Chapter 6 - The Dead Father
Alejandro refused to speak for almost ten minutes.
Then anger replaced shock.
“My mother identified the body.”
Rachel Monroe shook her head.
“No. Your mother identified Rafael at the hospice. The body was cremated without an independent viewing.”
Alejandro’s mother, Sofia, lived in Florida.
He called her.
She denied everything.
Then Alejandro showed her the photograph.
Silence.
“Sofia?”
Her voice broke.
“He promised he was finished.”
Alejandro stood.
“You knew?”
“Not until after the funeral.”
“You knew my father was alive for twelve years?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He said men were trying to kill him.”
“What men?”
“He never said.”
“Did you know about Isabella?”
Sofia began crying.
“No.”
Alejandro shouted:
“Stop lying!”
Mariana had never heard him speak to his mother that way.
Then Sofia said something unexpected.
“Isabella called me.”
Silence.
“When?”
“Seven years after she disappeared.”
Alejandro froze.
“She was alive?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“She told me never to search for her.”
“Why?”
“She said Rafael would kill Alejandro if she came home.”
Alejandro sat down.
His sister had survived.
At least seven years.
Mariana asked:
“Where did the call come from?”
“Canada.”
Rachel immediately began tracing historical records.
Then Mariana noticed Lucy.
She wasn’t reacting with surprise.
“You knew.”
Lucy whispered:
“I remember Canada.”
Everyone turned.
Pieces were returning.
After the truck, Rafael took both women to a hidden property.
Why keep them alive?
Because Isabella had hidden the original bribery records.
Rafael needed them.
Elena knew where some were.
Isabella knew where the rest were.
Neither talked.
Months became years.
Then something changed.
Isabella escaped.
Elena did not.
“Why?”
Lucy began crying.
“I couldn’t run.”
“Because you were injured?”
“No.”
She looked at Mariana.
“Because I was pregnant.”
Mariana stopped breathing.
“What?”
A memory shattered through Lucy.
A room.
A doctor.
Rafael arguing.
Elena screaming.
Mariana felt nauseated.
“Who was the father?”
Lucy shook her head violently.
“I don’t know.”
Dr. Carter stopped the questioning.
But one thing became clear.
Lucy had been held long enough to become pregnant.
Then at some point, she gave birth.
“What happened to the baby?”
Lucy sobbed.
“I don’t remember.”
Mariana’s mind raced.
She was sixteen when Elena disappeared.
If Elena had another child afterward—
Mariana had a sibling.
Somewhere.
Then Rachel Monroe received DNA results from the quarry remains.
Not Isabella.
The woman was unrelated.
Another dead end.
But the lab found something else.
Lucy’s DNA had been entered into missing-person databases.
A familial match appeared.
Not Mariana.
That was expected.
Another match.
A forty-two-year-old man living in Chicago.
Half-sibling probability.
Name:
Samuel Ortiz Jr.
Mariana stared.
Samuel’s son.
Lucy’s face went blank.
Alejandro whispered:
“My godbrother?”
If the DNA was correct, Samuel Ortiz Jr. was Elena’s biological son.
May you like
Meaning the pregnancy Lucy remembered might connect directly to Samuel’s family.
And the man with the black ring had been there from the beginning.
