CHAPTER 3 — "THE LETTER THEY WERE WILLING TO KILL FOR"
The black SUV remained parked across the narrow street.
Its engine idled quietly.
The two men stepped onto the cracked sidewalk without saying a word.
Neither looked like police.
Neither looked like businessmen.
They moved with the calm confidence of people who had carried out dangerous orders before.
Inside her apartment, Carmen stood frozen.
The sealed envelope trembled in her hands.
She had prayed for twenty-two years that Mateo would never need to read it.
Now...
The nightmare she had spent half her life outrunning had finally found her.
She hurried to the small bedroom where Mateo had grown up.
From beneath his mattress, she pulled out an old metal box.
Inside were only a few precious belongings.
His first pair of baby shoes.
A tiny knitted blanket.
A silver locket she had never allowed him to wear.
And a newspaper clipping dated twenty-three years earlier.
The headline read:
"YOUNG WOMAN FROM PROMINENT FAMILY DISAPPEARS WITHOUT A TRACE."
The accompanying photograph showed a smiling young woman.
Elegant.
Confident.
Wearing a sapphire-blue dress.
The same woman from the portrait.
The same woman everyone in the Garza mansion had called Catalina.
Carmen closed her eyes.
"I never wanted you to know this way," she whispered.
A loud knock shattered the silence.
Three heavy blows.
Then a calm male voice.
"Mrs. Hernández."
"We need to speak with you."
She didn't answer.
Another knock.
Harder this time.
"We know you're inside."
Panic swept through her.
She hurried to the kitchen window and carefully peeked through the curtain.
The two men from the SUV stood outside her door.
One of them was speaking into a hidden earpiece.
The other kept scanning the street.
They weren't visitors.
They were waiting for something.
Or someone.
Across the city, inside the Garza mansion, Mateo still couldn't take his eyes off Sebastián.
The older man's face had betrayed him.
For one brief second...
Fear had replaced confidence.
Mateo had noticed.
Alejandro had noticed.
Even the servants had noticed.
The billionaire slowly folded the old photograph and slipped it back into his wallet.
"Sebastián."
"My office."
"Now."
His son's jaw tightened.
"Father, this is ridiculous."
"I said now."
The authority in Alejandro's voice left no room for argument.
As the two men walked away, Alejandro turned toward the butler.
"Please make sure Mr. Mateo is comfortable."
"I'll only be a few minutes."
Mateo wanted to protest.
He wanted answers.
Instead, he watched father and son disappear behind a pair of massive oak doors.
The butler approached politely.
"Would you care for some coffee?"
Mateo shook his head.
"I'd rather know why everyone in this house looks terrified when they see my face."
The butler hesitated.
For several uncomfortable seconds, he seemed to debate whether to remain silent.
Finally, he sighed.
"I've worked for this family for thirty-one years."
"I've seen many things."
"But I've never seen Mr. Garza lose his composure."
"Until today."
Before Mateo could ask another question, the butler lowered his voice.
"Your mother..."
"She was once the happiest person in this house."
Mateo felt his heartbeat quicken.
"You knew her?"
The old man nodded slowly.
"I knew someone who looked exactly like the woman you described."
"But one day..."
"She simply vanished."
"No explanation."
"No farewell."
"After that..."
"No one was ever allowed to mention her name again."
Mateo stared at the portrait hanging above them.
"Why?"
The butler looked toward Alejandro's office to make sure no one was listening.
"Because someone wanted history erased."
Inside the office, the atmosphere had turned icy.
Alejandro closed the door behind them.
His voice remained calm.
Too calm.
"Tell me the truth."
Sebastián crossed his arms.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Alejandro stepped closer.
"When the delivery driver asked about the portrait..."
"You said, 'You promised this would never happen.'"
"Why?"
Silence.
"Answer me."
Sebastián looked away.
"It slipped out."
"No."
Alejandro's eyes narrowed.
"It sounded like you already knew someone would come."
Still no answer.
The billionaire opened a desk drawer.
Inside lay a thick folder tied with a faded blue ribbon.
Across the front were three handwritten words.
PROJECT CATALINA
Alejandro placed it on the desk.
"I haven't opened this file in twenty-two years."
"Because I believed the past was over."
He slowly untied the ribbon.
Inside were police reports.
Private investigation records.
Hospital documents.
Photographs.
Then...
An empty evidence bag.
The attached label read:
DNA SAMPLE — MISSING
Alejandro frowned.
"That's impossible."
He distinctly remembered placing the sample inside.
Someone had removed it.
Recently.
He looked up.
Only three people had access to this office.
Himself.
His late attorney.
And Sebastián.
For the first time in years...
Alejandro wondered whether his own son had been lying to him.
Meanwhile, Carmen quietly unlocked the back door of her apartment.
The front entrance was blocked.
The only escape led through the neighboring courtyards.
She placed the envelope, the newspaper clipping, and the silver locket into a small backpack.
As she stepped outside...
A familiar voice stopped her.
"Carmen?"
It was Doña Rosa.
Her elderly neighbor.
"You look frightened."
Carmen forced a smile.
"I'm fine."
But before she could continue...
The front door burst open.
The two suited men had forced their way inside.
"Carmen Hernández!"
One shouted.
"We know you're here!"
Doña Rosa gasped.
Without hesitation, Carmen grabbed the old woman's hands.
"If anything happens to me..."
"You must find my son."
"Give him this."
She pushed the sealed envelope into Rosa's trembling hands.
"No matter what."
"No matter who asks for it."
Tears filled the elderly woman's eyes.
"I promise."
Carmen nodded once...
Then ran through the maze of narrow alleyways behind the apartments.
The men spotted her seconds later.
"There!"
"Don't let her escape!"
Residents looked on in confusion as Carmen sprinted through the crowded streets, weaving between market stalls and morning shoppers.
She hadn't run like this in twenty-two years.
Not since the night she disappeared forever.
Back at the Garza mansion, Mateo wandered through the entrance hall while waiting for Alejandro to return.
Something on the portrait suddenly caught his attention.
A tiny gold pendant around the young woman's neck.
His eyes widened.
He reached inside his own shirt.
Hanging from a worn leather cord...
Was an identical pendant.
The exact same design.
The exact same engraving.
A tiny letter.
C.
He had worn it since childhood.
His mother had always insisted he never remove it.
He looked from the pendant...
To the painting...
Then back again.
His pulse raced.
"This can't be..."
A voice behind him answered quietly.
"Oh..."
"I'm afraid it can."
Mateo spun around.
Standing in the hallway was the mansion's elderly housekeeper.
Tears filled her eyes as she looked at the pendant.
She covered her mouth with trembling hands.
"I remember fastening that necklace..."
"...around a newborn baby's neck."
The words struck Mateo like lightning.
"What did you say?"
Before she could answer...
A deafening gunshot echoed from somewhere outside the mansion.
Then another.
The servants screamed.
Security guards reached for their weapons.
Alejandro burst from his office.
"What happened?"
A terrified guard ran through the front doors.
"Sir!"
"A woman matching Catalina's old photograph has just been attacked outside the south gate!"
Mateo's blood turned to ice.
His mother.
Without waiting for anyone...
He sprinted toward the entrance.
Behind him, Alejandro shouted,
"Mateo, wait!"
But it was already too late.
Outside the gates...
A figure lay motionless beside the road.
And next to her...
May you like
A single bloodstained envelope fluttered in the wind.
End of Chapter 3...
