Chapter 6 - Someone Came for the Baby
Alejandro moved toward Valeria's voice.
“Don't move!”
Emergency lights flickered red along the floor.
A shadow crossed the doorway.
Alejandro lunged.
He caught fabric.
A man swung at him.
The blow struck Alejandro's jaw.
Gabriel slammed into the attacker from the side.
They crashed into a medical cart.
Metal instruments scattered across the floor.
“Security!” Camila screamed.
The attacker kicked Gabriel away and ran.
Alejandro chased him.
But the man reached the stairwell.
By the time security locked down the building, he was gone.
The missing officer was found unconscious inside a utility closet.
Alive.
Someone had stolen his uniform.
The hospital moved Valeria to a secure floor.
This time, Alejandro refused to leave her side.
At three in the morning, she woke and found him sitting beside her.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I was.”
He almost smiled.
Valeria studied him.
“You're different.”
“It's been a strange day.”
“No.”
She reached for his hand.
“You're looking at me differently.”
Alejandro lowered his eyes.
“I almost failed you.”
“You believed evidence someone deliberately planted.”
“I believed it because part of me was willing to.”
Valeria didn't answer.
“I've spent my entire life expecting betrayal,” he continued. “My father taught me business was war. My mother taught me reputation was everything.”
He looked at her.
“And when I saw that photograph, suspicion was easier than trust.”
Valeria squeezed his hand.
“Then learn.”
“Learn what?”
“To ask me before you judge me.”
He nodded.
“I will.”
It wasn't a dramatic reconciliation.
No grand speech.
Just a promise.
But it mattered more.
At sunrise, Detective Bennett arrived with news.
They had identified the hospital attacker.
Marcus Vale.
Former private security contractor.
And for six years, he had been receiving payments from a shell company.
The shell company's registered agent was Victor Salazar.
They finally had a direct connection.
But Victor had disappeared.
Then Gabriel found something stranger.
The increasing concentrations in Valeria's tea didn't match Esther's story.
If Esther believed she was giving Valeria something merely to cause nausea, why had the doses increased?
Someone had altered the packets after Esther received them.
Teresa provided the answer.
“There was a box,” she told police.
“Delivered every Monday.”
“From whom?”
“Mr. Salazar's office.”
Esther stared at her.
“You told me they came from Dr. Navarro.”
Teresa shook her head.
“No, señora. Mr. Salazar told me to say that if anyone asked.”
Esther's face collapsed.
Victor had manipulated her too.
Not enough to excuse what she had done.
But enough to reveal the full design.
Victor needed Esther involved.
If Valeria died, suspicion would fall naturally on the mother-in-law who openly disliked her.
And if the child died, the audit would never occur.
It was almost perfect.
Except Valeria had survived.
And Gabriel had entered the house.
That afternoon, Alejandro finally opened every document Rafael had brought.
Near the bottom of the box was a sealed letter addressed to him.
His father had written it.
Alejandro read alone.
Son,
If you are reading this, then the truth has already cost our family more than I had the courage to pay while alive.
Do not protect the Aranda name.
Protect the people the name has harmed.
Alejandro stopped.
His father had known.
Known his son might someday face the same choice.
Company or truth.
Legacy or justice.
At the bottom was one final instruction.
Find Elena's ledger.
Victor never found it.
Alejandro immediately went to Gabriel.
“What ledger?”
Gabriel stared at the letter.
“My mother kept financial records.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“She died when you were twenty-two?”
“Yes.”
“Her belongings?”
“Storage.”
“Where?”
Gabriel looked at him.
“Oceanside.”
They drove there that evening with Detective Bennett.
The storage unit contained boxes of books, clothing, photographs, and old furniture.
Gabriel hadn't opened most of them in years.
They searched until nearly midnight.
No ledger.
Then Alejandro noticed an old children's rocking horse.
One wooden runner was thicker than the other.
He turned it over.
A compartment had been carved underneath.
Inside was a red notebook.
Gabriel stared at it.
“My mother made that horse.”
Alejandro opened the ledger.
Pages of transactions.
Dates.
Amounts.
Names.
Then one entry stood out.
T. ARANDA — repayment refused.
Below it:
V. MERCER — original transfer.
Victor Mercer.
Victor Salazar.
Same man.
And beneath that was a bank account number.
Detective Bennett photographed every page.
Then Gabriel turned to the final section.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Alejandro asked.
Gabriel pointed.
There were payments continuing years after Elena supposedly lost everything.
Large payments.
Made to Esther Aranda.
Alejandro stared.
“No.”
Gabriel turned another page.
Another payment.
And another.
His mother had been receiving money from Elena Mercer.
For years.
“Why would your mother pay mine?”
“I don't know.”
Then Gabriel reached the final page.
There was a handwritten note.
Esther knows what happened to Tomas.
Alejandro stopped breathing.
And below it:
If anything happens to me, ask her why she was at the lake.
Gabriel stared at the sentence.
“My mother didn't die at a lake.”
Alejandro looked at him.
“How did she die?”
“Car accident.”
“Where?”
Gabriel's eyes darkened.
“On the highway beside Lake Hodges.”
Neither brother spoke.
They had thought they were investigating an attempt on Valeria's life.
May you like
Now they were staring at evidence that the same conspiracy might have begun years earlier.
And that their mothers had both been inside it.
