Chapter 1
“Mom, don't ask questions. Just run. Dad rigged the house to explode.”
Sofía was only seven years old. She was still wearing her elementary school uniform, and her face had turned so pale that Valeria dropped the mug of coffee she was holding. Alejandro had just kissed her goodbye, saying he needed to get to the Guadalajara airport to catch a flight to Mexico City.
“What are you talking about, sweetheart?”
“Let's go! Now!”
The little girl wasn't crying.
That was what terrified Valeria the most.
She grabbed her purse, seized Sofía by the wrist, and ran toward the front door. They never even made it to the sidewalk.
A deep metallic crack echoed from the kitchen.
The next instant, the windows exploded outward, and a wave of scorching heat hurled them against the wall. Smoke, shattered wood, and a deafening ringing filled Valeria's head as she lost her daughter's hand.
“Sofía!”
She crawled over broken glass until she heard coughing near the front porch.
The little girl was sitting beside a column with a deep cut on her leg.
Valeria scooped her into her arms and carried her across the street as flames burst through the kitchen.
Don Ernesto, the elderly neighbor, ran outside in nothing but his socks, shouting for them to move farther away in case the gas line exploded again.
Within minutes, the quiet neighborhood in Zapopan was flooded with firefighters, police officers, and ambulances.
As a paramedic wrapped Sofía's leg in bandages, the little girl clung tightly to her mother.
“You listened to me.”
“Of course I did. But... how did you know?”
Sofía stared at the burning house and began to tremble.
Captain Salgado from Civil Protection asked whether they had smelled gas or recently repaired the stove.
Valeria said no.
When she tried to get Sofía to explain, the little girl lowered her eyes.
“I don't want Daddy to get mad.”
Alejandro didn't call until nearly an hour later.
He said the police had informed him while he was on his way to the airport.
Yet before asking whether they were hurt, he paused for a long, unsettling moment.
“Sofía warned you?” he finally asked.
When he arrived at the hospital, he cried, hugged Valeria, and kept repeating how lucky they had been.
He looked like a devastated husband.
But every time he leaned over to kiss Sofía, she turned her face away.
The injuries weren't life-threatening, but doctors decided to keep Sofía overnight for observation because of the blow to her head.
Valeria suffered minor burns on one arm and needed stitches above one eyebrow.
While the doctor stitched her wound, she noticed Alejandro checking his phone over and over, deleting a notification, and slipping into the hallway to speak in hushed tones.
When he returned, he claimed he had only been updating his office.
That night, they stayed at the home of Valeria's younger sister, Mariana.
Alejandro spent hours talking with the insurance company, estimating damages, and listing the furniture that had been destroyed.
He seemed far more concerned about the insurance advance than about his daughter's nightmares.
Four days later, when they were finally alone, Sofía confessed what she had heard.
The previous Saturday, she had hidden beneath the basement stairs while playing.
Alejandro had been talking to someone on speakerphone.
“I heard him say, ‘Once I'm gone, nobody will be there. It'll look like an accident, and the insurance will pay.’”
Before Valeria could even process those words, Captain Salgado called.
“Ma'am... it wasn't an accident. Someone deliberately loosened the main gas connection.”
Valeria looked at her daughter.
May you like
In that instant, she realized her husband may never have intended to board that flight.
But she still had no idea...
