CHAPTER 4 — "THE BLOODSTAINED ENVELOPE REVEALED A NAME THE BILLIONAIRE HAD BURIED FOR 23 YEARS"
The mansion gates flew open.
Mateo ignored the terrified security guards shouting behind him.
All he could see was the woman lying on the pavement.
"Mom!"
His voice cracked as he dropped to his knees beside her.
For one horrifying second...
He thought he had lost her forever.
But when he gently turned her over, he froze.
It wasn't Carmen.
The woman looked about the same age and had similar dark hair, but she was someone else entirely.
A frightened street vendor rushed forward.
"She tried to help another woman!"
"Two men were chasing someone through the street."
"They pushed this lady into traffic before escaping."
Mateo's heart pounded.
"If this isn't my mother..."
"Then where is she?"
A security guard pointed toward the road.
"The attackers were following another woman."
"They lost her in the market."
Alejandro arrived seconds later, breathing heavily.
"Call an ambulance," he ordered.
Then his eyes fell upon the bloodstained envelope lying a few feet away.
He picked it up carefully.
Across the front, written in faded blue ink, were chilling words.
TO MATEO... IF THE GARZA FAMILY EVER FINDS YOU.
The billionaire's hands began to shake.
"Who gave you this?" Mateo demanded.
"I've never seen it before."
Alejandro slowly looked at him.
"I don't think this letter was meant to reach me..."
"It was meant to reach you."
Before either man could open it, the head of security stepped forward.
"Sir."
"This envelope may contain evidence."
"We should preserve it."
Alejandro nodded reluctantly.
"No one touches it without gloves."
The envelope was carefully sealed inside a transparent evidence bag.
Mateo felt as though the answers to his entire life were only inches away...
Yet still completely out of reach.
At that same moment...
Several miles away...
Carmen hid inside the abandoned storeroom of an old neighborhood church.
Her breathing was ragged.
She pressed one trembling hand against her side.
During the chase, she had fallen against a metal fence.
Blood slowly stained her blouse.
But the pain in her body meant nothing compared to the terror in her heart.
"They found him..."
she whispered.
"I was too late."
The church's elderly priest quietly entered the room.
He had known Carmen for years.
Without asking questions, he locked the door behind him.
"They're looking everywhere."
"I saw expensive black vehicles outside."
Carmen nodded.
"They're not after me."
"They're after my son."
The priest frowned.
"Then tell him the truth."
She closed her eyes.
"I wanted him to have a normal life."
"But perhaps..."
"That choice is no longer mine."
From inside her backpack, she removed another object.
Unlike the first envelope...
This one was much smaller.
Wrapped in faded blue cloth.
Inside rested an old silver key.
Engraved with the Garza family crest.
The priest stared at it.
"I've never seen that symbol before."
Carmen whispered,
"It opens the one place they never found."
Back at the Garza mansion...
Alejandro ordered every servant to leave the foyer.
Only Mateo remained.
The billionaire stood silently beneath the portrait of the young woman once known as Catalina.
"I owe you an explanation," he finally said.
Mateo folded his arms.
"I've been waiting my whole life."
Alejandro looked up at the portrait.
"Twenty-three years ago..."
"My younger sister Catalina disappeared."
"The police believed she had been kidnapped."
"My father believed she'd run away."
"My mother..."
"Never stopped waiting."
Mateo listened without interrupting.
Alejandro continued.
"She vanished six months before our wedding."
Mateo blinked.
"Wedding?"
Alejandro nodded slowly.
"I was going to marry her."
The words hit Mateo like a freight train.
"You mean..."
"My mother..."
Alejandro's voice broke.
"She was the love of my life."
Silence swallowed the room.
Mateo struggled to process what he'd just heard.
The billionaire wasn't talking about a distant cousin.
Or an old friend.
He claimed that Carmen...
Had once been the woman he intended to spend his life with.
"So why didn't you find her?"
Alejandro's expression darkened.
"I searched."
"For years."
"I hired investigators across the country."
"I even searched outside Mexico."
"Every lead ended the same way."
"Someone always reached the witnesses first."
Mateo frowned.
"You think someone hid her?"
Alejandro answered without hesitation.
"I know they did."
Meanwhile...
Inside Alejandro's private office...
Sebastián quietly unlocked his father's desk.
He knew exactly what he was looking for.
The Project Catalina file.
He removed several documents.
Then stopped.
One folder was missing.
His face changed instantly.
"No..."
He searched the drawers again.
Nothing.
Someone else had already taken it.
Just then...
A voice came from behind him.
"Looking for this?"
Sebastián slowly turned.
Standing in the doorway was Doña Emilia.
The elderly matriarch held the missing folder tightly against her chest.
Her eyes were no longer filled with fear.
Only determination.
"I stayed silent for twenty-three years."
"I won't stay silent another day."
Sebastián forced a smile.
"Grandmother..."
"You don't understand."
"Oh, I understand perfectly."
She slowly opened the folder.
Inside lay a yellowed birth certificate.
One name immediately caught Sebastián's attention.
Mother: Catalina de los Ángeles Garza
His breathing stopped.
Doña Emilia looked directly into his eyes.
"I know what your father never discovered."
"You were never trying to protect this family..."
"You were protecting yourself."
For the first time...
Sebastián's calm mask shattered.
"What did you just say?"
The old woman answered with quiet certainty.
"I know who paid to make Catalina disappear."
"And I know..."
"...who has been lying about that night for twenty-three years."
Before she could say another word...
The mansion suddenly went dark.
Every light went out.
Emergency alarms began screaming.
The backup generators failed.
Security monitors turned black.
Someone had cut all power to the estate.
In complete darkness...
A single gunshot echoed through the mansion.
Then another.
Then a woman's scream.
When the emergency lights finally flickered back on...
Doña Emilia was gone.
The folder had disappeared.
And on the polished marble floor...
Only her broken pearl necklace remained...
May you like
Covered in fresh blood.
End of Chapter 4...
