Chapter 3 - THE SNARE OF THE GARZA CLAN
Headline: "HIS DAUGHTERS WERE ALIVE—BUT THE FAMILY WHO STOLE THEM HAD A SICK, BILLION-DOLLAR PLAN FOR THEIR LIVES!"The revelation shattered Alejandro’s world into a million jagged pieces.
He slowly turned his head to look at the backseat. The two little girls—the barefoot, starving children he had found hiding in his abandoned pantry—were his daughters.
Sofía. Lucía.
They had Isabella’s nose. They had her deep, expressive dark eyes. He had been looking at his own flesh and blood, his late wife's final gift to him, and he hadn't even known it.
"My... my daughters?" Alejandro’s voice cracked, tears finally spilling over his eyelids. "They told me the embryos were gone. They told me we had nothing left."
"Ernesto paid off the clinic," Mateo explained, his grip on the steering wheel tightening. "He needed heirs. But not just any heirs. He needed children who carried the Garza bloodline, but who could be completely controlled. Under the terms of your grandfather’s massive, multi-billion-dollar trust, if you die without direct descendants, the entire Garza empire—the steel mills, the shipping ports, the land—reverts completely to Ernesto and his branch of the family."
"But if I have children..." Alejandro reasoned, his mind clicking into gear.
"If you have children, the trust is locked. Ernesto gets nothing. He wanted these girls born in secret. His plan was to keep them hidden until you... well, until you met an 'untimely end.' Once you were gone, Ernesto would 'discover' your long-lost daughters, claim guardianship over them, and control the multi-billion-dollar estate through them forever."
"But Elena stole them," Alejandro realized.
"Yes. Elena was a good woman. She realized what Ernesto was planning. She knew that once the girls were born, Ernesto would have no use for you, and eventually, no use for her. She kidnapped the babies from the private clinic and fled into the Valle de Bravo mountains. For two years, she lived in squalor, moving from cabin to cabin, starving herself to feed them, all to keep them out of Ernesto's clutches."
A soft whimper came from the backseat.
Alejandro unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed into the back of the truck. He knelt before the two little girls. Sofía looked at him with a mixture of fear and hope.
"Sofía," Alejandro said, his voice thick with emotion. He reached out, his hand trembling, and gently touched her dirty, tear-stained cheek. "I... I am your papa."
The little girl’s eyes welled with tears. "Our mommy... mommy Elena... she told us that Papa was a prince who lived in a big castle. She said one day, you would come and save us from the bad men."
Alejandro pulled both girls into his chest, burying his face in their tangled hair. He wept openly, holding them so tightly he feared he might break them. "I’m here. I’m so sorry I took so long. I’m never letting you go. Never."
"Alejandro," Mateo interrupted, his voice tight with panic. "We have a problem."
Alejandro looked up. Mateo was pointing at the dashboard GPS screen. A red light was blinking.
"They’re tracking us," Mateo said. "This truck... it’s armored, but it has a built-in GPS tracker linked to the Garza estate network. Hugo must have activated it."
Suddenly, the night sky was illuminated by a powerful spotlight from above. The rhythmic, deafening chop-chop-chop of a helicopter echoed through the mountain valley.
"They found us!" Mateo yelled, slamming the truck into gear.
The helicopter swept over the clearing, its searchlight locking onto the armored truck. From the road behind them, the headlights of four more black SUVs appeared, tearing through the forest like wolves chasing their prey.
"Where do we go?" Alejandro shouted, holding his daughters close as the truck jolted forward.
"The old silver mine!" Mateo yelled, steering the truck up a steep, treacherous dirt path. "It’s the only place they can't follow us with the helicopter. There are tunnels. We can hide there!"
As the truck sped up the mountain, a black SUV pulled alongside them. The window rolled down, and a man leaned out with a submachine gun.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Bullets rained down on the armored truck, sparking off the steel plating. Mateo swerved, trying to ram the SUV off the cliffside, but the road was too narrow.
"Hold on!" Mateo screamed.
Up ahead, the yawning black mouth of the abandoned silver mine loomed. But standing directly in front of the entrance was a figure.
It was Hugo Garza, Alejandro’s cousin. He stood in the middle of the road, holding a remote detonator in his hand.
"Mateo, stop!" Alejandro yelled.
But it was too late. Hugo pressed the button.
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A massive explosion ripped through the entrance of the silver mine, sending tons of rock and debris crashing down. The shockwave lifted the armored truck off its tires, flipping it sideways.
The truck crashed violently onto its side, sliding across the dirt before coming to a devastating halt at the very edge of the cliff.
