CHAPTER 4 — “Don’t Let Her Know You’ve Seen the Video”
Alejandro's grip tightened around the phone.
The hallway outside the pediatric intensive care unit suddenly felt colder than the hospital room itself.
On the other end of the line, Miguel Torres lowered his voice.
"Mr. Mendoza... are you alone?"
Alejandro glanced through the glass window. Inside, Valentina had finally fallen asleep in a chair beside Santiago's hospital bed, refusing to leave her baby brother's side even after nurses begged her to rest.
"Yes."
"What is this about?"
Miguel took a deep breath.
"I've worked in security for nineteen years."
"I've seen burglaries."
"I've seen kidnappings."
"I've seen armed robberies."
"But I've never seen what I watched on your security cameras today."
Alejandro's heartbeat became painfully loud.
"What did you see?"
Silence.
Then...
"I can't explain it over the phone."
"You need to watch it yourself."
Twenty minutes later...
Alejandro arrived at Sentinel Secure Systems.
The modern office building was almost empty.
Miguel personally met him at the entrance.
The technician looked pale.
His hands were shaking.
"I've debated for an hour whether I should show you this."
Alejandro's voice was cold.
"Where is it?"
Miguel led him into a secure monitoring room.
One large screen filled the wall.
The timestamp appeared.
2:14 PM
The backyard looked peaceful.
Alejandro frowned.
"I don't understand."
"Keep watching."
The video began.
Valentina appeared carrying Santiago.
Alejandro smiled for a brief second.
His daughter was gently rocking the baby despite looking exhausted.
Then...
Paulina entered the frame.
Without warning—
SLAP!
The sound echoed through the speakers.
Alejandro instinctively stepped backward.
His daughter collapsed onto the kitchen floor.
His breathing stopped.
"No..."
The video continued.
Paulina grabbed Valentina by the arm.
The little girl cried out in pain.
She tried to protect Santiago with her body.
Paulina didn't care.
She dragged both children across the blazing stone patio.
Alejandro covered his mouth.
His legs felt weak.
"This..."
"This can't be real..."
Miguel said nothing.
The footage answered for him.
The next scene was even worse.
Paulina unlocked the rusted kennel.
She threw Santiago inside first.
The baby hit the metal floor and burst into terrified screams.
Valentina immediately crawled over him, shielding his tiny body with her own.
Then Paulina shoved the little girl inside.
The camera captured everything.
Every second.
Every cry.
Every desperate plea.
"Please..."
"My brother is thirsty..."
"We'll be good..."
"We promise..."
Alejandro's knees gave out.
He collapsed into the chair.
His daughter had begged for mercy.
Paulina simply smiled.
Then...
She locked the padlock.
Alejandro stared at the screen in complete disbelief.
He watched Paulina lean close enough for the microphone to capture every word.
"If either of you dies..."
"...my life becomes much easier."
Alejandro stopped breathing.
The room spun around him.
His vision blurred.
For several long seconds...
There was no sound except the cries of two children trapped beneath the blazing Mexican sun.
Miguel quietly paused the video.
Neither man spoke.
Five minutes passed.
Alejandro never looked away from the frozen image.
Finally...
He whispered,
"I married her."
His voice cracked.
"I brought her into my children's lives."
Tears rolled down his face.
"And Valentina kept trying to tell me."
He remembered every moment.
Every time Valentina had hesitated before answering simple questions.
Every excuse she made for bruises.
Every time she insisted she wasn't hungry because she wanted Santiago to eat first.
Every single warning.
He had ignored them all.
Miguel carefully inserted another flash drive into the computer.
"I need to show you something else."
Another camera appeared.
Kitchen.
Living room.
Hallway.
Laundry room.
One clip after another.
Paulina screaming at Valentina.
Forcing the little girl to scrub floors late at night.
Throwing away her birthday presents.
Making her stand facing a wall for hours.
Ordering her to prepare bottles while she laughed with friends beside the swimming pool.
Alejandro couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"This..."
"How long has this been happening?"
Miguel swallowed.
"The archive keeps footage for ninety days."
"We found incidents almost every week."
Alejandro closed his eyes.
Ninety days.
Three months.
His daughter had been living in fear every single day.
Then Miguel opened one final recording.
"This one is from yesterday."
The kitchen appeared.
Valentina quietly prepared oatmeal for Santiago.
She accidentally spilled a spoonful onto the counter.
Paulina walked in.
Without saying a word...
She grabbed the bowl.
Dumped the hot oatmeal into the trash.
Then pointed toward the garbage can.
"If your brother wants breakfast..."
"...he can eat what's in there."
Valentina stared at the trash can.
She looked around to make sure Paulina had left.
Then...
With tears running down her face...
She picked the bowl out of the garbage.
She carefully cleaned the edge with a paper towel.
And fed Santiago anyway.
Alejandro broke.
He buried his face in his hands.
Great, uncontrollable sobs filled the room.
His eight-year-old daughter had been protecting his son from starvation...
While he was busy signing business contracts.
Miguel placed a hand on Alejandro's shoulder.
"I'm sorry."
Alejandro slowly wiped away his tears.
"No."
"I'm the one who should be sorry."
He looked back at the frozen image of Valentina feeding her baby brother.
"I failed them."
Just then...
Miguel's computer emitted another alert.
REMOTE LOGIN ATTEMPT DETECTED
Both men looked at the screen.
Someone was trying to access the Mendoza home's security system.
Someone with administrator privileges.
The username appeared.
PAULINA MENDOZA
Miguel's expression changed instantly.
"She's trying to delete the footage."
Alejandro's eyes turned ice cold.
"Can she?"
Miguel smiled for the first time.
"No."
"The original files are already encrypted on three independent cloud servers."
He looked directly at Alejandro.
"But now we know something."
"What?"
Miguel answered quietly.
"She knows she's in trouble."
At that exact moment...
Across town...
Paulina stared furiously at her laptop as an error message flashed across the screen.
ACCESS DENIED.
She slammed the keyboard shut.
Then slowly reached for another phone.
A phone Alejandro had never seen before.
She dialed a number from memory.
When the man answered...
She spoke only one sentence.
"The children are becoming a problem."
The deep voice on the other end replied without hesitation.
"Then maybe it's time to make sure they never speak again."
Paulina slowly smiled.
What Alejandro still didn't know...
Was that the woman he had married wasn't acting alone.
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And the nightmare threatening his children was far from over.
End of Chapter 4
