Chapter 2 - The Sound of the Past
The room went dead silent. Even the ticking of the antique grandfather clock in the corner seemed to grow louder.
“What kind of childish game are you playing?” Raúl growled, shifting his weight in the armchair. “Turn that phone off right now and sit down. This is pathetic.”
“Is it, Dad?” Mariana asked, her finger hovering over the screen. “Because for thirty years, you’ve told me that Sergio’s outbursts were just ‘boys being boys,’ that his temper was just passion, that his violence was just misunderstanding. You built an entire system of excuses to protect him. But you never heard how he talks about you behind closed doors.”
She hit play.
The audio filled the living room, crisp and chillingly clear, amplified by the acoustics of the high-ceilinged house.
“Old man Raúl is getting soft,” Sergio’s recorded voice echoed, harsh and mocking. “If he tries to cut me out of the property deeds again, I’ll make sure he regrets it. He’s too blind to see I’m the only one keeping this family name alive while the women just breed and cry.”
Raúl’s face drained of color. He bolted upright in his chair, his hands gripping the armrests so tightly his knuckles turned white. “Where… where did you get that? That’s edited! That’s artificial intelligence!”
“It’s not AI, Dad,” Mariana said, her voice steady as a rock. “That’s from the cloud storage link Sergio forgot he left logged into my old tablet when he borrowed it last year. It contains four years of voice notes, text threads, and phone calls he thought he permanently deleted.”
Sergio sprang from the sofa, his face contorted in sudden, blind fury. “Give me that phone!” he roared, lunging forward across the coffee table.
Before he could reach her, an uncle intercepted him, grabbing Sergio’s arm with a shocked expression. “Wait a minute, Sergio! Let her play the rest! What did you mean about the property deeds?”
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“Don’t listen to her!” Sergio yelled, thrashing against his uncle’s grip, his veneer of cool arrogance completely shattered. “She’s lying! She’s trying to steal everything!”
Mariana pressed play again, and a second file began to download, flashing its title across the screen for everyone in the room to read.
