CHAPTER 5 — "THE WOMAN THEY BURIED WASN'T HIS MOTHER… AND THE TRUTH HAD BEEN LOCKED AWAY FOR TWENTY YEARS."
Rodrigo could no longer hear the sounds of the hospital.
The conversations in the hallway...
The beeping heart monitors...
The footsteps rushing past.
Everything faded into silence as he stared at the photograph lying on the table.
His mother.
Alive.
Bruised.
Terrified.
Three years after the funeral where he had cried over a closed casket.
He looked up at Alejandro.
"This has to be fake."
"I buried her."
Alejandro's expression remained calm.
"No."
"You buried someone."
"But it wasn't Lucía."
Rodrigo's knees felt weak.
He collapsed into the nearest chair.
His entire childhood flashed before his eyes.
The funeral.
The endless black flowers.
His grandfather refusing to let anyone open the coffin.
The priest insisting the body had been badly damaged in the accident.
The funeral had lasted less than twenty minutes.
No one questioned it.
No one dared.
Because his grandfather had controlled everything.
Including the police.
Including the doctors.
Including the death certificate.
Alejandro slowly pushed another envelope across the table.
"I've spent twenty-six years looking for my sisters."
"I never stopped."
Inside were copies of newspaper articles from decades earlier.
One headline caught Rodrigo's attention immediately.
YOUNG WOMAN SURVIVES HIGHWAY ACCIDENT — IDENTITY UNKNOWN
The accompanying photograph was blurry.
The woman's face was wrapped in bandages.
She had disappeared from the hospital less than twelve hours later.
The case had never been solved.
The date matched the exact day Lucía had supposedly died.
Rodrigo whispered,
"Someone kidnapped her."
Alejandro nodded.
"And made the world believe she never survived."
Meanwhile...
On the top floor of the Montes de Oca mansion...
Doña Teresa sat alone in complete darkness.
The old family grandfather clock struck midnight.
She carefully opened another secret drawer inside the antique desk.
Unlike the previous files...
This one contained only letters.
Dozens of them.
Every envelope was addressed to the same person.
Lucía Montes de Oca.
None had ever been mailed.
The oldest letter was written in Rodrigo's childish handwriting.
He recognized it instantly.
"Mom... I won first place at school today. Dad says you're watching me from heaven. I miss you every day."
Tears slowly rolled down Teresa's face.
She had hidden every single letter.
Not because Lucía was dead.
But because someone had forbidden anyone from ever knowing she was alive.
She whispered into the empty room,
"I'm so sorry..."
"I failed you."
Suddenly...
A floorboard creaked behind her.
Teresa froze.
She wasn't alone.
A familiar voice emerged from the darkness.
"You've kept those letters long enough."
Teresa slowly turned.
Her face drained of all color.
"Fernando..."
Her son stepped into the light.
He wasn't smiling.
"You shouldn't have opened that safe."
General Hospital...
Carmen's condition remained stable.
But her memories refused to return.
Mateo hadn't slept in almost twenty-four hours.
Instead, he quietly organized every document recovered from the canvas bag.
School certificates.
Vaccination records.
Old utility bills.
Family photographs.
Then...
He noticed something strange.
One birth certificate looked different from the others.
It wasn't his.
It wasn't Sofía's.
The name read:
Gabriel Montes.
Date of birth:
Exactly the same day...
As Rodrigo.
Mateo frowned.
"Who's Gabriel?"
Carmen stared blankly.
"I don't know."
Alejandro reached for the document.
The moment he saw it...
His hands began shaking violently.
"This..."
"This can't be."
Rodrigo looked over his shoulder.
"What is it?"
Alejandro swallowed hard.
"Gabriel."
"That was the name Carmen wanted to give her first baby."
Rodrigo looked confused.
"But Mateo is older than Sofía."
Alejandro slowly shook his head.
"No."
"Mateo wasn't Carmen's first child."
Silence filled the room.
Alejandro pointed toward the birth certificate.
"Carmen gave birth to a baby boy..."
"One year before Mateo."
"He disappeared the day he was born."
Everyone stared at him.
Rodrigo's heartbeat accelerated.
"What are you saying?"
Alejandro answered quietly.
"I think someone stole Carmen's first son."
Before anyone could process those words...
A nurse rushed into the room.
"Mr. Montes!"
Rodrigo stood immediately.
"What happened?"
"The police just arrested the fake maintenance worker."
"They searched his vehicle."
"They found photographs."
Rodrigo followed her down the hallway.
Inside the evidence room...
An officer spread dozens of surveillance photographs across the table.
Every single picture showed the same three people.
Mateo.
Sofía.
Carmen.
Someone had been watching them for weeks.
Then Rodrigo noticed the final photograph.
Unlike the others...
It wasn't taken recently.
It was twenty years old.
A little boy stood in front of the Montes de Oca mansion holding a red toy airplane.
Rodrigo instantly recognized himself.
But someone had drawn a large red X across his face.
Below it, written in black marker, were six chilling words:
"Wrong child. Correct the mistake."
Rodrigo's blood turned to ice.
Because if he was the "wrong child"...
Then somewhere...
The real heir to the Montes de Oca fortune was still alive.
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And someone was willing to kill every witness before the truth could be revealed.
END OF CHAPTER 5
