CHAPTER 12: THE WOMAN WHO REMEMBERED EVERYTHING
The photograph slipped from Sofía’s hand.
It landed on the concrete floor of the hidden room.
But nobody looked down.
Because everyone was looking at Valeria.
The woman standing behind them.
The woman whose entire life had just been questioned by one piece of paper.
Valeria’s face had turned pale.
Not the pale of someone caught lying.
The pale of someone watching a nightmare return.
“Nicolás…”
Her voice was barely audible.
But he did not answer.
He was staring at the photograph.
At Valeria.
At Elena.
At Mateo.
A newborn baby.
A secret meeting.
A truth hidden for ten months.
“How long?”
His voice was cold.
Valeria closed her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
That answer made something inside Nicolás break.
“You don’t know?”
“I swear.”
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“You held him.”
“Yes.”
“Then explain.”
Valeria looked at Sofía.
Then at the photograph.
Then she whispered:
“I remember now.”
The hidden room became a courtroom.
Nobody sat.
Nobody breathed.
Every person inside was waiting for one confession.
Valeria touched the photograph.
“I thought this memory was gone.”
“What memory?”
She looked at Nicolás.
“The night Mateo was born.”
A pause.
“I remember the hospital.”
Her voice trembled.
“I remember the doctors.”
“I remember Gabriel.”
Sofía watched her carefully.
“And Elena?”
Valeria nodded.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Valeria closed her eyes.
Ten months ago.
Saint Isabella Hospital.
A private room.
A newborn baby crying.
Valeria remembered waking up after delivery.
She remembered exhaustion.
Confusion.
And fear.
Because the first thing she saw was not Nicolás.
Not her family.
Not happiness.
It was Elena Reyes.
The nurse stood beside the baby.
Crying.
“You cannot tell anyone,” Elena had whispered.
Valeria remembered being confused.
“Tell anyone what?”
Elena looked at Mateo.
“He is alive because I changed everything.”
Valeria did not understand.
“What does that mean?”
Elena placed a document in her hands.
“Your son was supposed to be different.”
Those words terrified her.
“My son?”
Elena nodded.
“He is yours.”
A pause.
“But people wanted him to belong to an idea.”
Valeria opened her eyes.
Everyone was listening.
“I was afraid.”
Nicolás looked at her.
“Afraid of what?”
“Of losing my baby.”
She looked toward Mateo’s room.
“I was told that if I questioned anything, they would take him away.”
“Who?”
Valeria hesitated.
Then answered:
“Your father.”
The room went silent.
Again.
Nicolás looked like he had been hit.
“My father died years ago.”
Valeria nodded.
“I know.”
“Then how?”
“I never saw him.”
She looked at the documents.
“But I saw his orders.”
Sofía stepped closer.
“What orders?”
Valeria looked at her.
“The agreement.”
She pointed toward the files.
“The reason Gabriel was allowed to continue.”
She swallowed.
“Mateo was not created to become powerful.”
A pause.
“He was created because your father wanted proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That he could control nature.”
Sofía felt disgust.
Nicolás clenched his fists.
“So my father saw my son as an achievement.”
“Yes.”
Valeria looked at him.
“But Elena saw him as a child.”
Suddenly, the hidden room lights flickered.
Everyone turned.
Rafael immediately reached for his weapon.
A sound came from the old computer.
A notification.
A new file had appeared.
Nobody touched the system.
Nobody was near it.
Yet a message appeared.
PLAY ME.
Nicolás looked at Rafael.
“Can you trace it?”
Rafael checked.
His expression changed.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because it is coming from inside the system.”
“What does that mean?”
Rafael looked uncomfortable.
“It means someone already has access.”
The screen turned on.
A video began.
A man appeared.
Older.
Sick.
Weak.
But everyone recognized him.
Nicolás froze.
Because the man on the screen…
Was his father.
“Impossible.”
The word escaped his mouth.
Nobody corrected him.
Because everyone was thinking the same thing.
His father.
Dead.
Speaking from a hidden recording.
The old man looked directly into the camera.
“My family will call me a monster.”
A pause.
“They will be right.”
Nicolás’s face changed.
He had spent his whole life believing his father was a strict businessman.
Cold.
Difficult.
But still human.
Now he saw something else.
A man consumed by obsession.
The recording continued.
“I discovered something about powerful families.”
The old man coughed.
“We spend generations protecting money.”
A pause.
“But we ignore what protects money.”
He looked at the camera.
“People.”
Sofía listened carefully.
Because this sounded different.
Not like Gabriel.
Not like someone defending experiments.
Like someone who regretted them.
“I believed I could create a stronger future.”
His voice became weaker.
“I was wrong.”
Everyone froze.
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
“Adrian was never my first subject.”
Nicolás stopped breathing.
“What?”
The recording continued.
“The first subject was not a Velasco.”
The screen glitched.
Then a file appeared.
A name.
A child.
A date.
Sofía read it.
And her heart dropped.
Because the first child connected to the experiment…
Was not Adrian.
Not Valeria.
Not Mateo.
It was someone much closer.
Someone whose entire life had been built on a lie.
The name appeared:
SUBJECT ZERO: SOFÍA REYES.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Sofía stared at the screen.
“No…”
Her voice disappeared.
Nicolás turned toward her.
“Sofía…”
But she stepped backward.
Because suddenly every memory of her childhood felt different.
Her mother’s fear.
The missing documents.
The secrets.
The warnings.
Then the computer played one final line from Nicolás’s father.
A message recorded specifically for her.
“If Elena Reyes’s daughter finds this…”
The old man looked directly into the camera.
“Tell her the truth.”
A pause.
“She was never meant to be the nurse who saved Mateo.”
The screen went black.
Then the final words appeared:
May you like
SHE WAS THE FIRST CHILD WE FAILED TO CONTROL.
END OF CHAPTER 12
