CHAPTER 14 — RICARDO SETS THE TRAP
Ricardo placed the USB drive on the table.
Everyone stared at it.
Valeria pressed a cloth against her forehead.
Gabriel stood near the tunnel entrance.
Diego sat beside Ricardo.
Isabela was still in Mateo's hands.
Every second mattered.
Gabriel spoke first.
“What are you planning?”
Ricardo looked at him.
“The truth.”
“That isn't a plan.”
“It is if Mateo believes it can destroy him.”
Ricardo connected the USB drive to an old laptop.
Folders appeared.
Hundreds.
Financial records.
Names.
Transfers.
Photographs.
Audio files.
Contracts.
Ricardo opened the largest folder.
PROJECT ORPHEUS.
He clicked.
A list appeared.
At the top:
ALEJANDRO GALVÁN.
Below it:
MATEO SERRANO.
ESTEBAN RIVAS.
JAVIER MENDOZA.
And dozens of names Ricardo didn't recognize.
Then he saw another file.
SUBJECT R-01.
He opened it.
A photograph appeared.
Ricardo as a child.
Underneath:
ORIGINAL IDENTITY: EMILIANO GALVÁN
Ricardo stopped breathing.
Gabriel looked away.
Ricardo turned to him.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You knew my real name.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because your father made me promise.”
Ricardo's voice became bitter.
“My father made everyone promise something.”
Gabriel nodded.
“He was afraid.”
“Of Mateo?”
“Of what Mateo knew.”
Ricardo scrolled.
A second photograph appeared.
A newborn.
The file said:
SUBJECT R-01 — BIOLOGICAL FATHER: MATEO SERRANO
Ricardo stared.
Then another file.
BIOLOGICAL MOTHER: ELENA GALVÁN
His mother.
Everything suddenly aligned.
His mother.
Mateo.
His grandfather.
His father.
The lies.
The hidden identity.
The fake records.
But one question remained.
“Why did Alejandro raise me?”
Gabriel answered:
“Because Elena died protecting you.”
Ricardo looked at him.
“From Mateo?”
“No.”
“From your grandfather.”
Silence.
“Your grandfather wanted you eliminated because you were the only heir whose bloodline couldn't be controlled.”
Ricardo frowned.
“But if Mateo is my biological father—”
“Then Mateo couldn't inherit through you.”
Ricardo understood.
“So he needed me gone.”
“Yes.”
“And he needed a replacement.”
“Yes.”
Ricardo remembered what Isabela had said.
The other child.
The boy brought into the family.
Ricardo searched the files.
Then he found it.
SUBSTITUTE HEIR — R-02.
A photograph appeared.
Ricardo stared.
It was a boy.
Same age.
Same hair.
Similar face.
The child who had replaced him.
Ricardo whispered:
“Who is he?”
Gabriel looked at the screen.
“Sebastián.”
“Where is he now?”
“Dead.”
Ricardo looked at him.
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
Ricardo's face changed.
“The same year Diego was born.”
Gabriel nodded.
Ricardo suddenly understood.
“Mateo killed Sebastián.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Sebastián was no longer useful.”
Ricardo closed his eyes.
All of it had been connected.
But then something else appeared on the screen.
A medical photograph.
A newborn child.
Diego.
Ricardo stared.
The file was marked:
PROJECT ORPHEUS — SECOND GENERATION
His hands began to shake.
“Second generation?”
Gabriel said nothing.
Ricardo opened the file.
There was one sentence.
IF R-01 HAS A MALE CHILD, CONTROL PASSES TO THE CHILD.
Ricardo stared.
Then looked at Diego.
Mateo hadn't wanted Diego because he was a child.
He wanted him because of what Diego represented.
Control.
Inheritance.
Blood.
Ricardo's voice became quiet.
“He doesn't want my son.”
Gabriel nodded.
“He wants what belongs to him through your son.”
Ricardo looked at the screen.
Then smiled.
It was the first smile anyone had seen from him in hours.
Gabriel frowned.
“What?”
Ricardo stood.
“We're going to give him exactly what he wants.”
