Chapter 10 - The Two Children
“Mom, please don't let them take my sister.”
Mariana stared at Gabriel.
Her son was trembling.
He wasn't looking at the men outside.
He wasn't looking at his grandfather.
He was looking directly at her belly.
“My sister?” Mariana whispered.
Gabriel nodded.
“She told me.”
“Who?”
“Grandma.”
Rocío.
Mariana's stomach tightened.
Another contraction came, stronger than the last.
She gripped Julián's arm.
He immediately steadied her.
“Easy. Breathe.”
“I can't.”
“You can.”
Gabriel moved closer.
“She said the baby has the same mark.”
Mariana looked down.
The ultrasound photograph was still in Julián's hand.
The tiny shape near the baby's wrist was almost impossible to see.
But now that she knew where to look, she could see it.
A small crescent-shaped mark.
Exactly like Gabriel's.
Julián stared at the image.
“How could Rocío know that?”
The older man answered.
“Because she has been tracking the pregnancy from the beginning.”
Mariana looked at him.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“You knew she was watching me?”
“Yes.”
“And you did nothing?”
His face tightened.
“I tried.”
“You let her drug me.”
“No.”
“You let her isolate me.”
“I tried to stop her.”
“You let her steal my son.”
His eyes dropped.
“That was not my decision.”
Mariana stepped toward him.
“Then whose was it?”
The older man looked at Gabriel.
“Your husband's father.”
Julián froze.
“My father.”
“Yes.”
“My father died when I was nineteen.”
“He disappeared.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it's true.”
Julián's voice became colder.
“Where is he?”
The older man didn't answer.
Mariana suddenly noticed something behind him.
A framed photograph.
It showed four people.
Her father.
Rocío.
A younger man who looked exactly like Julián.
And another woman.
Mariana walked toward it.
She recognized the woman.
Her mother.
The four of them had stood together before Mariana was born.
She stared at the photograph.
“This was before the twins.”
Her father nodded.
“What were they planning?”
“An agreement.”
“What agreement?”
“Your father and Julián's father wanted to combine their families.”
Julián shook his head.
“For what?”
“Control.”
The word hung in the room.
“Control of what?”
“Land. Companies. Military contracts. Political connections.”
Julián stared at him.
“My father was a businessman.”
“He was more than that.”
The older man looked at Mariana.
“And he believed blood was the strongest contract.”
Mariana felt another contraction.
She bent forward.
Elena rushed toward her.
“Lie down.”
“No.”
“Mariana, please.”
“I need to know.”
“You'll know.”
“I need to know now.”
Elena looked at her belly.
“Then survive long enough to hear it.”
That frightened Mariana more than anything.
She allowed Elena to help her onto the bed.
Julián stayed beside her.
Gabriel stood near the foot of the bed, clutching his rabbit.
Mariana reached toward him.
“Come here.”
He approached cautiously.
She touched his hair.
“You're my son.”
He nodded.
“You're not going anywhere.”
“Grandma said I belonged to her.”
“No.”
Mariana's voice became firm.
“You belong to yourself.”
Gabriel looked at Julián.
“Does Dad know?”
Julián knelt.
“I know now.”
The boy studied him.
“Will you stay?”
Julián swallowed.
“Yes.”
Gabriel finally smiled.
Then a gunshot exploded outside.
The farmhouse shook.
Everyone dropped.
The older man ran toward the window.
“They're here.”
Julián grabbed Gabriel.
“Down!”
Elena pulled Mariana behind the bed.
More shots followed.
The attackers surrounded the farmhouse.
The older man opened a hidden cabinet and removed a pistol.
Julián looked at him.
“You came prepared.”
“I've been preparing for this for six years.”
“Then tell me the exit.”
“There's one beneath the kitchen.”
They moved quickly.
Elena supported Mariana.
Julián carried Gabriel.
The older man led them through the hallway.
A bullet shattered the mirror beside them.
Gabriel screamed.
“It's okay,” Julián said.
The boy buried his face against his shoulder.
They reached the kitchen.
The older man moved a cabinet.
A trapdoor appeared.
“Go.”
Mariana climbed down first.
The passage beneath the farmhouse was narrow and damp.
Elena followed.
Then Gabriel.
Julián came last.
The older man remained above.
Mariana looked back.
“What are you doing?”
“Buying you time.”
“Come with us.”
He shook his head.
“They need to believe I'm still here.”
“Dad!”
He looked at her.
For the first time, Mariana saw tears in his eyes.
“I failed your mother.”
He glanced at Gabriel.
“I won't fail you again.”
Then he closed the trapdoor.
The darkness swallowed him.
They moved deeper into the tunnel.
After several minutes, they reached a steel door.
Elena unlocked it.
Beyond was a small underground room with emergency supplies, blankets, bottled water, and medical equipment.
Mariana looked around.
“This is another safe house.”
“Yes.”
“Who built all of these?”
“Your father.”
“Why?”
“To protect the children.”
Mariana stared.
“Which children?”
Elena didn't answer.
Julián opened a cabinet.
Inside were folders.
He pulled one out.
The label read:
GABRIEL — R-17
Another folder was beside it.
INFANT — R-18
Julián froze.
He opened the second folder.
Inside was a photograph of a newborn baby.
A girl.
Mariana leaned closer.
The baby had a tiny crescent-shaped mark near her wrist.
The same mark.
She covered her mouth.
“That's my daughter.”
Elena nodded.
“The two children were separated because the people hunting them believed they were connected.”
“Connected how?”
“They carry the same genetic marker.”
Julián frowned.
“That doesn't explain anything.”
“It does to the people who created Project Heir.”
Mariana looked at Elena.
“What is Project Heir?”
Elena sat down.
“It began before you were born.”
She opened an old file.
“The project was built around a belief that certain inherited traits could be used to identify descendants of specific families.”
“That sounds ridiculous.”
“It was.”
“Then why did they continue?”
“Because powerful people believed it.”
Mariana stared at the documents.
“Who?”
Elena hesitated.
“Your father.”
“My father?”
“And Julián's father.”
Julián clenched his jaw.
“They planned to use our children.”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“Succession.”
Mariana shook her head.
“They're children.”
“I know.”
“Why would anyone do this?”
Elena looked at Gabriel.
“Because they believed Gabriel was the first male heir.”
Mariana's eyes narrowed.
“And my unborn daughter?”
“The second.”
Silence.
Julián looked at the two files.
“So Rocío wanted both.”
“Yes.”
“But why did she threaten Mariana before Julián returned?”
“She needed a legal claim.”
“For Gabriel?”
“For the unborn child.”
Mariana suddenly understood.
The custody papers.
The fake mental-health records.
The forged medical history.
Everything had been designed to make her look incapable of raising her own children.
“She wanted the court to give her custody.”
Elena nodded.
“And once she had custody…”
“She could control both children.”
“Yes.”
Julián's fists tightened.
“We have enough evidence to stop her.”
Elena shook her head.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because the person financing everything is still free.”
“Who?”
Elena looked at Mariana.
“Your mother.”
Mariana froze.
“My mother is dead.”
“So everyone believed.”
Julián stared at Elena.
“You're saying Isabel is alive?”
Elena nodded.
“She has been hiding for six years.”
Mariana couldn't breathe.
“Why would she hide from me?”
“To protect Gabriel.”
Mariana's voice broke.
“She let me believe my son was dead.”
“She believed it was the only way to keep him alive.”
Mariana looked away.
She wanted to be angry.
She wanted to scream.
But another memory surfaced.
Her mother's voice.
If they ever tell you the baby died, don't believe them.
Mariana's eyes widened.
“I remember.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What?”
“My mother said something.”
“What did she say?”
Mariana pressed her fingers to her temple.
“She was crying.”
The memory became clearer.
“She told me…”
Mariana closed her eyes.
“She said, ‘If they erase him, follow the blue door.’”
Julián looked around the room.
“There are no blue doors.”
Elena stood.
“There was one.”
“Where?”
“In the old clinic.”
Lucía suddenly understood.
“The door under the chapel.”
Elena nodded.
“The one nobody was supposed to open.”
Mariana looked at her.
“What is behind it?”
Elena hesitated.
“Everything.”
Before anyone could ask another question, a loud metallic sound echoed through the tunnel.
Someone was opening the outer door.
Julián grabbed his weapon.
Elena switched off the lights.
Everyone became silent.
Footsteps entered the safe house.
Slow.
Calm.
Someone was not searching.
They knew exactly where to go.
The footsteps stopped outside the room.
A key turned in the lock.
Gabriel squeezed Mariana's hand.
Then a woman's voice came through the steel door.
“Mariana.”
Mariana recognized it immediately.
Her mother.
Isabel.
Alive.
The lock turned again.
May you like
And before the door opened, Isabel whispered one sentence that made Mariana's blood run cold:
“Don't let Julián see who is standing behind me...”
