Chapter 2 - THE SECRETS OF THE DEAD
Headline: "THE MEDICAL FILES REVEAL A CHILLING TRUTH—ISABELLA’S CANCER WASN'T AN ILLNESS, IT WAS A MURDER!"The armored truck raced through the narrow, winding mountain passes, the headlights cutting through a thick, ghostly fog. Inside the cabin, the silence was heavy, broken only by the ragged breathing of the two little girls huddled under a wool blanket in the backseat.
Alejandro pressed a wet rag to the bloody gash on his temple, his eyes locked on the road ahead. "Mateo... how did you know? Why were you there?"
Mateo kept his hands firmly on the steering wheel, his weathered face etched with deep lines of worry. "I never left the valley, Alejandro. After your wife died and you abandoned the hacienda, I stayed nearby. I promised Isabella I would watch over this place. But more importantly... I promised her I would watch for them."
Alejandro’s head snapped toward the old man. "Them? Who are they? And who was that woman in the cabin?"
Mateo let out a long, heavy sigh. "That woman was Elena. She was Isabella’s personal nurse during her final months. She was also Isabella's closest confidante."
Alejandro’s mind raced. He remembered Elena. She had been a quiet, devoted woman who suddenly vanished a week after Isabella’s funeral. At the time, Alejandro had been too consumed by grief to care.
"Why was Elena hiding in my family's old cabin?" Alejandro asked, his voice shaking. "And why did she have my photo? Why did she write that I deserved to know the truth?"
Mateo didn't answer immediately. He pulled the truck into a hidden, overgrown clearing deep in the woods, turning off the headlights. The forest swallowed them in darkness.
"Look in your pocket, Alejandro," Mateo said softly.
Alejandro reached into his coat. In the chaos, he had managed to keep hold of the laminated photograph and the plastic bag of medical records he had snatched from the cabin before the fire. He turned on the interior dome light of the truck.
He pulled out the medical records. They were yellowed, stained with water, but the letters were still legible. They were Isabella’s oncology reports from the hospital in Monterrey.
Alejandro’s eyes scanned the pages. He had seen these documents a thousand times during her treatment. But as he turned to the final pages, his heart skipped a beat. Attached to the back were chemical analysis sheets he had never seen before.
"What is this?" Alejandro whispered. "These are toxicology reports."
"Read the chemical name highlighted in yellow," Mateo said, his voice dropping to a grim whisper.
Alejandro squinted at the page. "Thallium sulfate."
He frowned. "I don't understand. Isabella died of aggressive stomach cancer. The doctors said it was genetic."
"No," Mateo said, turning to look Alejandro dead in the eye. "Isabella was poisoned, Alejandro. Over the course of six months, someone was slipping micro-doses of thallium into her food and medication. Thallium mimics the symptoms of rapid-onset gastrointestinal cancer and organ failure. By the time she realized what was happening, it was too late. The chemotherapy only masked the symptoms of the poison."
The words felt like physical blows. Alejandro couldn't breathe. The cab of the truck felt like it was spinning. Isabella... his sweet, beautiful Isabella... had been murdered.
"Who?" Alejandro choked out, his fists clenching so hard his knuckles turned white. "Who did this to her?!"
"Elena found out," Mateo explained. "She was the one who collected Isabella’s hair and blood samples in secret and sent them to an independent lab. But before Elena could tell you, she was threatened. Her own family was targeted. She had to flee. She took her daughters—Sofía and Lucía—and went into hiding in the deepest parts of these mountains."
Alejandro looked back at the two little girls. Sofía was staring at him, her eyes wide and wet with tears.
"Elena wasn't just hiding to protect herself," Alejandro said, a horrifying realization dawning on him. "She was protecting her children. But... who was hunting her? Who sent those men tonight?"
Mateo reached into his glove compartment and pulled out a heavy, brass key with a seal engraved on the handle. It was the crest of the Garza family—two lions flanking a silver shield.
"The men who came tonight work for a private security firm owned by Garza Industries," Mateo said solemnly.
Alejandro gasped. Garza Industries was his family's conglomerate. It was currently run by his uncle, Ernesto Garza, and his cousin, Hugo, while Alejandro took his leave of absence.
"No..." Alejandro whispered, shaking his head in denial. "My family? Why would my family want Isabella dead? Why would they hunt a nurse and two innocent children?"
"Because Isabella found out about the Blood Covenant," Mateo said, his voice trembling with fear. "And because those two little girls... they aren't Elena's biological children, Alejandro."
Alejandro stared at the old man, his heart hammering against his ribs. "What are you talking about? If they aren't Elena's... whose children are they?"
Mateo pointed to the laminated photograph of Alejandro and Isabella.
"Two years ago, before Isabella died, she underwent emergency IVF treatments in secret, hoping to leave you with a child before the cancer took her. The clinic told you the embryos were destroyed because they weren't viable due to her illness. But they lied."
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Mateo took a deep breath.
"The embryos were successfully implanted into a surrogate. A surrogate chosen by your uncle Ernesto. Sofía and Lucía... they are your daughters, Alejandro. Yours and Isabella's."
