Chapter 5 - The Grandmother Who Was Never Gone
My grandmother looked directly into the camera.
For three months, I had carried the pain of losing her.
For three months, I had believed I was alone.
I had slept on cold streets.
I had searched through garbage for food.
I had whispered her name when I was afraid.
And now she was standing in front of me.
Alive.
The room disappeared.
I didn't hear the guards.
I didn't hear the alarms.
I didn't hear Don Mateo Vargas ordering anyone to check the signal.
I only heard her voice.
"Aurelio..."
The way she said my name broke something inside me.
Because it was the same voice I remembered.
The same gentle voice that woke me up when I was sick.
The same voice that told me stories when the power went out.
The same voice that promised me everything would be okay.
But she wasn't supposed to exist anymore.
My knees almost gave out.
"No..."
The word came out quietly.
I stepped closer to the screen.
"That's impossible."
Nobody answered.
Because everyone in that room knew the truth was impossible.
Except somehow, it was happening.
The woman on the screen looked older than I remembered.
Her hair was more gray.
Her face had more lines.
But she was my grandmother.
Esperanza Mendoza.
Don Vargas stood beside me, completely frozen.
I looked at him.
"You knew?"
His eyes remained on the screen.
"I didn't."
"Don't lie to me."
My voice shook.
"You knew something."
He finally looked at me.
And the pain in his face surprised me.
"I knew she might still be alive."
Those words hit harder than anything else.
"Might?"
I turned toward him.
"My entire life changed because everyone thought she was dead."
He looked away.
"I spent years believing the same thing."
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't know where she was."
The answer sounded impossible.
But somehow, I believed him.
Because Don Vargas looked angry.
Not at me.
At himself.
On the screen, my grandmother continued speaking.
"Aurelio, if you are watching this, then Mateo found you."
Don Vargas looked up immediately.
Her voice continued.
"I knew he would."
I stared at the screen.
She knew.
She had planned this.
She knew that one day I would meet Don Vargas.
She knew that he would find me.
"But before you trust anyone," my grandmother said, "you need to understand something."
The video paused.
A loading symbol appeared.
Everyone waited.
Then the image returned.
This time, my grandmother looked different.
More serious.
More afraid.
"I didn't disappear because I wanted to leave you."
My eyes burned.
"I disappeared because someone was trying to erase our family."
The room became silent.
Family.
That word kept returning.
A family I never knew existed.
A history everyone hid from me.
My grandmother looked directly at the camera.
"Your parents didn't abandon you."
I stopped breathing.
The room seemed to tilt.
My parents.
The people I barely remembered.
The people everyone told me were gone.
"They were trying to protect you."
I moved closer.
"Protect me from who?"
The video continued.
"From the same people who destroyed everything we had."
A shadow moved behind her.
Someone else was in the room.
My heart raced.
My grandmother noticed something.
She looked over her shoulder.
Then back at the camera.
"If Mateo is with you, then he already knows part of the truth."
Don Vargas clenched his jaw.
"But there is something even he doesn't know."
Everyone looked at him.
My grandmother whispered:
"Mateo's father did not betray me alone."
The video ended.
The screen went black.
Nobody spoke.
I turned slowly toward Don Vargas.
"What does that mean?"
He didn't answer.
Because he knew exactly what it meant.
"My father had someone helping him."
I watched his expression.
"Who?"
His silence became the answer.
"You know."
He looked at the floor.
"I have suspicions."
"Who?"
He looked at the security monitor.
At the locked gates.
At the mansion filled with secrets.
Then he said a name.
"Victor Salazar."
The same man standing outside.
The same man who somehow knew about me.
I remembered the photograph in his hand.
My grandmother.
The baby.
The unknown man beside her.
Everything connected.
"Why would he help your father?"
Don Vargas walked toward the table and opened the old folder again.
"There was a time when Victor wasn't my enemy."
He removed another document.
"He was my closest friend."
I stared.
"You trusted him?"
"Yes."
"And now?"
Don Vargas looked at me.
"Now I think he helped destroy the only person who ever believed in me."
Before I could respond, the security system sounded again.
This time, louder.
A guard rushed into the room.
"Boss."
Don Vargas turned.
"What?"
The guard looked nervous.
"The man outside sent another message."
The screen turned on.
Victor Salazar appeared again.
This time, he wasn't standing outside the gate.
He was sitting somewhere.
A dark room.
The same kind of room where my grandmother's video was recorded.
He looked directly at the camera.
"Mateo."
Don Vargas stepped forward.
Victor smiled.
"You finally watched her message."
Nobody moved.
"You always were slow when it came to understanding Esperanza."
Don Vargas's face hardened.
"Where is she?"
Victor laughed quietly.
A sound without happiness.
"You still think this is about finding her."
He leaned closer to the camera.
"It's about finding out why she chose the boy instead of you."
My heart stopped.
"What does that mean?"
Victor looked directly at me.
Even through the screen, it felt like he could see me.
"Aurelio Mendoza."
My name sounded wrong coming from him.
"You have spent your entire life believing you were just a forgotten child."
A pause.
"You were wrong."
Don Vargas stepped closer.
"Enough."
Victor ignored him.
"Your grandmother didn't hide you because you were weak."
The room became colder.
"She hid you because you were the last person who could expose the truth."
I looked at Don Vargas.
"What truth?"
Victor smiled.
Then the screen changed.
A photograph appeared.
An old hospital record.
A name.
A date.
My birthday.
And underneath it...
A different surname.
Don Vargas moved closer.
His face changed.
Because he recognized what was written.
"No..."
I stared at the screen.
"What is it?"
Nobody answered.
Then Victor spoke one final time.
"Mateo, you spent twenty years protecting the wrong heir."
The screen went black.
And Don Vargas whispered the words that changed everything.
"Aurelio..."
He looked at me.
"You're not Esperanza Mendoza's grandson."
May you like
A pause.
"You're something far more dangerous."
