Chapter Three – The Portrait's Secret
Thunder rolled across the night sky as the rain battered the tall windows of the De la Vega mansion.
Inside the library, Elena stared at the faded photograph of the smiling young woman.
She still could not believe what Alejandro had told her.
"My mother... was a De la Vega?"
Alejandro nodded slowly.
"Not only a De la Vega."
He paused.
"She was Arturo's only biological child."
Elena looked up, confused.
"But everyone says Verónica inherited everything after Mr. Arturo died."
"They say many things."
He sighed heavily.
"Most of them are lies."
For several moments, neither of them spoke.
The grandfather clock echoed through the quiet room.
Finally, Alejandro unlocked the wooden box completely.
Beneath stacks of letters lay an old leather journal wrapped in faded blue ribbon.
He held it carefully, almost reverently.
"I prayed this hadn't been destroyed."
The cover bore a single name.
Isabel.
Elena hesitated before opening it.
The first pages were filled with pressed flowers, little sketches, and happy memories.
"Father promised to teach me how to ride tomorrow."
"Mother says home is wherever love lives."
"One day I'll raise my own children in this house."
Tears blurred Elena's vision.
She had never imagined her mother had once written with such hope.
As she turned the pages, the handwriting changed.
The cheerful entries became shorter.
Uneven.
Fearful.
"Father has married Verónica."
"She smiles in public... but never when we're alone."
"She watches everything I do."
Alejandro lowered his head.
"I warned Arturo."
"He wouldn't listen."
"He believed love could change people."
"It didn't."
The next entry made Elena's heart sink.
"Father is sick."
"The doctors cannot explain why he grows weaker every day."
Another page.
"Verónica insists on choosing Father's medicine herself."
Another.
"I overheard her arguing with Dr. Salazar."
"He looked terrified."
Elena slowly looked up.
"She poisoned him?"
Alejandro remained silent.
Silence itself became the answer.
Before Elena could ask another question, a folded envelope slipped from between the journal's pages.
Written across the front were six simple words.
To my daughter... if I disappear.
Elena's hands began trembling.
"My mother wrote this?"
Alejandro nodded.
"Open it."
She carefully unfolded the yellowed paper.
Inside, Isabel's handwriting remained remarkably steady.
"My precious little Elena..."
"If you are reading this, then I could not protect you."
"Never believe anyone who says I abandoned you."
"I have loved you every second of your life."
"If I disappear, it is because someone inside this family wants us erased."
"Trust Alejandro Herrera."
"He is the only person your grandfather ever trusted completely."
"And never stop searching for the truth."
A tear fell onto the paper.
Then another.
Elena covered her mouth to stop herself from crying aloud.
"I thought..."
She could barely speak.
"I thought she didn't want me."
Alejandro gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
"She spent her life trying to keep you alive."
Outside the library...
A shadow silently moved past the doorway.
Someone had heard every word.
Verónica stood in the dark corridor, her breathing uneven.
She had spent twenty-two years making certain that letter would never be found.
Yet here it was.
In Elena's hands.
Her lawyer approached cautiously.
"What now?"
She answered without hesitation.
"Find Salazar."
"He retired years ago."
"I don't care where he is."
"If he speaks..."
She looked toward the library.
"...everything ends."
The lawyer nodded before disappearing into the rain.
Verónica remained standing alone.
May you like
For the first time in decades...
She felt afraid.
