CHAPTER 11: THE TRUTH ABOUT ELENA REYES
The world became silent.
Not the peaceful silence that came after Mateo stopped crying.
Not the fragile silence of a family afraid to speak.
This was the silence before something broke.
Sofía stood frozen outside the office door.
Her hand rested against the wooden frame.
Her heartbeat was so loud she was certain everyone could hear it.
Her mother.
Elena Reyes.
The woman who taught her that medicine existed to protect people.
The woman who spent her entire life helping strangers.
The woman who became the reason Sofía chose nursing.
Helped create Mateo?
No.
Impossible.
A lie.
It had to be a lie.
But the problem was…
Gabriel Ortega was not smiling like a man telling a random lie.
He was smiling like a man who had been waiting years to say something.
Nicolás moved first.
He stepped toward Gabriel.
“You are going to explain.”
His voice carried the same coldness that made entire companies fear him.
But Gabriel did not move.
He looked almost amused.
“Still trying to control every room you enter.”
“You used my family.”
“No.”
Gabriel tilted his head.
“I used your father’s ambition.”
The sentence stopped Nicolás.
“My father is dead.”
“Is he?”
The question was quiet.
But it changed everything.
Sofía stepped inside.
“Stop playing games.”
Both men looked at her.
Gabriel smiled.
“Just like Elena.”
Sofía’s expression hardened.
“Do not say her name.”
“Why?”
He walked closer.
“Because you think you know who she was.”
A pause.
“But you only know the version she wanted you to know.”
Sofía felt anger rising.
“My mother was a good person.”
Gabriel nodded slowly.
“She was.”
The answer surprised her.
“She was one of the smartest people I ever worked with.”
“Worked with?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked at Nicolás.
“Your mother told you half the truth.”
Nicolás’s eyes narrowed.
“And the other half?”
Gabriel looked at Sofía.
“Your mother was not trying to destroy the research.”
He paused.
“She was trying to finish it.”
Nobody spoke.
Because sometimes the most dangerous lies were the ones that contained a piece of truth.
Sofía stepped closer.
“What research?”
Gabriel walked toward the desk.
“The human environment project.”
“The experiment.”
He smiled slightly.
“People love that word.”
“Because it is accurate.”
“Is it?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“Tell me something, Sofía. If a doctor discovers a disease before it appears, is that evil?”
“No.”
“If a doctor tries to prevent suffering, is that evil?”
“No.”
“Then where does science become evil?”
Sofía did not answer.
Because she knew where.
“When you stop seeing people as people.”
Gabriel’s smile disappeared.
For a moment, his expression became serious.
“Your mother said the same thing.”
That sentence hit her harder than expected.
Gabriel continued.
“Your mother joined the project because she believed she could control it.”
Nicolás stared.
“She worked with him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she discovered your father was already moving forward without limits.”
Gabriel looked at the old documents.
“She wanted to stop him.”
Sofía frowned.
“Then why does the evidence say she helped create Mateo?”
“Because she did.”
Silence.
Gabriel looked at her.
“But not the way you think.”
He explained.
The original project was not about creating a perfect child.
It was about understanding environmental triggers.
Why some children developed severe reactions.
Why some bodies rejected modern chemicals.
Why certain families had inherited vulnerabilities.
The research began with a legitimate medical question.
Then powerful people changed it.
Money entered.
Ego entered.
The desire for control entered.
And suddenly children became numbers.
Subjects.
Results.
“Your mother discovered what your father wanted to do.”
Gabriel looked at Nicolás.
“He wanted to create heirs who could survive anything.”
Nicolás’s face darkened.
“And Mateo?”
“Mateo was the final stage.”
Sofía shook her head.
“No.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“Yes.”
“He was created?”
“Yes.”
The word felt unreal.
“How?”
Gabriel answered calmly.
“Your mother was responsible for the genetic correction.”
Sofía stepped back.
“No.”
“She saved him.”
“From what?”
“From the original design.”
The room became silent.
Gabriel opened a file.
Inside were genetic reports.
Old.
Detailed.
Terrifying.
“Your father wanted a child who carried the strongest traits from multiple family lines.”
Nicolás looked disgusted.
“A weapon.”
Gabriel did not deny it.
“A successor.”
The difference was only a matter of perspective.
Sofía looked at the reports.
“So my mother changed him?”
“Yes.”
“She altered the project?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Gabriel’s expression softened.
“Because Elena realized Mateo was not a project.”
A pause.
“He was a baby.”
Sofía felt tears forming.
For the first time, Gabriel’s story matched the mother she knew.
The woman who would choose a child over power.
“She tried to protect him.”
Gabriel nodded.
“She hid his records.”
“She erased his identity.”
“She changed his future.”
Nicolás looked at him.
“Then why did you continue?”
Gabriel’s expression became cold.
“Because she was wrong.”
Before anyone could respond, the lights suddenly went out.
Again.
The same darkness.
The same silence.
But this time…
Nobody was surprised.
Someone had planned it.
A few seconds later, emergency lights turned on.
Gabriel was gone.
The office window was open.
Impossible.
Security surrounded the mansion.
Nobody could enter.
Nobody could leave.
Yet he disappeared.
Nicolás rushed to the window.
Nothing.
Only the gardens.
Only darkness.
Then Rafael’s voice came through the radio.
“Sir.”
Nicolás answered.
“What?”
A pause.
Then:
“We found someone.”
Everyone ran downstairs.
In the underground garage, a security guard was standing beside a hidden room.
A room that had not appeared on any mansion blueprint.
Inside was a bed.
Medical equipment.
Documents.
And photographs.
Hundreds of photographs.
Mateo.
Valeria.
Adrian.
Sofía’s mother.
All connected.
All watched.
For years.
Sofía picked up one photograph.
It showed Elena holding baby Mateo.
But this time, she noticed something.
Written on the back:
"The child must survive."
Then another sentence:
"Even if everyone else believes he is mine."
Sofía’s hands shook.
Because suddenly she understood.
The secret was not that Mateo was not Nicolás’s son.
The secret was worse.
Someone had intentionally made everyone believe he was.
She turned another photograph over.
And froze.
Because there was one person in the background.
A person who had been present at Mateo’s birth.
A person who knew everything.
A person who had lied for ten months.
The person was standing beside Elena.
Holding newborn Mateo.
The name written below the photo was:
May you like
VALERIA SERRANO.
END OF CHAPTER 11
