Chapter 4: Elena’s Final Trap
Alejandro raised his hands.
“Let her go.”
Gabriel backed onto the rain-soaked balcony.
Below them, black water crashed against the rocks.
Vivian stood near the staircase with blood running from a cut above her eyebrow.
“You don’t have to do this,” she told Gabriel.
He laughed.
“You think you’re leaving here alive?”
Vivian went pale.
Gabriel had never planned to share the money.
He had never planned to protect her.
She had been another disposable piece in his scheme.
Elena met Alejandro’s eyes.
She gave the smallest shake of her head.
Don’t move.
For three years, Gabriel and Vivian had believed fear made her weak.
They had never understood that fear had taught her patience.
“You wanted the company,” Elena said. “But you were never smart enough to run it.”
Gabriel pressed the gun harder against her.
“Be quiet.”
“You needed Vivian to forge the documents. You needed corrupt guards to control the house. You needed Alejandro’s reputation to open doors for you.”
“Stop talking.”
“You spent your entire life blaming your brother because admitting the truth would destroy you.”
Gabriel’s breathing changed.
“The truth is that you failed on your own.”
He spun Elena around and raised the gun.
At that moment, she tore a silver pendant from beneath her uniform.
A red light blinked inside it.
Gabriel stared.
Elena smiled for the first time.
“Everything you said tonight was recorded.”
Rosa had found the pendant among the surveillance equipment in the east wing. It had once been used to monitor Elena.
Now it had captured Gabriel’s confession.
Sirens echoed around the estate.
Gabriel dragged Elena toward the edge of the balcony.
Alejandro stepped forward.
“Take me instead.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“You would survive losing me. You won’t survive losing her.”
Vivian moved behind him.
She picked up a heavy iron fireplace tool from the floor.
“Elena,” Vivian whispered.
Gabriel turned.
Vivian struck his wrist.
The gun flew over the railing and disappeared into the lake.
Elena dropped to the ground.
Alejandro charged as Gabriel reached for Vivian.
The brothers crashed through the balcony doors.
Agents flooded the hallway.
Gabriel fought until three men forced him to the floor and placed him in handcuffs.
Even then, he continued shouting.
“This family belongs to me!”
Alejandro knelt beside Elena.
She was shaking, but she was alive.
Sofia’s bedroom door opened.
The little girl stood there, crying.
Alejandro looked at his daughter for the first time.
She had Elena’s dark curls.
She had his father’s stubborn chin.
And she had his eyes.
He slowly approached her.
Sofia hid behind Elena.
“It’s okay,” Elena whispered. “This is your daddy.”
Alejandro knelt several feet away, afraid that moving too quickly would frighten her.
“I looked for you,” he said, his voice breaking. “I didn’t know your name, but I looked for you every day.”
Sofia studied him.
Then she held out her stuffed rabbit.
“His name is Mr. Blue.”
Alejandro accepted the toy as though she had handed him the entire world.
“Hello, Mr. Blue.”
Sofia stepped closer.
Then she placed her tiny hand in his.
Behind them, agents led Vivian toward the stairs.
She stopped beside Elena.
For the first time, her face held no arrogance.
Only defeat.
“Gabriel told me Alejandro would eventually love me,” Vivian said. “He said once you were gone, I could have your life.”
Elena stared at her.
“You could have walked away.”
Vivian lowered her eyes.
“I know.”
As the agents took her downstairs, Isabel approached with a tablet in her hand.
“We found the offshore accounts,” she told Alejandro. “The forged contracts, the payments to investigators, everything.”
“Then it’s over.”
Isabel hesitated.
“No.”
She turned the screen toward him.
A payment of ten million dollars had been transferred to Gabriel’s first shell company three years earlier.
The authorization came from an account belonging to someone Alejandro had trusted even more than his brother.
His late father.
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And attached to the transfer was a message:
Remove Elena before she destroys the Castillo name.
