CHAPTER 3 — "THE DNA REPORT WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING… THE GUNMEN WERE ALREADY INSIDE THE MANSION."
The red laser dot trembled over Rodrigo's chest.
For one frozen second, no one moved.
Then—
CRACK!
The floor-to-ceiling dining room window exploded inward.
Glass rained across the marble floor.
"DOWN!" Fernando shouted, tackling Rodrigo behind the massive oak dining table.
Three suppressed shots buried themselves into the wall where Rodrigo had been standing only a heartbeat earlier.
The mansion's security alarms erupted.
Outside, black-clad gunmen spread across the estate with military precision.
"They cut the power!" one guard yelled through his radio.
"Night vision! They're using night vision!"
Rodrigo looked at his father in disbelief.
"Who are they?"
Fernando reloaded a pistol from the hidden compartment.
"They're professionals."
"They're not here to rob us."
"They're here to erase our family."
Before Rodrigo could ask another question, another burst of gunfire shattered the chandelier above them.
Crystal crashed onto the dining table.
A longtime family servant, Esteban, crawled toward them.
"Sir!"
"The panic tunnel!"
Fernando nodded immediately.
"Move!"
The three men hurried through a concealed doorway behind the fireplace just as more bullets ripped through the room.
The hidden passage was narrow and cold, stretching beneath the mansion toward the old wine cellar.
Rodrigo's heart pounded.
Nothing about tonight made sense anymore.
A switched baby.
A forgotten aunt.
Armed assassins.
His entire life had transformed in less than twelve hours.
As they hurried through the tunnel, Rodrigo finally asked the question burning inside him.
"Tell me the truth."
Fernando remained silent.
Rodrigo grabbed his arm.
"NOW!"
Fernando stopped walking.
His face looked twenty years older than it had an hour earlier.
"You weren't supposed to know."
"My mother had a sister."
"Carmen."
"They were inseparable."
"But twenty-eight years ago..."
"Everything fell apart."
Rodrigo's breathing slowed.
"What happened?"
Fernando closed his eyes.
"The night you were born..."
"There was another baby born only minutes before you."
"Carmen's son."
Rodrigo frowned.
"A son?"
Fernando nodded.
"The hospital caught fire."
"The maternity ward was evacuated."
"There was chaos."
"When the smoke cleared..."
"The babies had been mixed up."
Rodrigo stared at him.
"But the DNA report says someone switched them."
Fernando looked away.
"It wasn't an accident."
Silence.
"It was deliberate."
Rodrigo felt the blood drain from his face.
"Who would do something like that?"
Fernando answered with only two words.
"My father."
Rodrigo froze.
"My grandfather?"
Fernando nodded slowly.
"Your grandfather believed only one child deserved to inherit the Montes de Oca empire."
"So he bribed people inside the hospital."
"The records disappeared."
"The nurses disappeared."
"Anyone who knew the truth... disappeared."
Rodrigo couldn't breathe.
"My grandfather... stole a baby?"
Fernando looked directly into his son's eyes.
"He stole an entire future."
At that very moment...
Across town...
General Hospital.
The children's room had finally grown quiet.
Mateo had fallen asleep sitting upright beside his mother's bed.
Little Sofía still clutched Luna against her chest.
A young nurse quietly entered carrying fresh blankets.
She smiled kindly.
"You two must be exhausted."
Neither child noticed the man wearing a maintenance uniform step silently into the hallway.
He wasn't carrying tools.
Inside his cart...
Was a suppressed pistol.
And a forged hospital ID.
He checked the room number.
His target.
He pushed the cart toward the door.
Back inside the secret tunnel, Rodrigo's phone suddenly vibrated.
Unknown Number.
He almost ignored it.
Then answered.
A distorted voice whispered calmly.
"You should have left those children on the roadside."
Rodrigo stopped walking.
"...Who is this?"
"You've already doomed them."
Click.
The line went dead.
At exactly that moment...
Every emergency light inside the tunnel went black.
Complete darkness.
Someone else...
Was already inside.
Rodrigo heard breathing only a few feet away.
Not his father's.
Not Esteban's.
Someone slowly cocked a handgun.
CLICK.
Then a familiar voice echoed through the darkness.
"You always ask questions your mother warned you never to ask."
Rodrigo's heart nearly stopped.
He recognized that voice.
It belonged to someone who was supposed to have died...
More than twenty years ago.
Meanwhile, in Hospital Room 312...
The fake maintenance worker quietly opened the door.
He pulled the pistol from beneath the cart.
Raised the suppressor.
And aimed directly at the sleeping children.
Before he could pull the trigger...
A tiny voice broke the silence.
"Are you looking for my mom?"
The man looked down.
Sofía was awake.
Still hugging her rag doll.
Still smiling innocently.
She pointed toward the window.
"My uncle is already here."
The assassin frowned.
There was no one in the room.
Then...
A large shadow suddenly appeared behind him in the doorway.
A powerful hand seized the back of his neck.
The pistol clattered onto the floor.
The stranger spoke in a calm, deadly voice.
"If you want the children..."
"You'll have to kill me first."
The assassin's eyes widened in horror.
Because he immediately recognized the man.
The one person every mercenary in Mexico had been ordered never to fight.
And the stranger looked directly at Mateo...
Then at Carmen...
Before whispering the words that changed everything.
May you like
"I finally found my sister."
END OF CHAPTER 3
