CHAPTER 4 — The Recording Elena Never Wanted Anyone to Hear
The black SUV disappeared into the night.
Inside, Doña Rosario closed her eyes.
She had spent three years praying this day would never come.
Not because she feared for herself.
But because she knew that once Alejandro learned the truth...
There would be no turning back.
Some secrets destroyed lives.
Others destroyed entire families.
This one...
Would destroy an empire.
Back at the Garza mansion, Alejandro stood alone in his daughter's bedroom.
Moonlight poured through the curtains, illuminating the empty rocking horse in the corner.
He slowly sat on the edge of Sofía's tiny bed.
His hand brushed against a faded stuffed rabbit.
The toy still smelled faintly of lavender.
Elena's favorite scent.
For a brief moment...
The billionaire everyone feared became nothing more than a grieving father.
He buried his face in his hands.
"I failed you..."
The words escaped as a whisper.
No cameras.
No employees.
No business partners.
Only silence answered him.
A sudden knock interrupted the moment.
"Sir?"
Mauricio stood at the doorway.
"We've searched every storage room."
"The blue metal box isn't anywhere inside the estate."
Alejandro nodded without looking up.
"I expected that."
Mauricio hesitated.
"There is... something else."
He handed Alejandro an old inventory ledger.
"Our previous security chief made a note six months after the accident."
Alejandro opened it.
One handwritten sentence froze him.
'Requested replacement for damaged nursery surveillance hard drive. Original missing.'
His heartbeat quickened.
"There was a camera inside Sofía's hallway?"
Mauricio nodded.
"And one overlooking the garage."
"Why wasn't I told?"
"You were in the hospital after the accident."
"By the time you returned..."
"...the security company claimed the hard drive had been corrupted."
Alejandro slowly closed the ledger.
Corrupted.
Missing.
Convenient.
Far too convenient.
Meanwhile...
Citlali rushed into the small public hospital where her grandmother had been treated.
She barely noticed the exhausted nurses running through the crowded corridors.
The head nurse recognized her immediately.
"I'm so sorry."
"We truly believed the woman who signed the paperwork was family."
Citlali forced herself to stay calm.
"Did anyone copy her identification?"
The nurse nodded.
"We did."
Minutes later...
Citlali stared at the photocopy.
Her blood ran cold.
The identification card carried her own name.
Her own birth date.
Her own address.
Someone had created a perfect fake identity...
Using Citlali's personal information.
Whoever had taken Rosario wanted the hospital to believe Citlali herself had done it.
Someone was framing her.
Across the city...
Verónica entered an abandoned colonial estate hidden behind tall stone walls.
The mansion had once belonged to one of Mexico City's oldest political families.
Now it served another purpose.
No neighbors.
No security cameras.
No questions.
Two armed men opened the gates.
Rosario was wheeled inside.
Waiting in the library was an older gentleman dressed in an immaculate charcoal-gray suit.
Silver hair.
Perfect posture.
Cold blue eyes.
Rosario recognized him immediately.
After three years...
He looked exactly the same.
"Eduardo Castaño."
The man smiled politely.
"I hoped we'd never meet again."
Rosario glared at him.
"You murdered Elena."
Eduardo's smile vanished.
"I never touched her."
"You only ordered it."
Silence filled the room.
Then Eduardo calmly poured himself a glass of whiskey.
"I gave one instruction."
"The brakes were supposed to fail after they reached the resort."
"Not halfway down the mountain."
Rosario's face turned white.
"So you admit it."
Eduardo took a slow sip.
"I admit..."
"...that accidents are unpredictable."
Back at Garza Tower...
Alejandro's private investigator burst into his office carrying a sealed evidence envelope.
"We recovered financial records."
Alejandro opened the file.
Inside were copies of wire transfers.
One payment immediately stood out.
18 million pesos.
Transferred two days before Elena's death.
Sender:
Castaño Infrastructure Holdings.
Recipient:
Valle Mechanical Services.
Alejandro frowned.
"What is Valle Mechanical?"
The investigator answered quietly.
"A small garage near Valle de Bravo."
"They specialized in brake systems."
Alejandro's fingers tightened around the documents.
His investigators had examined the wreck years ago.
The official report blamed rain.
Poor visibility.
Driver error.
No one had ever mentioned brake failure.
No one.
At dawn...
Citlali finally returned home.
The unfinished concrete house felt emptier than ever.
Her grandmother's oxygen machine remained beside the bed.
Still humming softly.
On the kitchen table...
She noticed something strange.
A loaf of bread had been moved.
Rosario never touched it.
Curious, Citlali lifted the basket.
Underneath...
She found a sealed envelope with her name written in trembling handwriting.
"For Citlali. Only if I disappear."
Her hands shook as she opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
The picture showed Alejandro...
Elena...
Little Sofía...
And a smiling elderly woman standing beside them.
It wasn't a servant.
It wasn't a neighbor.
It was Rosario.
Standing in front of the Garza family mansion.
On the back of the photograph...
Rosario had written only one sentence.
"I wasn't just a witness... I was once part of their family."
Citlali stared at the words in disbelief.
Everything her grandmother had told her about their past...
Had been a lie.
Or at least...
Only half the truth.
Far across the city...
Alejandro received an anonymous text message from an untraceable number.
There was no greeting.
No explanation.
Only one chilling sentence.
"If you want your answers, stop looking for Rosario... and start asking why your wife secretly changed her will three days before she died."
Alejandro's world tilted.
Because he had never known Elena changed her will.
No lawyer...
No banker...
No one...
May you like
Had ever told him.
End of Chapter 4...
