CHAPTER 5: THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
The silence inside the warehouse was unbearable.
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Because the name Camila had just spoken was impossible.
“Your father.”
Alejandro stared at her.
His mind refused to accept the words.
“My father…”
His voice was barely a whisper.
“My father died fifteen years ago.”
Camila looked at him with tears in her eyes.
“I know what everyone believes.”
She looked toward Eugenia.
“But the truth is different.”
Eugenia’s face had lost all its arrogance.
For the first time in years...
she looked afraid.
“Camila, you don't know what you're saying.”
Camila laughed softly.
A painful laugh.
“I spent five months hiding from the people who wanted me dead.”
She lifted the envelope in her hand.
“I had plenty of time to learn the truth.”
Alejandro stepped closer.
“Tell me everything.”
Camila looked at him.
The pain in her eyes broke his heart.
“I tried to tell you.”
“You did.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“I tried harder than you know.”
Five months earlier...
The night Camila discovered the hidden accounts...
she thought Mauricio was the biggest problem.
She thought Eugenia was protecting him.
She thought the entire conspiracy was about money.
But then she found an old document.
A document hidden inside the company archives.
A document with a signature she recognized.
A signature that made her blood run cold.
Fernando De la Vega.
Alejandro’s father.
The man who supposedly died in a car accident.
The man whose portrait hung inside the family estate.
The man everyone described as a brilliant businessman.
The man Alejandro spent his childhood mourning.
Except...
he was not dead.
Camila discovered the accident had been staged.
Fernando had disappeared because he was being investigated for financial crimes.
Instead of facing prison...
he made a deal.
He disappeared.
And Eugenia helped him.
She changed records.
Created a fake death certificate.
Erased his existence.
But Fernando didn't leave the family.
He stayed hidden.
Watching.
Controlling.
Waiting.
Because he had a plan.
A plan that required one thing:
A perfect heir.
Alejandro.
“You knew?”
Alejandro turned toward Eugenia.
His voice was full of disbelief.
“You knew my father was alive?”
Eugenia remained silent.
That silence destroyed him more than any confession.
“You let me grow up thinking I lost him.”
“You let me visit his grave.”
“You let me cry for a man who was hiding.”
Eugenia finally spoke.
“I was protecting you.”
Alejandro laughed.
A broken laugh.
“Protecting me?”
“You stole my father from me.”
“You stole my wife.”
“You stole my son.”
His eyes filled with anger.
“You didn't protect me.”
“You controlled me.”
Suddenly, a voice came from the darkness.
A voice nobody expected.
A voice Alejandro had not heard in fifteen years.
“You always were emotional, Alejandro.”
Everyone froze.
Slowly...
a man stepped out from behind the warehouse door.
Older.
Thinner.
Gray hair.
But unmistakable.
Alejandro felt the world disappear.
“Dad…”
Fernando De la Vega smiled.
Not warmly.
Not lovingly.
Like a businessman seeing a successful negotiation.
“Hello, son.”
Alejandro couldn't move.
The man he had buried.
The man he had missed.
The man he had cried for...
was standing in front of him.
Alive.
“You're a monster.”
Those were the only words Alejandro could say.
Fernando looked disappointed.
“After everything I built for you?”
“You disappeared.”
“I sacrificed myself.”
“You abandoned your family.”
“I protected my family.”
Alejandro shook his head.
“No.”
He looked at Camila.
“You destroyed it.”
Fernando’s eyes moved toward Camila.
“You were always the problem.”
Camila stepped back.
“You tried to kill me.”
Fernando didn't deny it.
“That was never the plan.”
Alejandro’s blood froze.
“What does that mean?”
Fernando looked at him.
“The plan was for Camila to disappear.”
A pause.
“But she refused.”
“She wanted to expose everything.”
“So things became complicated.”
Alejandro stared in horror.
“You planned all of this?”
Fernando smiled.
“Not all.”
He looked at Eugenia.
“She made some decisions herself.”
Eugenia looked at him.
For the first time...
there was hatred between them.
“You promised me control.”
“And you got it.”
“I wanted my son to inherit everything.”
Fernando laughed.
“Your son?”
He pointed at Alejandro.
“You still don't understand.”
The room became silent.
Fernando continued:
“The company was never meant for Alejandro.”
Alejandro frowned.
“What?”
Fernando smiled.
“The real heir was never you.”
Everyone froze.
“The real heir…”
Fernando looked at the baby.
“Was him.”
The baby.
The entire conspiracy.
The fake death.
The lies.
Everything had been about one child.
Alejandro looked down at his son.
A child who had unknowingly become the center of a war.
Camila held the baby tighter.
“They wanted him.”
Alejandro looked at her.
“They wanted control over him.”
Camila nodded.
“Because whoever controls your son…”
“Controls the entire De la Vega empire.”
Then Fernando revealed one final secret.
A secret that made everyone silent.
“There's something Camila doesn't know.”
Everyone looked at him.
Fernando smiled.
“The baby is not just the heir.”
Alejandro felt a chill.
“What are you talking about?”
Fernando walked closer.
“He carries something.”
“A legal right.”
“A hidden inheritance.”
“A fortune your grandfather left behind.”
Alejandro stared.
“What fortune?”
Fernando looked at Eugenia.
Then at Mauricio.
Then finally at Alejandro.
“The fortune that your family killed people to obtain.”
Suddenly, police sirens echoed outside.
Everyone froze.
Fernando’s expression changed.
“What did you do?”
Alejandro looked at him.
“I stopped playing your game.”
Camila smiled through her tears.
“Before I came here…”
“I sent everything.”
The documents.
The recordings.
The evidence.
Everything.
The doors opened.
Police officers entered the warehouse.
Eugenia looked defeated.
Mauricio looked broken.
Fernando remained silent.
But before they took him away...
he turned toward Alejandro.
“You think this is over?”
Alejandro stared.
Fernando smiled.
“You still don't know the biggest secret.”
Alejandro frowned.
“What secret?”
Fernando leaned closer.
And whispered:
“Camila wasn’t the only person in that hospital who survived.”
Alejandro froze.
Because if Fernando was telling the truth...
then someone else had been hidden all this time.
Someone connected to that night.
Someone who knew the entire story.
And as the police dragged Fernando away...
Alejandro looked at Camila.
Her face had turned pale.
May you like
Because she knew exactly who he was talking about.
TO BE CONTINUED...
