## CHAPTER 18 — MATEO’S REAL VALUE
I wanted to drive to Camino Verde immediately.
Daniel took my keys.
“They expect you to panic.”
“They have my son.”
“And if you arrive alone, they will have both of you.”
“My father is in custody. Sofia is missing. Beatriz escaped. Who else do I have?”
“You have me.”
Daniel’s arm had been bandaged, but his face was pale from smoke exposure.
“You should be in a hospital.”
“I’ll go after Mateo is safe.”
We traced the white card to a private printing company owned by a foundation subsidiary.
The authorization had come from Esteban Rojas.
My father’s trusted legal adviser.
Esteban had disappeared after the prison transport crash.
Now his fingerprints were appearing everywhere.
Daniel searched Esteban’s office and discovered a hidden compartment beneath the floor.
Inside were custody petitions prepared months before Mateo was born.
The petitions accused me of emotional instability, financial misconduct, and endangering an unborn child.
Beatriz had planned to remove Mateo from me long before the confrontation in the marble foyer.
But another document changed everything.
It was a trust agreement created by my biological mother.
The trust contained shares in seven international companies.
Those shares had remained frozen for twenty-eight years.
They could be released only after two conditions were met.
Subject B had to be alive.
And Subject B had to produce a legal heir.
Mateo’s birth had activated the trust.
The companies were worth billions.
“This is why they wanted him,” Daniel said.
“Money?”
“Control.”
The trust did not simply contain wealth.
The seven companies held private medical records, political payment histories, real estate deeds, and ownership interests connected to powerful families.
Whoever controlled Mateo’s guardianship could eventually claim access.
Santiago had married me to reach the trust.
Beatriz had tried to gain custody.
But neither of them was the true beneficiary.
The final page named a successor trustee.
The name had been blacked out.
Daniel examined the document under ultraviolet light.
The hidden signature appeared slowly.
LUCIANA VALE.
My twin sister.
“She’s alive,” I whispered.
“And she has been planning this for years.”
A phone began ringing inside Esteban’s desk.
Daniel answered on speaker.
Sofia’s voice came through.
“Do not go to Camino Verde.”
“Where is Mateo?” I demanded.
“He is alive.”
“Did you take him?”
“Yes.”
Rage flooded through me.
“You swore you saved him.”
“I did save him.”
“Then bring him back.”
“I cannot.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother is alive.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What did you say?”
“She ordered me to bring Mateo to Camino Verde.”
“You work for her?”
“I have always worked for her.”
A baby cried in the background.
Mateo.
I gripped the phone.
“Let me hear him.”
The crying suddenly stopped.
A different woman came onto the line.
Her voice was calm and familiar.
I had heard it on the cassette from Santa Aurelia.
My mother.
“Come home,” she said.
May you like
“And I will explain why your father chose the wrong daughter.”
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