Valeria stared.
“You can't.”
“I can.”
“He'll kill Diego.”
“Not if he believes Diego is the key to everything.”
Ricardo opened another file.
Then another.
He found the financial records.
The hidden accounts.
The names.
The evidence.
He copied everything.
Then he sent it.
Not to the police.
Not to the authorities.
To hundreds of journalists.
Lawyers.
International financial investigators.
Government offices.
Every recipient received the same message.
THE GALVÁN FILES.
Then Ricardo turned off the laptop.
Valeria stared at him.
“What did you do?”
“Made the truth impossible to bury.”
Gabriel looked impressed.
“But Mateo will know.”
“I want him to.”
Ricardo pulled out his phone.
He called a number he hadn't used in years.
The person answered.
“Who is this?”
Ricardo replied:
“Ricardo Galván.”
A pause.
Then:
“I thought you were dead.”
“Not yet.”
“What's happening?”
“I need every federal prosecutor who can legally receive evidence.”
The voice became serious.
“What kind of evidence?”
Ricardo looked at Diego.
“Evidence of a private criminal network operating through Galván Holdings for decades.”
Silence.
Then:
“Send it.”
Ricardo did.
Within seconds, the files left his phone.
He looked at Gabriel.
“Now we wait.”
But Gabriel shook his head.
“No.”
“What?”
“Mateo won't wait.”
As if summoned by the words—
Ricardo's phone rang.
Mateo.
Ricardo answered.
“Where is my aunt?”
Mateo laughed softly.
“You think you've won.”
“No.”
“You released the files.”
“Yes.”
“You've exposed people who can erase you.”
“Good.”
Mateo became silent.
Ricardo continued.
“You've spent thirty-eight years hiding.”
“You have no idea what you've started.”
“I know exactly what I've started.”
Mateo's voice changed.
“You want Isabela?”
“Yes.”
“Then come alone.”
“Where?”
“The old Galván cemetery.”
Ricardo frowned.
“Why?”
“Because your father's grave has something you need.”
Ricardo's expression hardened.
“What?”
Mateo answered:
“Your father's final confession.”
The call ended.
Ricardo looked at Gabriel.
“The cemetery.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“It's a trap.”
“I know.”
“Then don't go.”
Ricardo looked at Diego.
“I have to.”
Valeria stepped forward.
“Ricardo, please.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
She hesitated.
“There is something I never told you.”
Ricardo waited.
Valeria's voice trembled.
“When Diego was born…”
She looked at the boy.
“…Mateo wasn't the first person to hold him.”
Ricardo frowned.
“Who was?”
Valeria looked toward Gabriel.
Then whispered:
“Your father.”
Ricardo stared.
“My father held Diego?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night he was born.”
Ricardo's face changed.
“And what did he say?”
Valeria began crying.
“He looked at Diego and said…”
She paused.
“He said, ‘If they ever find out who this boy really is, they will kill him.’”
Ricardo looked at Diego.
Then at the dark tunnel.
Then toward the cemetery.
He understood.
His father had known.
All along.
And if Mateo still possessed his father's final confession—
then somewhere in that graveyard was the answer to the question that had haunted Ricardo since the night he discovered the first lie.
Why had Alejandro spent his entire life hiding the truth about his own son?
Ricardo picked up his jacket.
“Stay here.”
Gabriel stopped him.
“Where are you going?”
“To the cemetery.”
“You said you wouldn't walk into his trap.”
Ricardo looked back.
“I’m not going there to be trapped.”
He reached for the door.
“I’m going there to spring one.”
Outside, thunder rolled across the mountains.
And hundreds of miles away—
Mateo opened a laptop.
The leaked files were spreading across the world.
He should have looked afraid.
Instead, he smiled.
Because one file had never been uploaded.
The most important file.
The one that could destroy Ricardo completely.
Mateo opened it.
The title appeared on the screen:
RICARDO GALVÁN — ORIGINAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE.
He looked at the photograph attached to it.
May you like
Then whispered:
“Let's see what happens when he learns who signed it.”
