Chapter 12 - The Daughter Adriana Hid
The address led to an old countryside house.
Inside, we found letters.
Dozens of them.
All addressed to me.
Adriana had written them over five years.
She never sent them.
The first letter explained everything.
I had been born during the same complicated pregnancy that everyone believed had produced only the three boys.
But I was Adriana's daughter too.
She had hidden me because someone wanted her children dead.
My mother, Lucía, had helped her.
She raised me under the Reyes name.
Adriana remained in my life from a distance.
She had watched me grow.
Then she died.
I cried until my chest hurt.
Julián sat beside me.
“I should have known.”
“You couldn't have.”
“I should have protected you.”
“You didn't know I existed.”
He looked at me.
“I knew you existed.”
I stared.
“What?”
He lowered his eyes.
“Adriana told me there was a child she couldn't protect.”
I felt betrayed.
“You knew?”
“I didn't know it was you.”
Carlos explained.
“Adriana feared Sebastián would use you against Julián.”
I wiped my tears.
“So Verónica…”
“She discovered the secret.”
Julián's face hardened.
“How?”
Carlos pointed to the letters.
“She found one of Adriana's old files.”
Then we heard footsteps outside.
Sebastián entered.
He looked almost exactly like Julián.
But colder.
Older.
He smiled.
“Hello, little sister.”
Julián stood.
“Stay away from her.”
Sebastián laughed.
“You still think this is about money.”
“What do you want?”
“The company.”
“No.”
“The trust.”
“No.”
Sebastián looked at me.
“Then perhaps the truth.”
He pulled out a photograph.
It showed Adriana holding me as a newborn.
Beside her stood Verónica.
I stared.
“Verónica knew.”
“Yes.”
“She worked for you.”
“She worked for herself.”
Sebastián's smile faded.
“She betrayed me.”
Julián looked confused.
“Then why did she accuse Mariana?”
“Because she thought Mariana had the original trust.”
I remembered the burned paper.
The red folder.
The gray box.
Everything suddenly connected.
Sebastián stepped closer.
“But she never found it.”
“Where is it?”
He looked at me.
“You have it.”
I froze.
“What?”
He smiled.
“The thing you carried out of this house five years ago.”
I searched my memory.
Then remembered.
A small notebook.
My old notebook.
The one containing the notes I had made about the children.
And inside it—
the burned piece of paper.
Sebastián's smile widened.
“Give it to me.”
I stepped backward.
“No.”
Then Julián moved in front of me.
May you like
Sebastián raised his gun.
And suddenly the lights went out.
