Chapter 5 - Isabella Returns From the Dead
The hidden passage led beneath the villa.
Valeria, Sofia, and Lucia escaped toward the cliffs while shouting erupted behind them.
Sofia stopped.
“We can’t leave her.”
Lucia grabbed her.
“We’ll all die.”
“That’s my sister!”
“So stay alive long enough to save her!”
They reached the road.
Marco’s men arrived minutes later.
But Alessandra was gone.
So was Mateo.
Inside the villa, they found blood.
Not enough to know whose.
Ernesto arrived after sunset.
When Sofia told him about Alessandra, his face hardened.
“I’ll find her.”
“No,” Sofia said.
“We will.”
Ernesto looked at her.
She didn’t back down.
“You don’t get to turn this into another war.”
“He kidnapped my wife and abused her for twenty years.”
“And if you start shooting everybody, Alessandra could die.”
Ernesto hated hearing it.
But he knew she was right.
The letters from Isabella contained clues.
Bank accounts.
Properties.
Names.
One address appeared repeatedly.
A vineyard outside Porto, Portugal.
Gabriel arranged a private flight.
Ernesto objected to traveling with him.
Valeria responded:
“You two can either behave like adults or stay home.”
Lucia covered a smile.
Neither man argued again.
Thirty-six hours later, the group reached Portugal.
The vineyard appeared abandoned.
But one upstairs window was open.
Ernesto entered first.
“Isabella?”
Nothing.
Then footsteps.
A woman appeared at the top of the stairs.
Ernesto stopped.
Twenty years vanished from his face.
“Bella.”
Isabella Vega gripped the railing.
Her eyes filled.
“Ernesto.”
He moved toward her.
She stepped back.
That stopped him more effectively than a weapon.
“You’re afraid of me.”
“I’m afraid of what you become when you’re angry.”
His face broke.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
“I buried you.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you come home?”
Isabella looked at Sofia.
Then Valeria.
“Because Mateo had Alessandra.”
Sofia approached slowly.
“Mom?”
Isabella covered her mouth.
“My baby.”
Sofia began crying.
They met halfway.
The embrace lasted nearly a minute.
Then Isabella pulled Valeria into it.
Lucia joined them.
Four women bound together by one night that had stolen twenty years.
Ernesto stood alone.
Until Isabella finally looked at him.
“I loved you.”
“Loved?”
“I don’t know yet.”
He accepted that.
It was the first truly decent thing Valeria had seen him do.
Isabella explained everything.
Mateo had discovered Alessandra’s existence immediately.
He threatened to kill the baby unless Isabella disappeared with him.
She obeyed.
For years, she moved between countries with Mateo and Alessandra.
She tried escaping three times.
Each attempt failed.
As Alessandra grew older, Mateo trained her.
Languages.
Finance.
Surveillance.
Weapons.
He wanted an heir.
But Alessandra secretly began helping Isabella gather evidence.
“She’s the reason I escaped six months ago,” Isabella said.
“Then why is she still with him?” Sofia asked.
“Because she stayed behind deliberately.”
Ernesto stared.
“To do what?”
“Destroy him from inside.”
Isabella walked to a desk.
She opened a laptop.
Mateo’s organization was larger than either family understood.
Shipping companies.
Banks.
Politicians.
Police officers.
Judges.
He had spent twenty years building a shadow empire from the war Ernesto and Gabriel created.
“And now?” Gabriel asked.
“Now he wants San Aurelio.”
Ernesto laughed coldly.
“He can try.”
Isabella turned on him.
“That attitude is why we lost twenty years.”
Ernesto fell silent.
“He doesn’t want territory,” she continued.
“He wants legitimacy.”
Valeria frowned.
“How?”
“By making the Vegas and Salazars destroy each other publicly.”
Then Mateo would emerge as the respectable businessman restoring order.
Gabriel looked at Ernesto.
“The peace dinner.”
“Exactly.”
Mateo expected violence after the girls were revealed.
Instead, Marco got everyone out.
Valeria stared at Isabella.
“So he needs another trigger.”
Isabella nodded.
“He has one.”
“What?”
She looked at Sofia.
“Alessandra.”
Mateo planned to publicly reveal Alessandra as Ernesto’s illegitimate daughter.
Then produce evidence making it appear Ernesto had known about her for twenty years and ordered Isabella’s disappearance.
Ernesto’s allies would turn.
The Salazars would retaliate.
Chaos.
“And the evidence?” Valeria asked.
“Some of it is real.”
Ernesto looked at Isabella.
She held his gaze.
“You did terrible things, Ernesto.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
For the first time, there was no excuse.
No justification.
No anger.
Only shame.
That night, Valeria found Ernesto alone outside.
“You really loved her?”
“More than anything.”
“Then why did you choose power?”
He looked toward the vineyard.
“Because I was young enough to believe power could protect the people I loved.”
“And?”
“It only made more people necessary to protect.”
Valeria sat beside him.
“You’re not my father.”
“No.”
“But you protected me at the restaurant.”
He smiled faintly.
“For twenty years, I dreamed of finding my daughter.”
He looked at her.
“When I saw that medallion, I didn’t see blood. I saw a second chance.”
Valeria understood.
Maybe family was more complicated than DNA.
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph arrived.
Alessandra.
Alive.
Tied to a chair.
Beside her stood Mateo.
Then another photograph arrived.
Marco.
Also captive.
A message followed.
MIDNIGHT TOMORROW.
BRING BOTH MEDALLIONS.
BRING ERNESTO.
NO POLICE.
OR BOTH DIE.
Isabella stared at the screen.
“No.”
Ernesto stood.
“I’m going.”
“It’s a trap.”
“I know.”
Valeria looked at the photograph more closely.
“Wait.”
“What?”
She zoomed in.
Alessandra’s hand rested against the chair.
Three fingers extended.
Two folded.
Then four.
A pattern.
Sofia recognized it.
“The notebook.”
“What?”
“The drawings in the villa had numbers beside them.”
They decoded the sequence.
3-2-4.
Page 324 of Isabella’s archive.
Isabella opened the file.
There was only one sentence.
IF I AM CAPTURED, DO NOT RESCUE ME.
Ernesto stared.
Then Valeria noticed another detail in the photograph.
A mirror behind Mateo.
Inside the reflection, Alessandra wasn’t tied at all.
May you like
Her hands were free.
And she was holding a knife.
