Chapter 8 - The Letter at the Clinic
I arrived at the clinic with Marcus despite the warning. Clara was gone. The reception desk was empty. And on the floor beside the elevator was her leather briefcase.
Inside was the original letter.
I opened it with shaking hands.
Aurora had written:
I know who entered the house.
The name was covered by a torn section.
Someone had deliberately removed it.
But another sentence remained.
It was not Julián.
That changed everything.
We searched the clinic.
An old nurse recognized Aurora's name.
“She came here two weeks before her death.”
“Was she afraid?”
“Yes.”
“Of whom?”
The nurse looked around.
“Her daughter.”
My mother.
But Teresa had claimed she was only following Julián's instructions.
The nurse gave me a small envelope.
“Aurora asked me to keep this.”
Inside was a key.
No explanation.
Just a number.
214.
Room 214.
We went upstairs.
The room hadn't been used in years.
The key opened a cabinet.
Inside was a small recorder.
I pressed play.
My grandmother's voice emerged.
“Teresa, if you're listening, you have already made your choice.”
I froze.
“This is your last chance to tell Valeria the truth.”
There was a long silence.
Then my grandmother said:
“Your brother Gabriel did not die because of the accident.”
My father's death.
My mother knew.
I closed my eyes.
The recording continued.
“He was killed because he refused to sign.”
I looked at Marcus.
The next sentence was barely audible.
“And the person who gave them his location was someone inside our family.”
The recording stopped.
A second file appeared.
I opened it.
It contained a conversation.
My mother's voice.
Julián's voice.
And another person.
I couldn't identify the third voice.
But one phrase was clear.
“Once Gabriel is gone, Valeria will be easier to control.”
My knees weakened.
My father had been killed because they believed I would be easier to manipulate afterward.
But why?
I had been twenty-three.
I hadn't owned Nexo Cero yet.
I hadn't built anything.
Unless...
The trust.
My grandmother had already placed something in my name.
Something they wanted.
We returned home.
I accessed the company records.
Seven years earlier, when I founded Nexo Cero, the initial intellectual property had been transferred through Aurora's trust.
The company was never entirely mine.
Part of it had always belonged to the trust.
That meant the people who wanted Casa del Fresno also wanted control of the technology.
And Arista Capital had just purchased a majority stake in the company.
The timing was no coincidence.
I called an emergency legal team.
We began freezing the transaction.
Then the police called.
They had found Clara.
Alive.
But injured.
She was in a hospital.
I went immediately.
She opened her eyes when she saw me.
“I didn't betray you,” she whispered.
“I know.”
She grabbed my hand.
“Your mother isn't the person you should fear.”
“Who is?”
Clara looked toward the door.
Then she whispered:
“The person who helped you all week.”
I turned.
Marcus stood outside the room.
He looked through the glass.
Clara's face went white.
She mouthed one word.
Him.
I stepped toward the door.
Marcus disappeared around the corner.
I ran after him.
He was gone.
But his access badge was lying on the floor.
And when I checked the security system, I saw something impossible.
Marcus had accessed my house...
May you like
from inside my locked study...
while he was standing at the hospital.
