Chapter 2: The Brother Who Helped Bury Her
Alejandro stepped in front of Elena.
Gabriel’s gun remained steady.
For years, Gabriel had stood beside him at press conferences, family funerals, and late-night meetings with investigators.
He had hugged Alejandro when the police suspended the search.
He had poured drinks while Alejandro blamed himself for Elena’s disappearance.
“You helped me search for her,” Alejandro said.
Gabriel gave a quiet laugh.
“I made sure you searched in the wrong places.”
Rosa moved closer to the wall.
Gabriel pointed the gun at her.
“Don’t.”
She froze.
Alejandro’s voice hardened.
“Why?”
“Because Father left you everything that mattered.”
Gabriel’s expression twisted.
“The company. The mansion. The voting shares. Even his respect. I spent my entire life being introduced as Alejandro Castillo’s younger brother.”
“You could have built your own life.”
“I tried.”
Gabriel’s eyes moved toward Elena.
“Then she found the offshore accounts.”
Alejandro looked back at his wife.
Elena’s breathing became shallow.
“Two weeks before I disappeared, I discovered money being transferred from Castillo Holdings,” she said. “The payments were approved with your name, but the destination accounts belonged to shell companies.”
“Gabriel’s companies,” Alejandro realized.
Gabriel smiled.
“Elena threatened to tell you. Vivian suggested a cleaner solution.”
“Vivian worked for you?”
“At first.”
A flicker of resentment crossed Gabriel’s face.
“But Vivian became emotional. She always had an unhealthy attachment to you. Keeping Elena alive gave her a sense of power.”
Alejandro remembered Vivian appearing at his side after Elena vanished.
She had brought him meals.
Scheduled interviews with investigators.
Comforted him during sleepless nights.
All while his wife was imprisoned behind locked doors.
“You forged Elena’s goodbye letter,” Alejandro said.
“And the airport footage. And the bank withdrawals. Every clue led you farther away.”
Elena’s grip tightened around Alejandro’s arm.
“What did you do with Sofia?”
Gabriel’s smile disappeared.
“The child was never part of the plan.”
Elena lunged toward him.
Alejandro caught her before Gabriel could react.
“Where is she?” Elena cried.
Gabriel aimed the gun at her chest.
“That depends on whether Alejandro cooperates.”
A sudden crashing sound echoed from the other end of the tunnel.
Gabriel turned his head.
Rosa seized the moment.
She kicked a loose brick from the base of the wall. The old stones shifted, releasing a cloud of dust.
Alejandro charged.
He slammed Gabriel against the wall and knocked the gun from his hand.
The weapon fell into a drainage channel.
Gabriel drove his elbow into Alejandro’s ribs, broke free, and ran through the open passage.
Alejandro started after him, but Elena grabbed his coat.
“Let him go. He’ll lead us to Sofia.”
They returned to the east wing through the passage Gabriel had left open.
The room beyond it was not a bedroom.
It was a cell disguised as servants’ quarters.
Metal bars had been installed behind the wooden door. The windows were sealed. A camera watched from the ceiling.
A thin mattress lay on the floor beside a plastic basin.
Alejandro’s eyes moved to the wall.
Elena had covered it with drawings.
A baby’s face.
Tiny hands.
A little girl standing beneath the sun.
Alejandro pressed his fist against his mouth.
“I left you here.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have known.”
Elena touched his face.
“You trusted your family. That isn’t the same as abandoning me.”
Rosa opened a cabinet containing medical supplies, sedatives, and stacks of forged documents.
Alejandro photographed everything.
Then Elena found a small black safe hidden behind the cabinet.
Alejandro entered the date of his father’s death.
The lock clicked open.
Inside were financial ledgers, passports bearing Elena’s photograph under false names, and a sealed envelope labeled:
IN THE EVENT ELENA CASTILLO IS FOUND
Alejandro tore it open.
The document inside was a death certificate.
Elena Castillo.
Cause of death: accidental drowning.
The date was three days in the future.
“They were going to kill me,” Elena whispered.
Rosa reached deeper into the safe and removed another folder.
Inside was a recent photograph of a little girl with dark curls and Alejandro’s eyes.
She was standing outside a stone house beside a lake.
Written across the back were two words:
Ravenwood Estate.
A phone began ringing inside the safe.
Alejandro found a small burner phone beneath the papers.
He answered.
Vivian’s voice came through the speaker.
“You found the picture.”
Alejandro’s blood turned cold.
“Where is my daughter?”
Vivian switched to a video call.
The screen showed the little girl from the photograph sitting on a bed, clutching a stuffed rabbit.
A red laser point appeared on the wall beside her head.
Vivian whispered into the phone.
“Transfer control of Castillo Holdings to me before midnight.”
May you like
The camera moved closer to the frightened child.
“Or Sofia disappears just like her mother did.”
