Chapter 3 - The Secret Under the Tracks
We found the hidden room beneath the railway station at 2:13 in the morning.
There was a loose metal panel behind an electrical cabinet.
The blue bird was scratched into it.
Inside was a narrow tunnel.
At the end was a room with no windows.
And in the center stood an old wooden desk.
My father's desk.
I knew it immediately.
The same dark wood.
The same brass handles.
The same tiny scratch near the left corner that my mother had made with a vase twenty years earlier.
I opened the drawers.
Nothing.
Then I noticed the bird carved underneath.
I pressed it.
A compartment opened.
Inside was a ledger.
And a letter.
For Alejandro.
My hands shook.
I opened it.
My son,
If you're reading this, then something has happened that I hoped never would.
You will probably be angry with me.
You should be.
I learned too late that money attracts people who would rather own lives than improve them.
The foundation was being robbed.
Children were being used as numbers.
I tried to stop it.
But I discovered something worse.
The person stealing from the foundation wasn't working alone.
It was someone close to our family.
The letter continued.
I couldn't trust the police.
I couldn't trust my lawyers.
So I hid the records.
And I made one promise.
To a woman named Sofia.
Her daughter is Lucía.
Keep them safe.
I stopped reading.
Lucía's mother.
Sofia.
My father had known her.
He had promised to protect her.
But why?
The next page answered.
Sofia discovered the truth.
She saw who was taking the money.
Who was selling information.
Who was threatening families.
She gave me the proof.
If anything happens to her, protect Lucía.
I looked at María.
"My father wasn't helping Lucía because of charity."
"Then why?"
"Because he owed her mother."
"What did Sofia know?"
I turned the page.
A name.
Rafael Duarte.
Another name.
Gabriel Romero.
My older cousin.
I stared.
Gabriel was the one person in our family who had disappeared after my father's death.
Everyone said he had left Barcelona.
The ledger suggested otherwise.
Gabriel had been managing the foundation.
And the money had vanished under his signature.
María whispered,
"Do you think he killed your father?"
"I don't know."
Then footsteps echoed in the tunnel.
We turned.
A man stood there.
Rafael Duarte.
He looked older.
Thinner.
But alive.
I raised my weapon.
"You kidnapped Lucía."
He shook his head.
"No."
"Where is she?"
"With the only person who can protect her."
"Who?"
He looked at the ledger.
"Your cousin."
Gabriel.
My stomach twisted.
"Why?"
"Because your cousin isn't the villain."
Rafael stepped forward.
"He was trying to stop them."
"Then who was?"
Rafael looked at me.
"Your father."
Silence.
"What?"
"Your father discovered the theft."
"Yes."
"He tried to expose them."
"Then why blame Gabriel?"
"Because Gabriel took the blame."
I couldn't breathe.
"For whom?"
Rafael didn't answer immediately.
Then he said,
"For your mother."
My blood ran cold.
"My mother?"
"She wasn't supposed to know."
"Know what?"
"That your father had been laundering money."
I stared.
The perfect family I remembered was dissolving around me.
Rafael told me the truth.
My father had created illegal accounts to move money into charities without attracting enemies.
But some of the money had been stolen.
Gabriel had discovered it.
My mother had discovered Gabriel's investigation.
She confronted my father.
Then she disappeared.
I had always been told she died of illness.
She hadn't.
She had fled.
For years, I had never known why.
"Where is she?"
Rafael looked at me.
"Alive."
I staggered backward.
"No."
"She lives under another name."
"Where?"
Before he could answer, gunshots erupted.
Men rushed into the tunnel.
Rafael shoved the ledger toward me.
"Run!"
I grabbed it.
María and I escaped through another passage.
When we reached the street, my phone rang.
Gabriel.
His voice was cold.
"You're looking for Lucía."
"Where is she?"
"Come alone."
"Why?"
"Because if you bring your men, she dies."
"You're my cousin."
"That's why I'm calling you."
"Where?"
"Your father's old summer house."
He hung up.
I looked at María.
She shook her head.
"You can't go alone."
"I have to."
"He's manipulating you."
"Maybe."
Then I looked at the ledger.
"But he's protecting the girl."
The summer house stood outside Barcelona.
It had been abandoned for years.
Gabriel was waiting in the garden.
And Lucía was sitting on the steps beside him.
She wasn't tied.
She wasn't hurt.
She ran toward me.
I dropped to my knees.
She threw her arms around my neck.
"I knew you'd come."
I held her.
"Who took you?"
She pointed at Gabriel.
"He did."
I stood.
Gabriel raised his hands.
"She was never in danger."
"You threatened me."
"I needed you to come."
"Why?"
"Because you don't know what your father left you."
He looked at the ledger.
"You think that's everything?"
"No."
"Good."
He looked toward the house.
"Because the real secret is inside."
We entered.
On the wall hung a photograph of my father.
Beside him stood a woman.
Sofia.
Lucía's mother.
And next to her was my father.
But in the photograph, Sofia was pregnant.
And my father had his hand protectively on her shoulder.
I stared.
"Why was my father protecting her?"
Gabriel answered.
"Because Lucía is not who you think she is."
Lucía looked up at me.
May you like
Gabriel continued.
"She's your sister."
