Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Knew Too Much
The door opened and Rebeca stepped inside.
She looked directly at me.
Then at Teresa.
“Mrs. Ledesma,” she said calmly, “I didn't know you were visiting.”
Teresa's expression changed instantly.
The cruel woman who had just tried to suffocate me disappeared.
In her place stood the grieving mother-in-law everyone trusted.
“Oh, Rebeca,” Teresa said softly. “I was comforting Valeria. She had another nightmare.”
I almost laughed.
Almost.
Rebeca walked toward the bed.
Her eyes briefly dropped to the pillow.
Then to my face.
She understood.
“Would you like me to check her oxygen?”
Teresa stepped back.
“No. She's fine.”
Rebeca smiled politely.
“I'll need to check anyway.”
Teresa hesitated.
Then she left.
The moment the door closed, Rebeca leaned toward me.
“Did you press it?”
I blinked once.
“Yes.”
Her face tightened.
“Then we have a problem.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“Someone else entered the hospital system using your husband's credentials.”
My blood ran cold.
“Who?”
“We don't know yet.”
She adjusted my IV.
“Your records were accessed three times last night. Someone searched your medication history, your room number, and the security cameras.”
I swallowed.
“Teresa?”
Rebeca shook her head.
“Not directly.”
That was worse.
Because if it wasn't Teresa, someone else was working with her.
That afternoon, Andrés Cota arrived with Jimena Robles, my attorney.
Andrés had worked with me before.
He was the kind of investigator who rarely smiled.
When he saw the bruising around my neck, he didn't ask what happened.
He already knew.
“You were right,” he said.
I looked at him.
“About the accident?”
He placed a folder on the table.
“About everything.”
Inside were photographs of the terrace.
One showed the broken railing.
Another showed the metal support.
A third showed something that made my stomach tighten.
The bolts.
They had not snapped.
They had been removed.
I closed my eyes.
For nine days, I had wondered whether my memory had betrayed me.
Now I knew.
Someone had prepared the railing.
Someone had expected me to fall.
Jimena opened another folder.
“The insurance policy is real.”
I looked at her.
“And the signature?”
“Forged.”
“Mateo?”
She didn't answer immediately.
“We found the person who processed the policy change.”
Andrés slid a photograph across the table.
A woman I had never seen before stood outside an insurance office.
“Who is she?”
“She worked for one of the three shell companies you discovered.”
I felt the room become colder.
Then Andrés said something that changed everything.
“The companies weren't stealing from the foundation.”
I stared at him.
“What were they doing?”
“They were moving money into an account connected to someone inside your family.”
Jimena closed the folder.
“And that person just made a withdrawal.”
My phone, sitting on the table, suddenly lit up.
One message appeared.
FROM MATEO:
I KNOW YOU'RE TALKING TO ANDRÉS.
Then another message arrived.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STOPPED DIGGING.
May you like
And before I could show anyone, a third message appeared.
THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING...
