Chapter 8: The Daughter Isabella Stole
For one long second, nobody moved.
Camila stood in the doorway with her hands pressed against her chest. Valentina trembled beside Isabella, her little fingers curled around the silver key.
Alejandro looked from one girl to the other.
Two daughters.
Two identical silver bracelets.
Two children who had been taught to fear the truth.
“Camila,” he said gently, “my name is Alejandro.””
The little girl frowned.
“I know.””
“Do you know who I am?””
She looked toward Isabella.
“She said you were a bad man.””
Alejandro's chest tightened.
“I'm sorry someone told you that.””
Isabella seized Camila's wrist.
“Get back inside.””
Camila pulled away.
“You said my real mommy died.””
Elena appeared at the top of the stairs.
Her face crumpled when she saw the child.
“Camila?””
The girl froze.
Elena took one hesitant step forward.
“Mi amor. It's Mommy.””
Camila stared at her.
Then she shook her head violently.
“No! My mommy has blonde hair.””
Elena covered her mouth.
Isabella had dyed her hair.
Or perhaps Camila had never been allowed to see Elena long enough to remember her.
Alejandro could barely breathe.
He turned toward Isabella.
“How long have you had her?””
Isabella's eyes darted toward her father.
Eduardo had reached the staircase. His whiskey glass was gone, and his expression had hardened.
“Isabella,” he ordered.
“Bring the child downstairs.””
She didn't move.
“Father, you said she would never find out.””
“Do as I say.””
Camila began to cry.
“You promised I could see the ocean.””
Elena reached for the railing.
“Camila, listen to me. You don't have to be afraid.””
The little girl looked at her again.
Something in Elena's voice seemed to reach her.
Camila took one step away from Isabella.
Then another.
Isabella grabbed her shoulder.
“Don't you dare!””
Alejandro moved.
He crossed the landing in two strides and pulled Isabella's hand away from the child.
“Don't touch her.””
Isabella slapped him.
“You ruined everything!””
He barely reacted.
“You stole my daughter.””
“I saved her!””
“From what?””
“From a life where she would always be second!””
The words exploded out of her.
Silence followed.
Alejandro stared at her.
“What does that mean?””
Isabella's breathing became ragged.
“Your father told me the truth. He said the firstborn would inherit everything, and the second child would become a problem. He promised my family a place in the company if we helped him erase the second birth.””
Elena staggered backward.
“You knew?””
Isabella turned toward her.
“I was twenty-five! My father told me it was necessary.””
“You visited me in the hospital,” Elena whispered.
“You told me my baby had died.””
Isabella's face twisted.
“You wouldn't listen. You kept screaming for both of them. The nurses had to sedate you.””
Elena looked as though she had been struck.
“You let me believe my daughter was dead.””
Isabella began to cry.
“I was trying to protect myself!””
“No,” Alejandro said.
“You were protecting your inheritance.””
Eduardo stepped forward.
“Enough. This conversation is over.””
He motioned to the guards.
Two men rushed up the stairs.
Daniel emerged from the corridor and blocked their path.
“Don't even think about it.””
One guard reached for his weapon.
Daniel struck his arm aside. The gun skidded across the marble.
The second guard grabbed Daniel from behind.
A struggle erupted on the landing.
Alejandro pulled both girls behind him while Elena rushed toward them.
“Valentina!””
Valentina broke free of Isabella and ran into her mother's arms.
For a moment, Elena simply held her daughter, pressing frantic kisses into her hair.
“My baby. My beautiful baby.””
Valentina clung to her.
“Mommy, you came back.””
“I never stopped loving you.””
Camila watched them from the doorway.
Her small face was confused and wounded.
“Why doesn't my mommy hug me like that?””
Elena lifted her head.
The question nearly destroyed her.
She opened one arm.
“Come here, sweetheart.””
Camila hesitated.
Then she ran.
Elena wrapped both daughters against her chest and sank to her knees.
Alejandro stood above them, unable to speak.
He had imagined finding Elena a thousand times.
He had imagined anger, tears, accusations, forgiveness.
He had never imagined this.
His daughters had spent their earliest years separated by a lie.
His beloved had been forced to mourn a living child.
And the woman he had nearly married had helped create that nightmare.
Eduardo clapped slowly.
“How touching.””
Alejandro rose.
“It's over.””
Eduardo smiled.
“No, Alejandro. You still don't understand.””
He pulled a document from his jacket.
“The company your father left you isn't entirely yours. The original trust agreement names both sons as beneficiaries. If Sebastián is alive, he can challenge your control.””
