Chapter 8 - The Woman Wearing My Ring
I stared at the photograph.
My wedding ring.
The same ring that had been on my finger when I fell.
The same ring Mateo had placed there three years earlier.
But the woman in the photograph was not me.
“Who is she?” Jimena asked.
“I don't know.”
Gabriel stared at the image.
Then his face changed.
“Victoria.”
I looked at him.
“You're sure?”
“Yes.”
“But you said she was dead.”
“She was.”
Gabriel zoomed in on the photograph.
“Or at least I believed she was.”
Andrés examined the image.
“This photograph is recent.”
“How can you tell?”
“The security camera reflection.”
He pointed at the background.
A digital clock.
The date was from six months earlier.
Teresa had lied about Victoria.
So had everyone else.
We needed to find her.
The search led us to an abandoned property outside Santa Fe.
Police found no one there.
But they found boxes.
Inside were copies of my identity documents.
My passport.
My tax records.
My medical history.
And dozens of photographs of me.
Some had been taken before I married Mateo.
Some showed me entering the Ledesma offices.
Some showed me sleeping.
I felt sick.
Someone had been watching me for years.
Then Andrés found a folder.
VALERIA — REPLACEMENT PLAN.
Inside was a photograph of a woman who looked remarkably similar to me.
Not identical.
But close enough from a distance.
The plan described forged documents, insurance changes, and a staged death.
Jimena read the last page.
“They intended to replace you.”
I couldn't breathe.
“With whom?”
Gabriel answered.
“Victoria.”
The pieces finally connected.
Teresa hadn't simply wanted me dead.
She wanted my identity controlled.
My accounts.
My insurance.
My signature.
My access to the foundation.
Everything.
But why?
Gabriel opened another folder.
Inside was an old birth certificate.
Two names appeared.
Gabriel's eyes widened.
“That's impossible.”
“What?”
He looked at me.
“You weren't the first person Teresa tried to replace.”
My hands went cold.
“Who was?”
Gabriel turned the paper toward me.
At the bottom was a name.
Mateo Ledesma.
But beside it was another name.
Mateo's original birth name.
I read it twice.
Then the hospital phone rang.
Rebeca answered.
Her face went white.
She handed me the receiver.
A woman whispered:
May you like
“Valeria, Mateo isn't who you think he is.”
Then the line went dead...
