CHAPTER 8 – Victor's Final Confession
The prison visitation room smelled of concrete and bleach.
Victor Salazar entered wearing an orange prison uniform.
Gone were the expensive suits.
Gone was the confidence.
But the smile remained.
Emiliano sat across from him in silence.
"You asked to see me."
Victor nodded.
"I didn't kill Isabella."
Emiliano slammed both hands onto the table.
"Don't lie to me."
"I'm not."
Victor leaned forward.
"I covered it up."
The room fell silent.
"There was someone above me."
Emiliano stared without blinking.
"Who?"
Victor laughed bitterly.
"The one person you never investigated..."
"...because you trusted him more than anyone."
He slid a folded piece of paper across the table.
"The chairman of the Duarte Foundation."
Emiliano unfolded it slowly.
His blood ran cold.
One name.
Eduardo Duarte.
His own uncle.
The man who had raised him after his father died.
The man who had held Daniela at her baptism.
The man who cried at Isabella's funeral.
Victor whispered,
"Patricia worked for me."
"I worked for Eduardo."
"Everything—the stolen money, Patricia, the forged documents, the crash..."
"...started with him."
Before Emiliano could ask another question, alarms echoed through the prison.
Guards rushed inside.
Victor suddenly clutched his chest.
He collapsed onto the floor.
Doctors ran toward him.
But it was too late.
As paramedics fought to save him, Victor looked directly at Emiliano and whispered his final words.
"Protect... Rosa..."
"...she knows... everything."
Seconds later...
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Victor Salazar was dead.
And he had taken half the truth with him.
