SHE THOUGHT SHE WAS FIRED BECAUSE THE MILLIONAIRE STOPPED LOVING HER… BUT A DEAD WOMAN'S SECRET WAS ABOUT TO REVEAL WHY SOMEONE WANTED HER ERASED FOREVER CHAPTER 4 — THE LETTER HIS LATE WIFE NEVER WANTED DESTROYED
Laura couldn't stop thinking about Rosa's warning.
Someone had entered her room.
Someone had searched through her belongings.
But they hadn't stolen money.
They hadn't taken jewelry.
Because she owned almost nothing.
Whoever had broken in had been looking for one specific thing.
The question was...
What?
Unable to sleep, Laura pulled her old suitcase from beneath the narrow bed in her tiny apartment.
It was the same suitcase she had carried out of the Mendoza estate only four days earlier.
She began unpacking everything again.
Folded sweaters.
Children's drawings.
Old photographs.
Birthday cards from Sofía.
Nothing seemed unusual.
Then...
Her fingers touched something hard beneath the fabric lining.
She frowned.
"I've never noticed that..."
Carefully, she slipped a small knife beneath the stitching.
The lining opened.
Hidden inside the suitcase...
Was a flat brown envelope.
Laura froze.
"I didn't put this here."
Her heartbeat pounded in her ears.
Someone had hidden the envelope inside her suitcase...
Before she left the estate.
She slowly turned it over.
There was no name.
No address.
Only one symbol pressed into the paper with dark blue wax.
A butterfly.
Exactly the same butterfly painted on the greenhouse wall.
Her hands shook violently.
She broke the seal.
Inside...
There was only a single folded letter.
The handwriting was elegant.
Feminine.
The ink had faded slightly with age.
At the bottom...
One signature stole the air from Laura's lungs.
Isabel Mendoza.
Santiago's late wife.
Laura stared at the signature for nearly a full minute.
It couldn't be.
Isabel had died almost four years earlier.
Why would her letter be hidden inside Laura's suitcase?
With trembling fingers, Laura unfolded the first page.
The opening sentence made her knees buckle.
"If you are reading this, it means something has happened to me... and someone I no longer trust has probably found this letter too late."
Laura covered her mouth.
She continued reading.
"Santiago believes our greatest enemies are outside the company."
"He is wrong."
"The danger is already inside our home."
Laura's pulse raced.
She turned the page.
The next paragraph had been ripped away.
Half the paper was missing.
Someone had deliberately removed the center section.
Only the final lines remained.
"If anything happens to Laura..."
Laura stopped breathing.
Her own name.
Written years before she had ever met the Mendoza family.
"No..."
She whispered.
"That's impossible."
She read it again.
"...protect Laura before they discover who she really is."
The remaining sentence had been torn in half.
The rest was gone.
Across town...
Santiago sat alone inside Isabel's old study.
He had not entered the room in almost three years.
Everything remained untouched.
The books.
The photographs.
Her reading glasses.
Even the dried lavender she had left on the windowsill.
He slowly opened the final drawer of her antique desk.
Inside lay dozens of journals.
Medical records.
Family albums.
Business documents.
Near the back...
He found something unexpected.
A leather notebook labeled only with a date.
March 17.
The final month before Isabel died.
He opened it.
Most pages contained ordinary thoughts.
Appointments.
Family dinners.
Plans for Sofía's birthday.
Then...
One page had been folded twice.
As if Isabel had wanted it hidden.
His eyes scanned the words.
"Today I caught Mónica inside Santiago's office again."
His heart skipped.
"She claimed she was looking for an old photograph."
"She lied."
Santiago turned the page faster.
"I don't think Santiago sees what I see."
"Mónica doesn't love him."
"She wants something much older than his money."
Another page.
"If I'm right..."
"Everything began twenty-seven years ago."
He frowned.
Twenty-seven years?
That was long before he even met Mónica.
He continued reading.
Then suddenly...
Several pages had been ripped out.
Not naturally.
Carefully.
Deliberately.
Someone had removed them.
Only one final sentence remained on the torn edge.
"If Laura ever comes into our lives..."
The rest disappeared where the missing pages had once been.
Santiago slowly lowered the notebook.
His hands were trembling.
Laura.
Again.
How could Isabel have written Laura's name years before they met?
That evening...
Mónica received another encrypted message.
The letter survived.
Her face lost all color.
She immediately called an unknown number.
A man's voice answered.
"I told you to destroy everything."
"I thought I had."
"You were wrong."
A long silence followed.
Then the man spoke coldly.
"Find Laura."
"Before Santiago does."
"And if she has already read the letter..."
He paused.
"...make sure she never finishes it."
The call ended.
Mónica stood perfectly still.
For the first time in years...
She looked afraid.
Meanwhile...
Little Sofía wandered quietly into Laura's old bedroom at the mansion.
The room had already been cleaned.
Her favorite blanket was gone.
The shelves were empty.
But something caught her eye beneath the bed.
A tiny silver key.
She picked it up.
A small blue butterfly was engraved on one side.
The same butterfly from the greenhouse.
Children often remembered things adults ignored.
Sofía smiled.
"I found it."
She slipped the key into the pocket of her little dress.
No one saw her.
No one knew she had just picked up the only key capable of opening whatever Isabel had spent years trying to protect.
Across town...
Laura carefully examined the torn letter under the light.
Something shimmered faintly between the pages.
Hidden inside the fold...
Was an old photograph.
The edges were yellow with age.
She slowly pulled it free.
The picture showed a hospital room nearly thirty years earlier.
A young woman holding a newborn baby.
Beside her stood another woman...
Her face partially hidden.
But Laura recognized the pearl necklace immediately.
The exact same necklace Mónica still wore today.
On the back of the photograph, someone had written only six chilling words.
"Two babies. One impossible decision."
Laura's hands began to shake uncontrollably.
She had no idea...
That at the exact same moment...
Santiago was opening an old family safe.
Inside...
May you like
He found the other half of the same photograph.
End of Chapter 4…
