Chapter Five – The Last Witness
The black sedan stopped beneath the mansion's front entrance.
Three men stepped into the rain.
They wore dark suits that revealed nothing about who they were, yet everything about why they had come.
Not guests.
Not police officers.
Professionals.
Inside the hidden room, Alejandro quickly gathered the will, Isabel's journal, and the sealed envelope.
"They know," he said quietly.
Elena looked toward the doorway.
"Who?"
"Verónica."
Before another word could be spoken, footsteps echoed through the portrait gallery.
The men were already inside the mansion.
Alejandro immediately extinguished the lamp inside the hidden room.
"Don't make a sound."
The concealed door remained slightly open.
Through the narrow gap they watched flashlights sweep across the gallery.
One of the men spoke into a radio.
"The room has been searched."
Another answered,
"Find the girl."
Elena instinctively covered her mouth.
Her heartbeat pounded so loudly she feared they could hear it.
The search lasted nearly ten minutes.
Finally...
The footsteps faded.
Alejandro waited another full minute before speaking.
"We're leaving."
"Through where?"
He pointed toward the back wall.
"Arturo built secret passages during the political unrest forty years ago."
Hidden behind another bookcase was a narrow stone corridor leading beneath the mansion.
Cold air rushed toward them.
The passage finally emerged inside an abandoned greenhouse behind the estate.
Only then did Alejandro breathe again.
"We're going to the only man who can prove everything."
"Who?"
He answered without hesitation.
"Doctor Emilio Salazar."
The Forgotten Doctor
The following morning they arrived at a modest cottage near a quiet coastal town.
Nothing about the house suggested its owner had once been one of the country's most respected physicians.
Doctor Salazar looked nearly eighty.
His hands trembled.
His face aged by guilt more than time.
The moment he saw Elena...
The color drained from his face.
"My God..."
He whispered.
"You have Isabel's eyes."
Alejandro placed the journal and the old photograph on the table.
"It's over, Emilio."
"No."
The old doctor shook his head.
"It should have ended years ago."
For several long moments he stared at Elena.
Then...
He began to cry.
"I signed the false medical report."
Elena froze.
"What report?"
"The report declaring your grandfather mentally incompetent."
Alejandro lowered his eyes.
Salazar continued.
"Verónica threatened my family."
"I was weak."
"I obeyed."
He swallowed painfully.
"Then she slowly poisoned Arturo."
Silence filled the room.
"I tried to stop her."
"I failed."
He opened an old cabinet and removed a sealed envelope.
"I've kept these for twenty-two years."
Inside were original laboratory reports.
Medical records.
Bank transfers.
Signed confessions.
Everything needed to destroy Verónica forever.
"I was too afraid to speak."
May you like
He looked directly at Elena.
"I'm not afraid anymore."
