CHAPTER 3: THE SECRET HIDDEN IN MATEO’S BLOOD
The phone call ended.
But the silence remained.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Nobody dared speak.
Because the voice that had just come through Sebastián Salgado’s phone had changed everything.
Daniel Cruz was alive.
The man everyone believed was dead for twenty years had returned from the shadows.
And he had delivered a warning that terrified even the most powerful man in Mexico.
“Do not trust your family.”
Sebastián sat motionless in his wheelchair.
His eyes were fixed on the empty phone screen.
For the first time in decades…
He didn’t know who was watching him.
Who was lying to him.
Or who had been waiting for him to discover the truth.
Elena looked at him carefully.
She had spent years imagining the moment she would finally discover what happened to her husband.
She imagined anger.
She imagined tears.
She imagined answers.
But she never imagined this.
Her husband wasn’t dead.
He wasn’t a coward who abandoned her.
He had been hiding.
Watching from a distance.
Protecting a secret.
A secret connected to Sebastián Salgado.
—Why? —Elena whispered.
Sebastián looked at her.
—Why did he leave me?
Her voice cracked.
—Why did he let me believe he was dead?
Sebastián had no answer.
And somehow, that made Elena even more afraid.
Because a man like Sebastián Salgado always had answers.
But tonight…
He didn’t.
Suddenly, Elena’s phone vibrated again.
Another message.
Unknown number.
Her hands trembled as she opened it.
There was only a photograph.
A photograph of Mateo.
Her eight-year-old son.
Walking out of school.
Taken from a distance.
Elena’s blood turned cold.
Under the image were six words:
“Stop digging, or lose him.”
She dropped the phone.
Sebastián immediately noticed.
—What happened?
Elena didn’t respond.
She couldn’t breathe.
Her entire world had always been Mateo.
Her reason to survive.
Her reason to wake up every morning.
And now someone had touched the one thing she couldn’t lose.
Sebastián picked up the phone.
When he saw the picture…
Something inside him changed.
The cold businessman disappeared.
A different man appeared.
A man who knew what it meant to lose family.
—Who sent this?
Elena shook her head.
—I don’t know.
Sebastián looked at Gabriel when he entered the room after hearing the alarm.
—Find out.
Gabriel looked surprised.
—Sir?
Sebastián’s voice became terrifying.
—Nobody threatens that child.
Everyone in the room understood.
Sebastián Salgado had just made a decision.
And when Sebastián made a decision…
People moved.
Thirty minutes later, Elena sat in the mansion’s private medical room.
Sebastián insisted on checking Mateo’s security.
She wanted to refuse.
She hated needing help.
But she also knew something.
She couldn’t protect her son alone anymore.
Not from people powerful enough to reach inside a school.
While Gabriel investigated the threatening message, Elena continued thinking about Daniel.
Then she noticed something.
A framed photograph on the table.
A younger Sebastián.
His father beside him.
And another person standing behind them.
A man Elena recognized instantly.
Her face went pale.
—That’s him.
Sebastián turned.
—Who?
She pointed at the photograph.
—Daniel.
The room became silent.
Sebastián looked at the picture.
Then at Elena.
—You’re sure?
She nodded.
—I would recognize my husband anywhere.
Sebastián grabbed the photograph.
But something was wrong.
Because Daniel wasn’t standing like an employee.
He wasn’t standing like a stranger.
He was standing beside the Salgado family.
Like he belonged there.
Sebastián slowly opened an old drawer.
Inside were documents from twenty years ago.
The same documents someone had tried to steal.
He pulled out a yellowed paper.
Elena watched.
—What is that?
Sebastián didn’t answer.
His eyes were fixed on one sentence.
Then he handed it to her.
Elena read it.
And her hands began shaking.
It was a medical report.
From the night of the explosion.
A report about Sebastián’s injuries.
But there was something written at the bottom.
A handwritten note.
Signed by Daniel Cruz.
“The damage to his spine is not permanent. Someone altered the medical results.”
Elena looked up.
—Someone changed his diagnosis?
Sebastián nodded slowly.
For twenty years, he believed his body had failed him.
But the truth was much darker.
Someone had made sure he stayed in that wheelchair.
Someone had stolen twenty years of his life.
Then Gabriel returned.
His face was serious.
That alone worried Sebastián.
—Speak.
Gabriel closed the door.
—The message came from a hidden number.
—Can you trace it?
Gabriel hesitated.
—Not exactly.
Sebastián’s eyes narrowed.
—Then what did you find?
Gabriel looked at Elena.
Then back at Sebastián.
—The person who sent it used a security code from inside this house.
Nobody spoke.
Elena looked around the mansion.
The guards.
The cameras.
The family portraits.
Someone inside the Salgado empire was watching them.
Someone close enough to know everything.
Then Gabriel added one more thing.
Something that made Elena’s heart stop.
—There’s another problem.
Sebastián looked at him.
—What?
Gabriel placed a file on the table.
—We checked Mateo’s medical records.
Elena immediately stood.
—Why are you checking my son?
Gabriel didn’t answer.
Sebastián opened the file.
His eyes moved across the pages.
Then his expression changed.
A strange mixture of shock and confusion.
—This is impossible.
Elena grabbed the papers.
—What?
Sebastián looked at her.
And for the first time…
He looked at her not as a therapist.
Not as Daniel’s wife.
But as someone connected to him by something much bigger.
—Elena…
His voice became quiet.
“Who is Mateo’s real father?”
The question destroyed the room.
Elena stepped back.
—What are you talking about?
Sebastián pointed at the medical report.
—Because according to this…
He swallowed.
“Your son has the same rare genetic marker as my family.”
Elena felt the ground disappear beneath her feet.
—No…
Sebastián looked at the date.
Then at Mateo’s birth certificate.
And one terrifying possibility appeared.
A possibility that could change everything.
Because if the report was correct…
Mateo wasn’t just connected to Daniel Cruz.
He was connected to Sebastián Salgado.
At that exact moment…
A security camera inside the mansion turned on.
A hidden room appeared on the monitor.
Someone was watching Elena.
Watching Sebastián.
Watching the file.
A man sat in the darkness.
Older.
Scarred.
Holding a photograph of Mateo.
He smiled.
And whispered:
“So… after twenty years, they finally found the boy.”
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TO BE CONTINUED…
Chapter 4: Sebastián discovers why Mateo carries the Salgado bloodline… and Elena learns the shocking truth about Daniel’s disappearance and the night her son was born
