Chapter 9 — The Night Their Lives Were Rewritten
The first attacker entered through the bedroom window.
Mateo struck him before he could raise his weapon.
The second came through the hallway.
Alejandro tackled him into the wall.
The gun fell.
Lucía grabbed Isabella and ran.
“Downstairs!”
The house erupted into chaos.
Glass shattered.
Bullets tore through the walls.
Mateo fired from the staircase.
“Move!”
Alejandro pushed Lucía and Isabella toward the kitchen.
A hidden door opened behind a cabinet.
Lucía stopped.
“I remember this.”
Alejandro looked at her.
“What?”
“This door.”
She pulled it open.
A narrow staircase descended into darkness.
They hurried down.
At the bottom was a concrete tunnel.
Alejandro stared.
“Where does this lead?”
Lucía pointed ahead.
“I don't know.”
But her feet kept moving.
As though some buried part of her already knew the way.
They reached a steel door.
Mateo opened it.
A vehicle tunnel stretched beneath the property.
At the far end—
headlights.
Someone was coming.
Alejandro pulled Lucía behind a concrete pillar.
The vehicle stopped.
The door opened.
Rafael stepped out.
Blood covered his shirt.
Lucía gasped.
“You're alive.”
Rafael nodded.
“Barely.”
Alejandro approached him.
“You were shot.”
“I know.”
“Where's the bullet?”
“Shoulder.”
Mateo looked at the wound.
“Through-and-through.”
Rafael looked at Isabella.
“She's safe?”
Alejandro stepped between them.
“You knew where she was.”
“Yes.”
“You hid her.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Rafael stared at him.
“Because Elena wanted her dead.”
Alejandro's expression hardened.
“You could have told me.”
“You wouldn't have believed me.”
“You could have tried.”
“I did.”
“When?”
Rafael looked at him.
“The night Lucía disappeared.”
Alejandro froze.
Rafael continued.
“You were drugged.”
“I know.”
“You woke up three days later.”
Alejandro frowned.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I woke up the next morning.”
Rafael shook his head.
“That is what they told you.”
Alejandro stared.
“What happened during those three days?”
Rafael looked toward Lucía.
“They took you to the clinic.”
Lucía whispered:
“The clinic.”
Rafael nodded.
“Victor's private facility.”
Alejandro felt a cold wave move through him.
“What did they do?”
“Memory conditioning.”
“Why?”
“To make you believe Lucía had betrayed you.”
Lucía closed her eyes.
Rafael continued.
“They showed you photographs.”
“Fake photographs?”
“Some were fake.”
“And the others?”
Rafael's silence answered him.
Alejandro's face changed.
“What others?”
“The photographs of you and Valeria.”
Lucía looked at him.
Alejandro's heart sank.
“They were real.”
Rafael nodded.
“But not what you thought.”
Alejandro looked at Lucía.
“I never slept with her.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Lucía's eyes filled with tears.
“I know now.”
Rafael pulled a small device from his jacket.
“A recording.”
He handed it to Mateo.
“Play it.”
Mateo connected it to his phone.
A voice filled the tunnel.
Alejandro's voice.
Seven years younger.
“Lucía, if anything happens, you have to remember this.”
Lucía gasped.
The recording continued.
“I don't know who we can trust.”
Then Lucía's younger voice.
“What about your mother?”
Alejandro's recorded voice answered:
“Especially not her.”
Lucía covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
“I found the records.”
“What records?”
“The children.”
A pause.
“Rafael says there are others.”
Lucía's voice became frightened.
“How many?”
“I don't know.”
The recording stopped.
Alejandro stared at Rafael.
“What is this?”
Rafael looked exhausted.
“The truth.”
“What children?”
“Children born to wealthy families who were then erased from inheritance records.”
Alejandro's face hardened.
“And Isabella?”
“She was one of them.”
Lucía whispered:
“Why?”
“Because Elena discovered Esteban's will.”
Rafael looked at Alejandro.
“Your father had changed his inheritance plan.”
“How?”
“He intended to leave everything to Isabella.”
Alejandro stared.
“But she was only a baby.”
“Exactly.”
Rafael nodded.
“That terrified Elena.”
“So she took her.”
