CHAPTER 1 — The Two Children Who Should Never Have Crossed His Path
The scorching afternoon sun turned the highway outside Mexico City into a shimmering ribbon of heat. Waves of hot air danced above the cracked asphalt as luxury cars and overloaded trucks crawled through an endless traffic jam.
Inside a metallic black sports car worth more than most families would earn in a lifetime, Rodrigo Montes de Oca impatiently drummed his fingers against the leather steering wheel.
At twenty-eight, Rodrigo was the golden heir to the Montes de Oca empire—one of Mexico's oldest and wealthiest business dynasties. Every magazine admired his fortune, his tailored Italian suits, and his collection of exotic cars.
Few people admired the man himself.
Employees whispered that he treated everyone beneath him like furniture.
His fiancée often joked that Rodrigo loved his watch collection more than people.
He didn't deny it.
Feelings were expensive.
Compassion was weakness.
At least... that was what his father had taught him.
As traffic came to a complete stop, Rodrigo let out an irritated sigh.
"What now?"
His GPS estimated another forty-five minutes before the road reopened.
He cursed under his breath.
Then something unusual caught his eye.
Far ahead on the shoulder sat two children beneath the only dying tree for hundreds of yards.
The little girl hugged an old rag doll missing one button eye.
The older boy sat protectively beside her, shielding her from the blazing sun with his own body.
They didn't beg.
They didn't chase passing cars.
They simply waited.
Rodrigo almost looked away.
Almost.
But something about the strange calm in the boy's eyes made him stop.
Against every instinct telling him to ignore them, he stepped out.
The heat slammed into him immediately.
His polished leather shoes sank slightly into the dusty roadside.
He approached with obvious annoyance.
"You two lost?"
The boy stood.
His clothes were old but clean.
His voice was calm.
"No, sir."
"We're waiting for our mom."
Rodrigo looked around.
Nothing.
No bus stop.
No houses.
No restaurants.
Nothing except endless road.
"And where exactly is your mother?"
"She went back."
"To get our documents."
"She told us not to move."
"She promised she'd come back."
Rodrigo checked his expensive watch.
"How long ago?"
The boy hesitated.
"I don't know."
"Maybe..."
"Three hours."
The little girl smiled through dusty cheeks.
"Mom always keeps her promises."
Rodrigo unexpectedly felt something tighten inside his chest.
He hated that feeling.
"What are your names?"
"I'm Mateo."
"This is my sister Sofía."
She proudly held up her faded doll.
"Her name is Luna."
Rodrigo forced himself not to ask why the doll had been stitched together so many times.
Instead he noticed the tiny lunch container beside them.
Empty.
"When did you eat?"
Mateo avoided eye contact.
"Yesterday."
Rodrigo frowned.
"Yesterday?"
"We wanted to save the last coins."
"So Mom wouldn't worry."
The words landed harder than Rodrigo expected.
He remembered throwing away half a steak the night before because it wasn't cooked perfectly.
For the first time in years...
His appetite disappeared.
Without another word, he opened the passenger door.
"Get in."
Mateo hesitated.
"My mom said never get into a stranger's car."
Rodrigo almost laughed.
"Smart advice."
He pulled out a business card.
"If she asks..."
"Tell her Rodrigo Montes de Oca brought you."
The boy studied him for several seconds.
There was something strangely mature about his expression.
Finally...
He nodded.
The drive lasted barely fifteen minutes.
But for Rodrigo...
It felt like entering another country.
Luxury neighborhoods disappeared.
Towering glass buildings gave way to aging apartment blocks.
Street vendors sold tacos beneath faded umbrellas.
Children played soccer barefoot between cracked sidewalks.
Laundry hung from nearly every balcony.
Rodrigo had spent his entire life only twenty miles away...
Yet he had never truly seen this Mexico.
Mateo directed him toward a worn apartment building with peeling blue paint.
The moment Rodrigo saw flashing police lights...
His stomach tightened.
Yellow tape blocked the entrance.
Several neighbors stood silently outside.
Mateo jumped from the car.
"Mom!"
Before he could reach the building...
An elderly woman embraced him tightly.
"Oh, sweetheart..."
"I'm so sorry."
Mateo froze.
"Where's my mom?"
The woman struggled to answer.
"She fainted after the landlord forced all of you outside."
"They think it was exhaustion..."
"And her heart."
"They took her to General Hospital."
Little Sofía burst into tears.
Her tiny fingers squeezed Luna so tightly the doll's old fabric nearly ripped.
Rodrigo stared silently.
He didn't understand why this bothered him so much.
Normally...
He would have driven away the second police appeared.
Instead...
He surprised himself.
"I'll take you."
General Hospital was overflowing.
Patients lined the hallways.
Children cried.
Doctors rushed between emergencies.
Rodrigo had donated millions to private hospitals.
He had never entered a public one.
The smell of antiseptic mixed with sweat and fear lingered in every corridor.
Forty minutes later...
A nurse finally waved them forward.
Room 312.
The children rushed inside.
"Mom!"
The woman lying on the hospital bed slowly opened her eyes.
She looked barely thirty-two.
Her face was pale.
Dark circles framed exhausted eyes.
IV tubes ran into both arms.
For one beautiful second...
It seemed she recognized them.
Then...
Everything changed.
She screamed.
"No!"
"Don't come near me!"
Mateo froze.
"Mama?"
The woman stared directly at him.
Terrified.
"I don't know you!"
"I've never seen you before!"
Sofía's doll slipped from her trembling hands.
The room fell completely silent.
Even the heart monitor seemed louder.
A doctor hurried inside.
"I'm sorry."
"The trauma caused severe memory loss."
"She remembers almost nothing."
Rodrigo watched the children's faces collapse.
Mateo tried to smile.
"It's okay, Mom."
"I'm Mateo."
"You always braid Sofía's hair before school."
"You make pancakes every Sunday."
"You sing when you wash dishes."
Nothing.
Not even the slightest flicker of recognition.
Then...
As Carmen slowly lifted her shaking hand...
Her hospital bracelet slipped down her wrist.
Rodrigo's breathing stopped.
Just above her pulse...
Hidden beneath years of faded skin...
Was a small crescent-shaped scar.
Exactly the same scar...
In exactly the same place...
As the one his own late mother had carried her entire life.
A scar she once told him...
Only one other person in the world had.
Her younger sister.
The sister who had mysteriously disappeared twenty-six years earlier.
Rodrigo's face turned white.
Because according to every member of the Montes de Oca family...
That woman had died.
But if Carmen was truly his mother's missing sister...
Then the frightened woman lying in the hospital bed wasn't a stranger.
She was his aunt.
Which meant...
The two abandoned children staring helplessly at their own mother...
Were not strangers either.
They were his cousins.
And if they were alive...
Someone in Rodrigo's own family had spent decades hiding the truth.
Outside the room...
A sharply dressed man in a gray suit quietly lowered his phone.
He looked through the hospital window.
His cold eyes settled on Rodrigo.
Then he whispered into the receiver.
"He found them."
A long silence followed.
The voice on the other end answered only six chilling words.
May you like
"Then eliminate all three... tonight."
END OF CHAPTER 1