“Then let him.””
“And if he does, the company will collapse under litigation. Thousands of employees will lose their jobs.””
Alejandro's expression remained cold.
“You threatened my children to protect a business arrangement?””
“I protected an empire.””
“You protected your own greed.””
Eduardo's smile vanished.
He pointed at Elena.
“She knows what happened to your father.””
Alejandro turned.
Elena's face had gone pale.
“What is he talking about?””
She looked at the girls, then at Alejandro.
“I didn't want you to find out this way.””
“Find out what?””
Elena swallowed.
“Your father didn't die naturally.””
The words silenced the entire landing.
Alejandro stared at her.
“He died of a heart attack.””
“That is what the doctors reported.””
“And you think he was murdered?””
Elena nodded slowly.
“I was there the night he collapsed.””
Alejandro felt the floor shift beneath him.
“Why?””
“Because he called me to the estate. He said he wanted to return Camila and explain everything.””
Eduardo lunged toward her.
“She's lying!””
Daniel shoved him back.
Elena continued, her voice shaking.
“Your father told me he regretted what he'd done. He said he'd reveal the forged records and restore the girls' identities.””
Alejandro's throat tightened.
“What happened?””
“He drank from a glass of water. A few minutes later, he couldn't breathe.””
“Who was with him?””
Elena looked directly at Eduardo.
“He was.””
Eduardo's face turned scarlet.
“You have no proof!””
Elena reached into her pocket and produced a small memory card.
“I kept a recording.””
Alejandro stared at it.
“Of what?””
“Your father telling me everything. The adoption. The forged documents. The money he paid to the hospital.””
Eduardo's composure finally shattered.
“Give me that!””
He lunged.
Daniel caught him around the waist and slammed him against the wall.
A guard rushed forward, but the sound of sirens erupted outside.
Blue lights flashed through the windows.
Daniel had managed to trigger the emergency signal on his phone.
Police officers stormed the entrance.
“Everyone, hands where we can see them!””
Eduardo was dragged away, shouting threats.
Isabella sank to the floor.
Alejandro looked at her with disgust.
“You will never come near my daughters again.””
She stared up at him.
“You can't take everything from me.””
“I didn't take anything from you. You stole from my family, and now you're going to answer for it.””
As officers escorted her away, Isabella twisted around.
“You think you've won?””
Alejandro said nothing.
She leaned toward him and whispered, “Ask Elena what happened the night Sebastián died.””
Then she was gone.
An hour later, Alejandro sat in the back of an ambulance while a medic checked a cut on his forehead.
Elena sat beside him with Valentina asleep in her arms. Camila rested against her other side, clutching the stuffed rabbit Alejandro had retrieved from the floor.
The girls had already begun to drift toward sleep.
Alejandro watched them, overwhelmed by the fragile miracle of having them together.
“Why didn't you come back?”” he asked Elena quietly.
She stared at the ambulance doors.
“I tried.””
“When?””
“Six months after Valentina was born. I came to your office, but security wouldn't let me in. They said you had ordered them never to admit me.””
“I never gave that order.””
“I know that now.””
He closed his eyes.
“I would have taken you home.””
“I wanted to believe that.””
“Why didn't you?””
Elena looked at him.
“Because the next day, someone left a photograph of Valentina outside my apartment. There was a red circle drawn around her face.””
Alejandro went cold.
“They threatened her?””
“They said if I ever contacted you again, she'd disappear.””
He stared at his daughters.
“Who did it?””
Elena hesitated.
Then she whispered, “Sebastián.””
Alejandro felt as though someone had punched him.
“My brother?””
“He said he was protecting you. He believed our father had already arranged your death, and he thought keeping us apart would prevent the same thing from happening to Valentina.””
“That makes no sense.””
“He was terrified, Alejandro. He told me your father had discovered something about the company that could destroy all of you.””
Before Alejandro could ask more, Daniel appeared at the ambulance doors.
“Sir, we've recovered the estate's security footage.””
Alejandro stood.
“What does it show?””
Daniel looked at Elena.
Then he turned back to Alejandro.
“Sebastián was at the estate tonight.””
Alejandro's heart pounded.
“Where is he now?””
“Gone. But he left something in the house.””
Daniel handed him a photograph.
It showed Sebastián standing beside a man whose face had been partially obscured.
On the back was a handwritten message.
Ask your mother who your real father was.
Alejandro stared at the words.
May you like
His mother had been dead for fifteen years.
And suddenly, he wasn't sure he had ever truly known his family at all.
