Chapter 4 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Nobody moved.
Three knocks.
Then silence.
Andrés positioned himself between the door and my bed.
Jimena turned off the television.
Rebeca stood beside me.
Another knock.
This time, a man's voice came through the door.
“Valeria.”
I recognized the voice.
Not because I had heard it before.
Because I had heard it in my dreams.
The voice from the terrace.
The voice that had said something just before I fell.
“Don't move.”
Andrés looked at me.
“You know him?”
I shook my head.
The door opened.
A tall older man stood outside.
Gray hair.
Dark suit.
Calm eyes.
He looked at the photograph in Andrés's hand.
Then at me.
“I'm Gabriel.”
My entire body went cold.
“You're supposed to be dead,” I whispered.
He nodded.
“That's what my mother wanted everyone to believe.”
Teresa.
Gabriel entered.
Jimena immediately blocked him.
“Don't come closer.”
He stopped.
“I don't want to hurt her.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because my brother is about to kill her.”
I stared at him.
“Mateo?”
Gabriel looked at me.
“Yes.”
The room seemed to tilt.
He explained that twenty-one years earlier, a financial scandal had threatened the Ledesma family.
Gabriel had discovered that Teresa and several executives were moving money through false companies.
He had planned to expose them.
Then his car crashed.
Everyone believed he died.
But Gabriel survived.
He disappeared because the people responsible had convinced him that his own family would finish what the crash had started.
“For twenty years, I stayed away,” he said.
“Why come back now?”
“Because Teresa made one mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“She married you.”
I didn't understand.
Gabriel looked at the folders.
“You found the accounts.”
“Yes.”
“You found the insurance policy.”
“Yes.”
“You discovered the terrace wasn't an accident.”
My eyes widened.
“How do you know?”
He reached into his jacket.
He pulled out a small envelope.
Inside was a photograph of the terrace.
Taken before my fall.
The railing was already damaged.
Someone had been standing beside it.
Mateo.
I stared at the picture.
Gabriel whispered:
“He didn't push you.”
My heart stopped.
“He didn't?”
“No.”
Gabriel turned the photograph over.
A handwritten note was attached.
“Someone else loosened the railing.”
I looked at him.
“Who?”
Gabriel's expression changed.
He glanced toward the hospital hallway.
Then he said:
May you like
“The person who gave Teresa the order was standing beside your bed nine days ago.”
The door behind him suddenly slammed shut...