“She tried.”
“Then you stopped her.”
“Yes.”
Alejandro looked at his brother.
“Why?”
Rafael looked down.
“Because she was my niece.”
His voice broke.
“I wasn't willing to let my mother kill a child.”
Silence.
Alejandro slowly lowered his guard.
“What happened after you took Isabella?”
“I hid her.”
“Where?”
“The lake house.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Elena had control of everything around you.”
Rafael looked at Lucía.
“She even had doctors watching her.”
Lucía whispered:
“They made me forget.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you remembered Isabella.”
Lucía's eyes widened.
“And Alejandro?”
“They needed him to believe you abandoned him.”
Alejandro felt sick.
“Why Valeria?”
Rafael looked at him.
“Because Elena needed someone who could replace Lucía.”
Alejandro stared.
“She chose Valeria.”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
“Because Valeria's sister was vulnerable.”
Rafael looked at the blood on his shirt.
“Everyone was being controlled by someone.”
Alejandro thought of Esteban.
“Except Victor.”
Rafael's expression darkened.
“Victor was never controlled.”
“Then who does he work for?”
Rafael didn't answer.
Instead, he looked at Isabella.
Then at Lucía.
Then at Alejandro.
“Your father wasn't the founder of the Black Serpent.”
Alejandro's blood went cold.
“Who was?”
Rafael whispered:
“Elena.”
Lucía shook her head.
“No.”
Rafael nodded.
“She built it.”
Alejandro's mind raced.
His mother.
The woman who had raised him.
The woman who had taught him that family was everything.
She had built the organization that destroyed his family.
But Rafael wasn't finished.
“There is one thing you still don't know.”
“What?”
“Esteban didn't discover the organization four years ago.”
Alejandro stared at him.
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
Alejandro's heart stopped.
The same year he supposedly met Lucía.
Rafael continued.
“He discovered it because of you.”
Alejandro shook his head.
“What does that mean?”
“You weren't supposed to meet Lucía seven years ago.”
Lucía looked at Rafael.
“Then when did we meet?”
Rafael hesitated.
“Eight years ago.”
Alejandro froze.
Lucía stared at him.
“Eight years?”
“Yes.”
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
Rafael pulled another photograph from his jacket.
It showed Alejandro and Lucía standing outside a small café.
Both were smiling.
They looked younger.
Happy.
And beneath the photograph was a date.
EIGHT YEARS AGO.
Lucía's hands began trembling.
“I remember that café.”
Alejandro looked at her.
“I do too.”
“But I thought it was our first date.”
“It wasn't.”
Rafael shook his head.
“It was the day you decided to leave the city together.”
Alejandro stared at him.
“Why don't we remember?”
Rafael's answer was barely audible.
“Because the night after that photograph was taken…”
He looked toward Lucía.
“…your daughter was born.”
Lucía gasped.
Alejandro stepped backward.
“No.”
Rafael nodded.
“And the following morning, Elena took Isabella.”
Alejandro's voice cracked.
“Then what happened to us?”
Rafael looked directly into his eyes.
“They erased the next seven years.”
Silence.
Then—
a phone rang.
Everyone froze.
Mateo answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“Rafael.”
Rafael's face went pale.
Victor.
“You should have stayed dead.”
The line went silent.
Then a second message appeared on Alejandro's phone.
A photograph.
Esteban.
Bound to a chair.
Elena standing behind him.
And beside her—
Victor.
But that wasn't what terrified Alejandro.
It was the person standing in the corner.
A young woman.
Holding a folder.
Rafael stared at the photograph.
His face collapsed.
“No…”
Alejandro looked at him.
“Who is she?”
Rafael whispered:
“My daughter.”
Lucía looked at him in shock.
“You have a daughter?”
Rafael nodded.
“And Elena has her.”
The message underneath the photograph appeared:
BRING ISABELLA TO ME, OR RAFAEL'S DAUGHTER DIES.
Alejandro stared at the screen.
Then he looked at Isabella.
His daughter had only just found her parents.
And already—
someone was threatening to take another child away.
May you like
This time, Alejandro knew exactly what he was willing to do.
He would burn the entire Montero empire to the ground before he let them touch another child.
