Chapter 3 - Shadows Over Independencia
Before Elena could explain further, her phone vibrated violently in her pocket. It was an urgent call from the clinic in Independencia.
She answered, her hands trembling. "Hello?"
"Elena! Come quickly!" the doctor's panicked voice came through the speaker. "Two armed men in black suits just tried to break into your grandmother’s apartment! They cleared out her medical records and cut her oxygen line! We got her to the emergency room, but she’s in critical condition!"
Elena let out a stifled cry, dropping the brass keys onto the floor. Without another word to Rodrigo, she turned and sprinted down the long hallway, out the grand oak doors of the mansion, and into the pouring rain.
Rodrigo stood frozen in the quiet nursery, his heart hammering against his ribs. Armed men? Medical records?
He stepped over to where Elena had dropped her tote bag in her rush. Inside, a battered notebook had fallen open. On the page was a hand-drawn family tree, alongside old news clippings from eight years ago about a mysterious orphan trafficking ring operating out of Veracruz and coastal Mexico.
At the top of one clipping was a grainy photograph of a woman—a woman who looked uncannily like his late wife’s personal secretary, Valeria Ramos.
Rodrigo felt a surge of cold dread. For three years, he had believed his daughter’s death was a tragic accident. But why were men breaking into a poor maid’s home to steal medical files? Why did Valeria’s face appear in Elena's notes?
"Dammit!" Rodrigo shouted into the empty house.
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He whipped out his satellite phone and dialed his head of security, Mateo.
"Mateo! Get the armored Escalade ready now!" Rodrigo commanded, his voice thunderous. "Track Elena Salgado’s phone location! And pull every file we have on Valeria Ramos from three years ago. I want answers in five minutes!"
