CHAPTER 5 — THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
Alejandro couldn't breathe.
His entire body went numb as the photograph filled the monitor.
"No..."
He whispered the word so quietly that even he barely heard it.
"That's impossible."
The woman in the picture had the same warm brown eyes...
The same gentle smile...
The same tiny birthmark beneath her left ear.
Elena.
His wife.
The mother of Sofía.
The woman he had buried with his own hands seven years earlier.
His heart pounded violently as memories came rushing back.
He remembered the hospital.
The doctors telling him Elena's organs had suddenly failed.
The funeral held only two days later.
The sealed white coffin.
The medical staff insisting the body had deteriorated too badly for an open casket.
At the time, overwhelmed with grief and desperate to protect four-year-old Sofía from further trauma, Alejandro had accepted their explanation.
He never questioned it.
Until now.
On the screen, Valeria looked just as shocked.
"What is this?" she demanded.
"Why do you have Elena's picture?"
Esteban smiled calmly.
"Because none of you know the whole story."
The younger man frowned.
"You told us she died."
"I said everyone believes she died."
"Those are two very different things."
Silence filled the underground office.
Even Valeria appeared unsettled.
"You've been lying to me?"
Esteban ignored her question.
Instead, he placed another file on the table.
Across the front was a name Alejandro hadn't seen in years.
PROJECT PHOENIX
His pulse quickened.
Esteban slowly opened the file.
Inside were surveillance photographs dating back almost eight years.
Alejandro...
Elena...
Little Sofía...
Their family vacations.
Birthday parties.
School events.
Someone had been watching them long before Valeria ever entered their lives.
"What is Project Phoenix?" the younger man asked nervously.
Esteban folded his hands.
"It began when Garza Developments acquired land worth billions of pesos."
"The previous owners refused to sell."
"So they were... persuaded."
Valeria narrowed her eyes.
"What does that have to do with Elena?"
Esteban looked directly at her.
"Everything."
He pulled out another document.
Alejandro leaned closer to the monitor.
His blood ran cold.
It was a hospital report.
Not Elena's.
His own.
Dated nine years earlier.
Across the bottom, stamped in red ink, were the words:
GENETIC COMPATIBILITY REQUIRED.
Alejandro stared in confusion.
He had never seen the document before.
Esteban continued.
"Someone with enormous influence needed access to the Garza fortune."
"But inheritance laws made it difficult."
"So a long-term solution was created."
"The perfect family would be dismantled..."
"...from the inside."
Valeria crossed her arms.
"I don't understand."
"You don't need to."
"You were only Phase Two."
For the second time that day, Valeria's confidence began to crumble.
"What do you mean, Phase Two?"
Esteban smiled.
"You honestly believed meeting Alejandro at that charity gala was an accident?"
Valeria's face turned pale.
"It... wasn't?"
"No."
"You were selected."
"Your debts."
"Your ambition."
"Your obsession with wealth."
"Every weakness was studied."
Alejandro clenched his fists.
Every second of his marriage had been orchestrated.
Every romantic encounter.
Every coincidence.
Every vacation.
Every proposal.
None of it had been real.
The younger man stepped backward.
"So... who started all this?"
Esteban looked toward the far corner of the room.
"The person financing Project Phoenix has waited nearly a decade."
"They don't forgive."
"They don't forget."
"And they're finally ready to take everything."
At that exact moment...
A secure phone sitting on the conference table began to ring.
No one moved.
Esteban answered immediately.
"Yes."
He listened silently for several seconds.
Then nodded.
"Understood."
He ended the call.
Valeria frowned.
"Who was that?"
Esteban's expression became unusually serious.
"Our employer."
"What did they say?"
"They're coming here."
"When?"
Esteban looked at his watch.
"In less than twenty minutes."
The room fell completely silent.
Even Esteban appeared nervous for the first time.
Valeria forced a laugh.
"So we'll finally meet the person behind all this."
Esteban slowly shook his head.
"No."
"You won't."
"What does that mean?"
His answer sent a chill through everyone in the room.
"Our employer has one rule."
"No loose ends."
Valeria's smile vanished.
The younger man instinctively stepped toward the exit.
"You mean..."
Esteban nodded.
"If they discover you've become a liability..."
"They won't leave anyone alive."
Back in the security room, Alejandro immediately grabbed his phone.
This time he didn't hesitate.
He dialed the head of his private security team.
"Listen carefully," he said.
"Lock down every exit."
"Call the police."
"And whatever you do..."
"Don't let anyone leave the basement."
But before the guard could answer...
Every monitor inside the security room suddenly went black.
One by one.
The cameras had been disconnected remotely.
Someone else...
Was already inside the mansion.
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END OF CHAPTER 5
👉 Who is the mysterious mastermind behind Project Phoenix? Why was Elena's death faked? And who has just entered the mansion and shut down every security camera? The answers in Chapter 6 will change everything.
