mother disappeared…”
She took a trembling breath.
“…she left you with me.”
Claudia's heart stopped.
“What?”
“She begged me to protect you.”
“No…”
“She said one day they would come looking for you.”
“Stop…”
“She said you carried something inside you that they desperately wanted.”
The room became ice cold.
Claudia slowly shook her head.
“I don't understand…”
Doña Irma started crying harder.
“Because, Claudia…”
She squeezed her hand.
“…you were never supposed to be an ordinary child.”
Silence.
Then came the final words.
“The experiment wasn't created for the cream.”
She pointed at Claudia.
May you like
“It was created… for you.”
TO BE CONTINUED… 🔥🔥🔥
