CHAPTER 5 — THE SECOND FOLDER EXPOSED A BETRAYAL NO ONE COULD ESCAPE
The smell of smoke still hung over the ruins of Arturo Salazar's home.
Firefighters moved silently through the blackened remains while investigators photographed every corner.
Detective Isabel Fuentes carefully lifted the second leather folder from beneath the loose floorboard.
Despite the fire...
It was completely dry.
Someone had hidden it inside a steel lockbox designed to survive flames.
Across the cover, Gabriel Salazar's handwriting remained perfectly clear.
"Open this only if they try to kill my daughter a second time."
No one spoke.
Even the firefighters stopped working for a moment.
They all understood one thing.
Gabriel had expected this day.
Less than an hour later...
The folder was opened inside the prosecutor's secure evidence room.
Only five people were present.
Detective Fuentes.
Attorney Ricardo Benavides.
Arturo Salazar.
Emiliano Cruz.
And Senior Prosecutor Laura Medina.
Arturo untied the faded leather cord with trembling hands.
Inside were dozens of documents, each numbered in Gabriel's handwriting.
The first page contained only one sentence.
"If Renata is reading this, then they have already tried to kill her."
Arturo closed his eyes.
"He knew."
"He knew they would never stop."
The next document was a notarized letter.
Gabriel described how, years earlier, he had discovered financial irregularities inside the construction company he co-owned with Octavio Vargas.
At first, he believed they were accounting errors.
Then he found forged invoices.
Fake supplier contracts.
Hidden offshore transfers.
Millions of dollars had quietly disappeared.
When Gabriel confronted Octavio...
His partner smiled.
And told him to forget what he had seen.
Gabriel refused.
Three weeks later...
His brakes failed while driving through the mountains outside León.
Everyone called it a tragic accident.
The police closed the case within forty-eight hours.
But Gabriel had inspected his own car the night before.
He had written one chilling line in the letter:
"If I die in an accident, it was never an accident."
The room fell silent.
Detective Fuentes looked toward Arturo.
"Did you know this?"
Arturo nodded slowly.
"I suspected."
"But I could never prove it."
Until now.
Meanwhile...
At León General Hospital...
Renata finally asked Emiliano the question she had feared most.
"Can I see my face?"
He hesitated.
The doctor had warned him this moment would be difficult.
Still...
He handed her a small mirror.
For several seconds...
She simply stared.
The swelling.
The stitches.
The purple bruises.
The bandages wrapping the left side of her face.
A scar stretching from her temple toward her cheek.
She touched it gently.
"So..."
"This is who I am now."
Emiliano carefully lowered the mirror.
"No."
"That's what someone did to you."
"It isn't who you are."
Tears rolled down Renata's face.
"I spent my whole life trying to earn my parents' love."
"And they destroyed me anyway."
He leaned forward.
"They never deserved you."
Back at the prosecutor's office...
Another envelope emerged from the folder.
This one contained bank records.
Not recent ones.
Transactions dating back twenty-seven years.
Prosecutor Medina examined them carefully.
Her expression darkened.
"These aren't ordinary transfers."
Every payment had gone to the same mysterious account.
Millions of dollars.
Year after year.
Always on the same date.
October 14.
The anniversary of Gabriel Salazar's death.
Attached to the statements was a handwritten note.
"Follow the money. It will lead you to the real mastermind."
Detective Fuentes frowned.
"We've been looking at Octavio."
"But someone else has been collecting the profits."
Before anyone could continue...
A forensic accountant entered the room carrying a laptop.
"I've identified the destination account."
Everyone looked up.
"Who owns it?"
He swallowed hard.
"Not a company."
"Not a trust."
"A private individual."
He rotated the screen.
The account holder's name appeared.
Patricia Vargas.
The room froze.
Arturo stared in disbelief.
"No..."
Benavides whispered,
"She wasn't protecting Octavio."
"She was using him."
At that exact moment...
Patricia sat alone inside her bedroom.
She opened a hidden compartment beneath an antique wardrobe.
Inside rested stacks of cash.
Gold coins.
Passports.
And a satellite phone.
It rang once.
She answered immediately.
A distorted male voice spoke.
"The hospital failed."
"I know."
"The police are getting closer."
She remained calm.
"Then we'll move to the final plan."
There was a brief silence.
The caller asked one question.
"What about Julieta?"
Patricia looked at an old family portrait resting on the shelf.
Her eyes showed no emotion.
"If necessary..."
"I'll sacrifice her too."
The next morning...
Detective Fuentes received an urgent call from the forensic laboratory.
"The blood found on the brick..."
"What about it?"
"It doesn't belong only to Renata."
Fuentes frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"There was another person's blood mixed with hers."
"Whose?"
The technician took a slow breath.
"We matched the DNA."
"It belongs to Octavio Vargas."
The detective was confused.
"How is that possible?"
The answer came seconds later.
"The impact wasn't one-sided."
"When Octavio struck Renata..."
"He cut his own hand on the broken edge of the brick."
Fuentes' eyes narrowed.
"So?"
The technician continued.
"Renata fought back."
"There are skin cells under her fingernails."
"She grabbed his wrist."
"And she left behind something even more important."
"What?"
"A partial fingerprint..."
"...pressed into wet blood."
Fuentes immediately understood.
"If Octavio claims it was an accident..."
"That fingerprint places his hand on the murder weapon."
That afternoon...
The prosecutor signed the arrest warrant.
Police vehicles quietly surrounded the Vargas residence.
News helicopters began circling overhead.
Neighbors stepped outside to watch.
Inside the house...
Octavio looked through the curtains.
His face turned ghostly white.
"They're here."
Julieta panicked.
"What do we do?"
Patricia calmly closed the curtains.
Then she opened a small safe hidden behind a painting.
Inside was one final envelope.
Unlike everything else...
It contained no money.
No jewelry.
Only a birth certificate.
She looked at it for several long seconds.
Then whispered words that made even Octavio freeze.
"They still believe Renata is the only child whose identity was hidden."
She slowly folded the document.
"They have no idea..."
"...that Julieta has been living under a stolen name since the day she was born."
Outside...
Police officers were already walking toward the front door.
And inside the envelope...
The surname printed beside Julieta's real birth record...
May you like
Was not Vargas.
It was Salazar.
