Chapter 8 - THE SECRET HER MOTHER LEFT BEHIND
“No.”
The word came out before I could stop it.
Sofia looked at me.
She was confused.
“Mommy said…”
I crouched in front of her.
“Where did you hear that?”
She pointed to the bracelet.
“Marisol told me Mommy wrote it.”
Marisol closed her eyes.
“I never told her he was her brother.”
I looked at Marisol.
“Then who did?”
She shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Hector stepped forward.
“Boss, we need to move the girls.”
“Yes.”
The estate was no longer safe.
But before we could leave, the security system chimed.
A video feed opened automatically.
Chloe appeared on the monitor.
She was standing somewhere unfamiliar.
Behind her was a brick wall.
Her face was pale.
“Alexander.”
I stepped closer.
“Where are you?”
“I don't know.”
“Who has you?”
“No one.”
“Then what is this?”
She looked directly at the camera.
“I found Daniel.”
My heart stopped.
“Where?”
“He came to me.”
“Why?”
“Because he knows what happened to your wife.”
“Put him on.”
Chloe looked off-camera.
A young man stepped into view.
Older than the boy in the photograph.
Same eyes.
Same scar.
Daniel.
He looked directly into the camera.
“My name is Daniel Reyes.”
My throat tightened.
“Are you my wife's son?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
Sofia's face appeared behind me.
Daniel continued.
“But I knew her.”
“Who was she to you?”
He swallowed.
“She saved me.”
“Why did she call you family?”
“Because she treated me like family.”
I closed my eyes.
The truth was different from what Sofia believed.
But it still mattered.
“Where is my wife’s ledger?”
Daniel looked at Chloe.
Then back at the camera.
“Gone.”
“Who took it?”
“My mother.”
I froze.
“Isabel?”
“She didn't die.”
My heart pounded.
“What?”
“She disappeared.”
“When?”
“Three years before your wife died.”
“Why?”
“She found out what Nathan was doing.”
I looked at Marisol.
“What was he doing?”
Daniel answered.
“Stealing identities.”
I didn't understand.
“Explain.”
“Nathan wasn't just moving money.”
“He was creating accounts using dead children's names.”
Silence.
“He used your charity to hide them.”
My stomach turned.
“Why?”
“Because he was selling access to wealthy families.”
“What does that mean?”
Daniel looked down.
“Children.”
I felt sick.
“Children?”
“Families would pay to make problems disappear.”
The words were difficult to process.
My wife's charity had been helping children who had nowhere else to go.
Nathan had been using its records to identify vulnerable families.
But Daniel continued.
“Your wife found out.”
“And my father?”
“He found out too.”
“Then why did he hide it?”
“Because Nathan had people inside the company.”
I looked at Marisol.
“And you?”
“I helped your wife.”
“With what?”
“Getting children away from Nathan.”
The story suddenly became larger.
My wife hadn't been protecting only our daughters.
She had been protecting other children.
Daniel continued.
“Your wife had evidence.”
“The ledger.”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
“My mother took it.”
“Why?”
“To keep Nathan from finding it.”
“Where is Isabel now?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Dead.”
“You just said she disappeared.”
“She disappeared first.”
“Then?”
“She was found dead six months later.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
I felt the room grow colder.
Another accident.
Another person who knew too much.
“Was it an accident?”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
Chloe spoke.
“Alexander, there's something else.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“Your father knew Isabel.”
I frowned.
“How?”
“He had been protecting her.”
“Why?”
Daniel answered.
“Because Isabel wasn't only Nathan's employee.”
I waited.
“She was his daughter.”
Everything stopped.
Nathan had been protecting his own daughter?
No.
That didn't make sense.
Daniel continued.
“My mother discovered Nathan was using her identity to move money.”
“She was innocent?”
“Yes.”
“She ran.”
“And your father helped her.”
I remembered my father.
Cold.
Secretive.
Always refusing to explain himself.
Maybe he hadn't been hiding guilt.
Maybe he had been hiding people.
I looked at Marisol.
“Then why did my wife die?”
No one answered.
Finally, Chloe spoke.
“Because she confronted Nathan.”
“Alone?”
“No.”
“With whom?”
“Your father.”
My heart stopped.
“When?”
“The night she died.”
“Then what happened?”
Chloe looked away.
“Your father told her to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because Nathan had found out she had the ledger.”
I remembered the message.
She died because she found the ledger.
“But the ledger was gone.”
“Your wife gave it to someone.”
“Who?”
Chloe looked at Marisol.
Marisol whispered,
“Me.”
I stared at her.
“You had it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I gave it to your father.”
“When?”
“The night your wife died.”
I felt betrayed.
“You've had this information for three years.”
“I was trying to keep your daughters alive.”
“By lying to me?”
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt.
But I couldn't dismiss it.
“What happened to the ledger?”
“Your father took it.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
Chloe interrupted.
“I do.”
I turned.
She reached into her coat.
She pulled out a small leather notebook.
My wife's handwriting covered the first page.
I took it.
Inside were names.
Dates.
Bank accounts.
Children.
And one sentence written across the final page.
If Alexander ever finds this, tell him the truth about his father.
I looked at Chloe.
“What truth?”
She said,
“Your father wasn't protecting the money.”
“What was he protecting?”
“Your mother.”
I stared.
“My mother died when I was a teenager.”
“Yes.”
“What does she have to do with this?”
Chloe opened the notebook to another page.
There was a photograph.
My mother.
My father.
Isabel.
Nathan.
And my wife.
All together.
On the back was a date.
The same date my father had supposedly been out of the country.
I looked at the photograph.
Then something clicked.
The black watch.
The gold face.
I had seen it before.
Not on Nathan.
On my father.
The photograph had been taken twelve years ago.
My father had worn that watch for years.
Nathan hadn't been wearing it.
He had been standing beside him.
The reflection had fooled me.
I looked at Chloe.
“You lied.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“You said Nathan wore the watch.”
“I said Daniel remembered a man wearing it.”
I looked again.
The man in the photograph was my father.
Not Nathan.
My blood went cold.
Then Hector rushed into the room.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found something in the old family archive.”
He handed me a sealed envelope.
My name was written on it.
My father's handwriting.
I opened it.
Inside was a letter.
Alexander,
If you are reading this, then the woman you trusted has finally told you enough.
I looked at Chloe.
The letter continued.
But don't trust her yet.
My stomach tightened.
She was not the person your wife feared.
She was the person your wife hired.
Then the final line.
The person who betrayed your mother is still alive.
I stared at the page.
“Who?”
Hector turned the envelope over.
There was a photograph inside.
It showed my father.
My wife.
And one other person.
I recognized her instantly.
My own mother.
Alive.
Standing beside Nathan.
I dropped the photograph.
Because my mother had supposedly been dead for seventeen years.
May you like
And on the back, my father had written:
She knows where the ledger is.
