Chapter 6 - The Woman Beneath The Mansion
The hidden panel opened.
Slowly.
Cold air rose from the darkness below the surveillance room.
I stood beside Damian, staring at the staircase that appeared beneath the floor.
Neither of us moved.
Because we both knew one thing.
There was something beneath his mansion that even Damian Costa had never told anyone about.
The intercom remained silent.
Gabriel was gone.
But his final words stayed inside my head.
Your mother never died.
I looked at Damian.
"How long have you known about this?"
His face remained pale.
"I didn't."
I almost laughed.
"You're telling me there is a hidden room under your surveillance room, and you didn't know?"
Damian looked down into the darkness.
"I built this mansion twenty years ago."
"Exactly."
His expression hardened.
"Someone built something under it after."
That answer scared me more than anything.
Because Damian Costa was a man who controlled everything.
And now he was standing beside me, looking at his own house like it belonged to someone else.
We took the stairs down.
The deeper we went, the colder it became.
The walls were different from the rest of the mansion.
Old concrete.
Steel doors.
No luxury.
No decoration.
This was not part of Damian's world.
This was something hidden from him.
At the bottom was a small underground corridor.
A single light flickered above us.
At the end of the hallway was a door.
No lock.
No security system.
Just a simple wooden door.
Damian stopped.
I noticed his hands tighten.
"You know this door."
He shook his head.
"No."
But his voice was not convincing.
I walked closer.
There was something carved into the wood.
A name.
Elena.
My mother's name.
My heart started beating faster.
I touched the letters.
The door suddenly unlocked.
From the inside.
Damian stepped back.
Someone was there.
"Hello?"
My voice echoed.
No answer.
I pushed the door open.
The room beyond was small.
A bed.
A table.
A lamp.
A bookshelf.
It looked like someone had lived there.
Recently.
On the table was a cup of coffee.
Still warm.
I looked at Damian.
"Someone was here."
He didn't respond.
Because he already knew.
A sound came from the corner.
A small movement.
Then a woman's voice.
"Damian."
I froze.
Damian froze.
Because he recognized that voice.
Slowly, a woman stepped out from the shadows.
Older.
Tired.
But alive.
Her hair was shorter.
Her face had changed.
But her eyes were the same as the photograph.
Elena Marquez.
My mother.
The woman everyone said was dead.
The woman who had been missing for twenty years.
I couldn't breathe.
I couldn't move.
The world around me disappeared.
My mother looked at me.
Tears filled her eyes.
"Sofia."
The way she said my name broke something inside me.
Not because I knew her.
Because I didn't.
I had spent years imagining my mother's face.
Her voice.
Her smile.
And now she was standing in front of me.
Alive.
Real.
But hidden.
I whispered:
"Why?"
It was the only word I could say.
Why did you leave me?
Why did you let me believe you were gone?
Why did you hide?
Elena took one step forward.
"I wanted to come back."
Her voice shook.
"I tried."
I looked at Damian.
He looked completely lost.
"You knew?"
Elena looked at him.
"No."
Damian's eyes narrowed.
"What?"
"I never told you where I was."
The room became silent.
Everything changed.
Because Damian had spent twenty years believing he failed to protect her.
But now she was saying something else.
Someone had hidden her.
From everyone.
Including him.
Elena sat at the table.
I remained standing.
I was afraid that if I sat down, everything would become real.
"You deserve answers," she said.
I looked at her.
"I deserved a mother."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I know."
"No."
My voice cracked.
"You don't know."
I looked away.
"You missed birthdays. You missed my first day of school. You missed everything."
She lowered her head.
"I watched."
That made me stop.
"What?"
"I watched you grow."
I stared at her.
"How?"
Elena looked toward Damian.
"He helped me."
Damian looked surprised.
"I thought you were gone."
"I needed you to think that."
The words hurt him.
I could see it.
"Why?"
Elena took a deep breath.
"Because Victor wasn't working alone."
The room changed.
Victor.
The dead brother.
The man behind the betrayal.
"He had people everywhere," Elena continued.
"Inside the company. Inside the police. Inside security."
She looked at Damian.
"If he knew you were protecting me, he would have killed you too."
Damian looked away.
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I trusted the wrong person."
Silence.
I looked between them.
"What does that mean?"
Elena reached for a folder on the table.
Inside were documents.
Photographs.
Names.
The truth.
She placed one photograph in front of me.
It showed Victor Costa.
Standing beside Marcus Vale.
The head of Damian's security.
But there was another person.
Someone younger.
Someone I recognized.
My breath stopped.
It was me.
As a child.
Standing beside Marcus.
"He knew you before Damian did," Elena said.
I stared at the photograph.
"No."
My voice became quiet.
"That's impossible."
Elena shook her head.
"Marcus was the one who helped Victor erase your identity."
I looked at Damian.
The anger on his face told me he believed her.
"Why?"
Elena answered.
"Because Victor needed you gone."
"Why would he care about me?"
She looked at me.
"Because you were the only person who could inherit what your father left behind."
My heart stopped.
"My father?"
Elena nodded.
"Gabriel discovered Victor's entire operation."
She opened another file.
"Before he disappeared, he created evidence."
"Where?"
Elena looked at Damian.
"Inside Sofia's identity."
I frowned.
"I don't understand."
"Gabriel knew if Victor found the evidence, he would destroy it."
She touched my hand.
"So he hid it somewhere nobody would search."
I looked at her.
"Where?"
She whispered:
"In you."
The room became silent.
I felt like I couldn't breathe.
"My identity?"
Elena nodded.
"Gabriel created a backup system."
She pointed toward the files.
"Your birth records. Your school records. Your entire life."
"What does that mean?"
"It means your identity was not erased."
She looked at Damian.
"It was protected."
Damian stared at the documents.
All these years, he believed someone had destroyed the truth.
But someone had hidden it.
Waiting for the right moment.
I looked at Elena.
"Why did you let me become a maid?"
Her expression changed.
That question hurt her.
"Because I needed you close enough to discover the truth."
I stepped back.
"So this was planned?"
"No."
She shook her head quickly.
"I never wanted you involved."
"Then why?"
"Because someone else brought you here."
My blood ran cold.
"What?"
Elena looked at Damian.
"Who hired you, Sofia?"
I thought about it.
The agency.
The interview.
The offer.
Everything.
Then I remembered.
The person who recommended the job.
A woman from the employment agency.
Someone who never appeared in the records.
I whispered:
"I don't know."
Elena's face changed.
"You need to remember."
"Why?"
She grabbed my hand.
"Because that person didn't send you here to clean."
The lights suddenly went out.
The room went dark.
Damian immediately reached for his phone.
No signal.
The underground door slammed shut.
Locked.
A sound came from the hallway.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Calm.
Coming closer.
Elena's face turned pale.
"No..."
I looked at her.
"Who is it?"
She whispered:
"The person who started all of this."
The footsteps stopped outside the door.
A shadow appeared beneath the gap.
Then a voice spoke.
A voice I had heard before.
The same voice from the employment agency.
The same person who offered me the job at the Costa mansion.
May you like
The door handle began to turn.
And Elena whispered my real name for the first time.
