Chapter 8 - The Men Who Betrayed One Another
Rafael had become Sebastián’s prisoner.
The alliance was collapsing.
Inspector Herrera studied every detail of the tablet feed: the cracked plaster behind Rafael, the industrial radiator, the yellow stripe painted across the floor, and the echo of trains passing nearby.
The signal originated from a private network, but a technician identified the camera model. It was part of a surveillance system installed in several warehouses owned by a logistics company.
One of those warehouses stood less than a kilometer from Málaga Central Station.
Police prepared a raid.
Before they moved, I asked to speak to Rafael through the tablet.
Lucía objected.
“He may reveal that we found the feed.”
“He already knows we will search for him. What he does not know is whether I still consider him my enemy.”
“You do.”
“Yes. But Sebastián does not need to know that.”
Technicians opened a two-way channel.
My face appeared on a screen inside the warehouse.
Sebastián turned.
For a moment, his professional mask slipped.
“Alejandro.”
“Let Rafael go.”
Rafael laughed bitterly from the radiator.
“Now you want to save me?”
“I want you alive long enough to answer for what you did.”
Sebastián smiled.
“Still pretending this is about justice?”
“No. It is about Isabella.”
“Everything is always about Isabella. Elena made the same mistake.”
My hands curled into fists.
“What do you want?”
“The original ledger.”
“You already have copies.”
“Copies can be challenged. I want the pages with signatures.”
“And then?”
“You publicly confess to directing the transfers. You resign from the company. You withdraw every accusation against Santa Aurelia.”
“Why protect the clinic?”
“Because it is more profitable than your hotels.”
He said it with pride.
For years, wealthy families had paid Sebastián and Mateo to declare heirs incompetent. The families retained control of fortunes. The clinic received enormous annual fees. Judges, doctors, and attorneys received a share.
Elena had discovered not one crime but an entire industry.
“Where is Sofia in this arrangement?” I asked.
Mateo stepped into view.
“My sister was useful until she became emotional.”
Rafael looked toward him.
“You told me Sofia was loyal.”
“She was loyal to revenge. Not to business.”
Everyone had used everyone else.
Sebastián used Rafael’s jealousy.
Rafael used Sofia’s grief.
Mateo used Beatriz’s greed.
And all of them had tried to use Isabella’s fear.
“What happens to Rafael if I cooperate?” I asked.
Sebastián placed the gun against my brother’s temple.
“He becomes a tragic victim of your criminal enterprise.”
Rafael’s face changed.
He finally understood that Sebastián intended to blame everything on us both.
“I have evidence,” Rafael said quickly. “Alejandro, I kept copies.”
Sebastián struck him with the gun.
“Quiet.”
“Copies of what?”
“Payments. Recordings. Elena’s medical file.”
“Where?”
Rafael looked toward the camera.
“In the place where Father taught us to swim.”
The signal ended.
Police entered the warehouse nine minutes later.
It was empty.
A tunnel connected the building to an underground parking structure. Sebastián and Mateo had escaped.
Rafael remained chained to the radiator.
He had been beaten badly, but he was alive.
At the hospital, he asked to speak with me without officers present.
Lucía refused to leave entirely, so she stood behind the observation window while I entered.
Rafael’s face was swollen. One wrist was bandaged.
“You came for me,” he said.
“I came for evidence.”
He looked away.
“When we were children, you jumped into the pool when I was drowning.”
“You were six.”
“You didn’t hesitate.”
“That boy had not murdered my wife or tortured my daughter.”
“I didn’t touch Elena.”
“You paid Sofia.”
“I paid her to frighten Elena and recover the documents.”
“You expect me to believe you did not know what Sofia planned?”
“I knew she hated our family. I did not know she poisoned Elena until afterward.”
“And Isabella?”
Shame crossed his face, but I did not trust it.
“Beatriz said she could control her.”
“You watched the videos.”
“I never saw the worst ones.”
“You visited the villa.”
“I told myself Isabella would recover after we left.”
The same language Beatriz had used.
Temporary cruelty.
Future recovery.
Convenient lies.
“You did not see a child,” I said. “You saw an obstacle between you and my money.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“I hated you.”
“I know.”
“Father respected you even when I found the truth about what he had done. He told me you were strong enough to carry the company and I was only strong enough to spend from it.”
“So you decided to prove him right.”
Rafael closed his eyes.
“The evidence is at the old swimming club in Madrid. Locker twenty-two beneath the east pool.”
“Why keep it?”
“Insurance against Sebastián.”
“Does it contain proof against the clinic?”
“Yes.”
“Against you?”
His silence answered.
“If I give it to the police, you will spend years in prison.”
“I know.”
“Then why tell me?”
He looked through the glass at Lucía.
“Because Sebastián will kill Isabella if he cannot control her.”
I stepped closer.
“Where is he going?”
“Santa Aurelia. There are underground treatment rooms not shown on the plans. He can hold people there without anyone knowing.”
Police raided the Madrid swimming club and recovered three encrypted drives.
They contained videos of judges accepting bribes, records of fraudulent diagnoses, and communications showing Sebastián had arranged accidents for families who attempted to remove heirs from the clinic.
One file was labeled V-CHILD.
Inside was a contract offering ten million euros for Isabella’s permanent placement.
The client signature belonged to Beatriz.
When I confronted her in the hospital, she did not deny it.
“I signed whatever Rafael put in front of me.”
“You signed away a child’s life.”
“I thought permanent placement meant boarding school.”
“You watched her sleep in a locked storage room.”
Beatriz broke down.
“I was jealous of her.”
The honesty stunned me.
“Of an eight-year-old?”
“Of the way you loved her. Every room in that house carried Elena’s memory. Every time Isabella looked at me, I felt like a guest in someone else’s family.”
“So you punished her for being loved.”
“I became someone I don’t recognize.”
“No. You became someone Isabella will never be forced to see again.”
Beatriz closed her eyes.
“I will testify.”
Her testimony, combined with the drives, was enough to suspend the court order and issue warrants for Sebastián and Mateo.
But the two men moved first.
At 4:00 a.m., every screen in my company headquarters displayed a live video.
Sebastián sat inside a treatment room at Santa Aurelia.
Behind him stood six frightened young patients.
“If the police enter this building,” he announced, “the ventilation system will release a lethal chemical.”
Mateo appeared beside him holding a control device.
Sebastián smiled into the camera.
“Alejandro, bring the ledger and Isabella to the clinic by sunrise.”
My blood froze.
May you like
Then he added the sentence that revealed his true plan.
“She is the only patient whose death will make you surrender everything.”
