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🚨 THE SECRET BEHIND THE LOCKED DOOR: HE PRETENDED TO BE ASLEEP TO TEST HER, BUT HER SECRET CHANGED EVERYTHING 🚨 / Chapter 7 / 8

Chapter 7 - The Final Betrayal

"Valeria, stop!" Rodrigo stood up, shielding Elena and Carmen behind his broad shoulders. "What do you want?"

"I wanted what was supposed to be mine!" Valeria shrieked, her thumb hovering over the red trigger. "Sofia was my best friend, but she had everything—you, the money, the power! When I altered the steering on her car, she was supposed to die with the baby! But the child survived the crash. I couldn't risk a DNA test exposing me, so I paid a smuggler to make the baby disappear forever!"

"You ruined my life for jealousy?" Rodrigo said, taking a slow, calculated step forward.

"I ruined your life because you never looked at me!" Valeria screamed. "And now, if I can't have this empire, neither can you. The lower parking garage is rigged with plastic explosives. One press of this button, and Cárdenas Tower comes crumbling down!"

Elena looked at Rodrigo. In his eyes, she no longer saw the cold, lifeless "architect of steel." She saw a father willing to burn the world to protect his child.

Communicating through a silent glance, Elena suddenly threw her tea cup onto the polished floor at Valeria’s feet.

The glass shattered loudly. Valeria instinctively looked down for a fraction of a second.

In that split second, Rodrigo lunged across the glass table like a strike of lightning. He grabbed Valeria’s wrist, twisting it upward.

CLICK!

The detonator flew out of her hand, skittering across the floor.

Mateo immediately tackled Valeria to the ground, pulling her arms behind her back and snapping heavy steel handcuffs onto her wrists.

"Get her out of my sight," Rodrigo growled, his breathing heavy as police sirens began to echo from the streets below. "Ensure she spends the rest of her miserable life in a federal prison."

As the guards dragged a screaming Valeria away, Rodrigo collapsed into his leather chair, trembling. The threat was over, but the air remained thick with anticipation.

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He looked up at Elena.

"Where is she?" Rodrigo asked, his eyes filled with desperate, hopeful tears. "Where is my daughter?"

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