## CHAPTER 21 — THE GREEN HOUSE AT CAMINO VERDE
When the emergency lights activated, the room was empty.
The woman had disappeared.
Santiago had lost consciousness.
Daniel arranged for federal agents to recover him, but we could not wait.
The address for Camino Verde led to a road outside the city.
At the end stood a large green house surrounded by dead gardens and iron fencing.
No guards were visible.
The gate opened as we approached.
“They want us inside,” Daniel said.
“I know.”
The front door was unlocked.
The house smelled like dust and roses.
Portraits covered the walls.
In every portrait, two young girls stood beside my mother.
One was labeled Luciana.
The other was labeled only with the letter B.
Someone had documented our childhoods in parallel.
Photographs showed me on my first day of school.
At a birthday party.
Graduating from college.
Meeting Santiago.
Someone had watched me for years.
Luciana’s photographs were different.
Weapons training.
Language lessons.
Courtrooms.
Boardrooms.
She had been raised to infiltrate powerful families.
I had been raised to believe I was ordinary.
A nursery had been prepared upstairs.
Mateo’s blanket lay inside the crib.
It was still warm.
I called his name.
No answer.
Daniel found fresh tire marks behind the house, but no vehicle.
On the nursery wall was a live video screen.
The screen activated when I touched the crib.
Sofia appeared in a white room holding Mateo.
He was awake but calm.
“Sofia!”
She looked toward the camera.
“I am sorry.”
“Bring him back.”
“I cannot leave this room.”
“Where are you?”
“Beneath the house.”
Daniel searched the floor.
A hidden elevator was built behind the nursery wardrobe.
Sofia’s voice continued.
“Your mother planned for this day before you were born.”
“Why does she need Mateo?”
“She does not need his money.”
“Then what does she want?”
“You.”
The image shook.
Someone entered the white room.
Sofia turned.
The feed went black.
The hidden elevator required two handprints.
One was mine.
The other belonged to Luciana.
Daniel bypassed the system using wires from the wall.
The elevator descended beneath the foundation.
The doors opened onto a corridor filled with glass rooms.
Inside each room were files, photographs, disguises, and identity documents.
The organization had trained people to replace heirs, spouses, witnesses, and executives.
At the end of the corridor, Sofia lay unconscious beside an empty crib.
Mateo was gone.
A door stood open behind her.
I ran through it.
The room beyond contained a long table.
Beatriz sat at the far end.
This time, I knew immediately that it was really her.
She wore the same cold expression she had worn in the marble foyer.
“You took my son.”
“No.”
“You tried before.”
“Yes.”
“Why should I believe anything you say?”
“Because the people you trusted have lied more convincingly than I ever did.”
Daniel raised his weapon.
“Where is the child?”
Beatriz looked at me.
“With Luciana.”
“And my mother?”
Beatriz smiled.
“You still haven’t understood.”
The man in the gray coat stepped from behind a curtain.
He removed his coat.
Then he removed the realistic mask covering his face.
My father’s face appeared beneath it.
Not my father.
A man who looked nearly identical to him.
Beatriz stood.
“Meet the founder of Santa Aurelia.”
The man looked at me.
“I am your biological father.”
A baby cried behind the final glass door.
Mateo.
Then another figure stepped into view.
A woman holding my son.
She had my exact face.
May you like
Luciana.
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