CHAPTER 2: THE NANNY BROKE THE CAST OPEN… AND WHAT FELL OUT EXPOSED A SECRET THAT SHOULD HAVE STAYED BURIED
The sound came again.
Crack… scratch… crack…
It was coming from inside Diego's cast.
The lights were still out.
Rain pounded against the windows.
And ten-year-old Diego was screaming.
“Get them out! Please! They're inside my arm!”
Adrián's heart began pounding.
For the first time, doubt entered his mind.
What if his son wasn't lying?
What if something really was wrong?
Then another sound echoed.
A tiny scratching noise.
Something moving.
Inside the cast.
Claudia's face suddenly lost all color.
“It's probably just… the plaster breaking,” she said quickly.
But her voice shook.
Doña Meche noticed.
She had worked for wealthy families for decades and had learned one thing:
People only tremble when they are afraid of the truth.
“Nana…” Diego sobbed. “Please…”
The old woman could not bear it anymore.
She grabbed a lamp from the bedside table.
“Meche, what are you doing?” Adrián asked.
She didn't answer.
Instead, she raised the heavy metal base and smashed it against the cast.
CRACK!
Everyone froze.
“Have you lost your mind?” Claudia shouted.
CRACK!
Another hit.
A piece of plaster broke away.
Then came a horrible smell.
Rotten.
Sweet.
Like something dead.
Adrián covered his nose.
“What is that?”
Doña Meche hit the cast again.
CRACK!
A large section broke open.
Then something fell onto the bed.
An ant.
Then another.
And another.
Within seconds, dozens of red ants began crawling across the sheets.
Claudia gasped.
Diego screamed.
Adrián stepped backward in horror.
“What… what is this?”
Then the nanny reached inside the broken cast.
Her hand touched something hard.
Something made of plastic.
She pulled it out.
A syringe.
Half-filled with a yellow liquid.
The room fell silent.
“What is that doing in my son's cast?” Adrián whispered.
No one answered.
Then another object slipped from the opening.
A small cloth pouch.
It was stained dark brown.
The nanny opened it.
Inside was a gold necklace.
A necklace with a tiny emerald cross.
Adrián's knees nearly gave out.
“No…”
He recognized it immediately.
It belonged to Elena.
His dead wife.
The necklace that had disappeared three years earlier.
“How…?” he whispered.
Diego stared at it.
“That's Mom's necklace…”
The boy began crying.
Claudia suddenly turned toward the door.
Too quickly.
Too nervously.
Doña Meche saw it.
“Why are you leaving, señora?”
Claudia stopped.
“Nobody's leaving.”
But her hands were shaking.
Adrián looked at her.
“Do you know something about this?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why are you scared?”
She forced a smile.
“I'm not.”
At that moment lightning flashed through the room.
And for a split second, everyone saw it.
A small scratch on Claudia's hand.
Fresh.
As if she had recently been bitten.
By ants.
The nanny's eyes widened.
“You put that inside his cast.”
Claudia's head snapped toward her.
“That's absurd.”
“You did this.”
“Stop talking nonsense!”
Diego suddenly sat upright.
“You came into my room!”
Silence.
“You thought I was asleep… but I saw you.”
Claudia's breathing became uneven.
“You opened my cast and put something inside.”
“You're lying!”
“You said if I told Daddy, Nana would disappear!”
Adrián stared at his wife.
“What is he talking about?”
“He's confused!”
“Answer me!”
“He's hallucinating!”
Then the boy whispered the sentence that changed everything.
“And I saw you the night Mommy died.”
The room froze.
Claudia's face turned white.
“You… what?”
“You were in our house.”
Adrián looked at his son in disbelief.
“Diego…”
“I remember now.”
The boy's voice trembled.
“You argued with Mommy.”
“No…” Claudia whispered.
“You were wearing a red dress.”
“No…”
“You pushed her.”
“Stop!”
“You took her necklace!”
“STOP!”
Claudia screamed so loudly that everyone jumped.
Suddenly she ran.
Straight toward the front door.
“Claudia!” Adrián shouted.
But she was already running down the hallway.
Adrián chased her.
The storm outside had become violent.
Rain poured from the sky.
Claudia reached the staircase.
Then—
SLIP!
Her foot lost balance.
She tumbled down the marble stairs.
One step.
Two.
Three.
Her body crashed onto the floor below.
Silence.
Adrián rushed toward her.
“Claudia!”
She was alive.
Barely.
Blood trickled from her forehead.
Then she looked at him and began to cry.
Real tears.
Not fake ones.
“I didn't mean to hurt him…”
“What did you do?” he whispered.
She laughed weakly.
A terrible, broken laugh.
“He was never supposed to remember…”
Adrián's blood turned cold.
“What do you mean?”
She closed her eyes.
“The night Elena died…”
“No…”
“She found out about us.”
“No…”
“She wanted a divorce.”
Adrián felt his knees weaken.
“And then?”
Claudia looked at him.
“I pushed her.”
The world stopped.
“She hit her head.”
“You're lying…”
“She was still alive.”
“No…”
“I could have called an ambulance…”
Tears rolled down her face.
“But I didn't.”
Adrián staggered backward.
“You killed her?”
“She died because I left her there.”
Silence.
Then came another sentence.
One that destroyed him completely.
“And you helped me.”
He looked up slowly.
“What?”
“You erased the security footage.”
Adrián's face turned white.
Memories flooded back.
The broken vase.
The blood.
The fear.
The missing footage.
Things he had buried deep inside his mind.
Things he never wanted to remember.
He had known.
Somewhere deep inside…
he had always known.
Police sirens suddenly echoed outside.
One of the neighbors had called them.
Claudia looked at Diego upstairs.
Then she whispered:
“I put the syringe inside his cast because I needed him to look crazy.”
“What was in it?”
“A chemical that causes infection.”
Adrián nearly vomited.
“You poisoned my son?”
“He remembered too much.”
The front door burst open.
Police officers rushed inside.
And as they handcuffed Claudia, she smiled at Diego.
A terrifying smile.
“You should have forgotten that night.”
The boy buried his face in Doña Meche's arms.
For the first time in weeks…
the scratching inside his cast had stopped.
But the nightmare was only beginning.
Because the police had just discovered that Elena's death…
May you like
had never been an accident.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Chapter 3: The Police Reopen the Case… and Find a Hidden Letter Elena Wrote Hours Before She Died—A Letter That Names the Real Killer.
