Chapter 3 - The Secret Under Sofia’s Skin
The next morning, I moved Sofia and Matteo to a secure wing of the estate.
No one entered without my permission.
Every employee underwent interrogation.
Every guard was replaced or reassigned.
I trusted almost no one.
Sofia noticed.
Children notice everything.
“Are we prisoners?”
“No.”
“Then why can't I go outside?”
“Because someone is trying to hurt you.”
She thought about it.
“Does that happen to rich people?”
I smiled.
“More than you think.”
She looked at me.
“Are you scared?”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
“Me too.”
That was the first honest conversation we'd had.
I liked her.
She didn't pretend.
Meanwhile, Isabel stayed.
I needed answers.
She gave them slowly.
My father's family had maintained a hidden bloodline program.
It had nothing to do with science as I understood it.
It involved succession.
Property.
Private trusts.
Political leverage.
My father's greatest fear was that his empire would one day collapse because there would be no uncontested heir.
So he created a series of safeguards.
One of them involved me.
Another involved Maria.
But Sofia had inherited something neither my father nor his enemies had fully understood.
A genetic marker.
A rare trait connected to a maternal line that controlled access to a dormant trust.
I thought it sounded absurd.
Isabel showed me the documents.
It was real.
The trust contained billions in legitimate assets.
Real estate.
Shipping companies.
Bank holdings.
Investment portfolios.
Everything had been separated from the criminal side of the family decades earlier.
Only descendants of two bloodlines could unlock it.
Mine.
And Maria's.
That meant Matteo and Sofia were the only people who could eventually activate the trust.
I stared at the contract.
“My father planned for this.”
“Yes.”
“And someone found out.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Isabel hesitated.
“A man named Rafael Serrano.”
I frowned.
“Serrano?”
“Yes.”
“He is Elena's family?”
“Distant cousin.”
“What does he want?”
“The trust.”
“How did he know about it?”
“Your father told him.”
I felt anger rise.
“My father trusted him?”
“Once.”
“And then?”
“Rafael turned.”
I left the room.
I found Sofia in the library.
She was staring at old photographs.
She picked one up.
“Is that your father?”
“Yes.”
“He looks angry.”
“He always did.”
She smiled.
“Maybe that's where the baby gets it.”
I laughed.
She handed me the photograph.
Then she pointed toward a tiny symbol in the corner.
The crescent moon.
“That's on my key.”
I stared.
“How do you know?”
“I've seen it before.”
“Where?”
“My abuela has a necklace.”
I called Elena immediately.
She arrived twenty minutes later.
Sofia ran toward her.
“Abuela!”
They hugged.
I showed Elena the symbol.
She closed her eyes.
“You found it.”
“What is it?”
“A seal.”
“Whose?”
“Maria's.”
My pulse quickened.
“What does it open?”
Elena shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“Don't lie to me.”
She looked at me.
“I am too old to be afraid of you.”
That almost made me smile.
Then she said:
“It opens a room beneath your father's old house.”
My father's old house.
The one I had burned after his death?
No.
Not burned.
Demolished.
Or so I thought.
I checked property records.
One structure remained.
An underground archive.
I had never known.
We went there that night.
The tunnel entrance was hidden behind a wall in an abandoned vineyard.
My father had used the property decades earlier.
Sofia carried the brass key.
She inserted it into a lock shaped like the crescent symbol.
The door opened.
Inside were boxes.
Documents.
Photographs.
Medical records.
Birth certificates.
And a diary.
My father's handwriting.
I opened it.
The first pages were about business.
Then Maria.
He described her.
He described the threat to her life.
He described the hidden trust.
Then, one entry stopped me.
“I fear my enemies will someday target my grandchildren. If that day comes, protect the two children separately until they are old enough to understand why they matter.”
I stared.
The two children.
My father had known.
Before they were born.
He had planned everything.
But one final page contained a name.
RAFAEL SERRANO.
And beneath it:
He knows about the inheritance.
I turned the page.
It was missing.
Someone had ripped it out.
Sofia walked closer.
“What's wrong?”
“Someone took the last page.”
She looked around.
“Maybe they didn't take it.”
“What?”
She pointed toward the floor.
A small piece of paper had fallen beneath the desk.
I picked it up.
Only one sentence remained.
HE WILL COME FOR THE GIRL FIRST.
I looked at Sofia.
Then my phone rang.
It was Elena.
Her voice was shaking.
“Declan.”
“What?”
“Rafael knows where you are.”
“How?”
“I told him.”
I went silent.
“Why?”
“Because he came to me.”
“Where is he?”
Silence.
May you like
Then:
“He has Isabel.”
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