Chapter 15 - The Woman in the ChamberMariana couldn't move.
The voice came again.
“Daughter.”
Not loud.
Not threatening.
Almost tender.
The black door opened another inch.
Blue light poured across the floor.
Rafael dropped to his knees.
Adrian stared in horror.
Even Gabriel lowered his gun.
Only Elena seemed calm.
“She remembers.”
Mariana looked at her.
“Who?”
“My mother.”
Lucía stared at Elena.
“What did you call me?”
Elena frowned.
“I didn't.”
“Yes, you did.”
“No.”
Then Mateo spoke.
“She said our mother.”
Mariana looked at him.
“What?”
The boy pointed toward the door.
“She's talking.”
A figure appeared behind the opening.
A woman.
Tall.
Pale.
Long white hair.
She wore no shoes.
No visible wounds.
Her eyes glowed faintly blue.
Mariana felt the world tilt.
Rafael whispered:
“Isabela.”
Mariana turned sharply.
“My mother?”
Rafael nodded.
Mariana's breath caught.
“That isn't my mother.”
“No.”
He stared at the figure.
“That is her mother.”
Mariana understood.
Her grandmother.
The real architect behind everything.
The woman hidden behind the Salcedo family.
Isabela's mother.
Rafael's wife.
A woman believed to have died forty years earlier.
She stepped through the door.
The temperature dropped.
She looked at Mariana.
Then Mateo.
Then Elena.
“My children.”
Lucía began to cry.
“No.”
The woman looked at her.
“You failed.”
Lucía backed away.
Mariana stepped between them.
“What do you want?”
The woman smiled.
“You.”
“Why?”
“Because you carry the original sequence.”
“I don't know what that is.”
“You don't need to.”
She raised one finger.
The blue lights inside the chamber intensified.
Every screen around them switched on.
Images appeared.
Ancient cave paintings.
Human bodies.
Star maps.
Underwater structures.
Different civilizations.
All depicting the same three symbols.
Three dots.
A line.
A circle.
Mariana stared.
“How old is this?”
The woman answered:
“Older than your species.”
Adrian stumbled forward.
“You promised me immortality.”
The woman barely looked at him.
“You misunderstand.”
“What?”
“You were useful.”
Adrian's face collapsed.
Rafael laughed.
“You see?”
Adrian shot him.
Rafael fell.
Mariana screamed.
Gabriel fired at Adrian.
The chamber erupted.
Guards scattered.
Lucía grabbed the children.
The woman remained perfectly still.
The black door behind her opened wider.
A pulse of blue light crossed the chamber.
Mateo suddenly stiffened.
Mariana grabbed him.
“Mateo!”
He opened his eyes.
They were glowing.
He whispered:
“Mommy.”
“I'm here.”
“She's not our enemy.”
Mariana stared at him.
“What?”
Mateo pointed at the woman.
“She wants us to remember.”
“Remember what?”
“The first time.”
Mariana's vision blurred.
A memory slammed into her mind.
She was a child.
Not in the Salcedo mansion.
Somewhere underground.
Lucía was holding her.
Rafael stood across the room.
Adrian was younger.
A machine surrounded Mariana.
She was screaming.
But another child was there.
A boy.
Older.
Holding her hand.
The boy looked exactly like Mateo.
Older.
But identical.
Mariana gasped.
“That isn't possible.”
The woman smiled.
“It already happened.”
Mariana stared at her.
“Who was he?”
The woman stepped closer.
“Your first son.”
Mariana looked at Mateo.
“No.”
“You gave birth once before.”
Lucía closed her eyes.
Mariana turned.
“Is that true?”
Lucía began sobbing.
“Yes.”
“What happened to him?”
Silence.
Then the woman answered.
“He grew up.”
Mariana's heart stopped.
“Where is he?”
A voice came from behind the glass.
“Here.”
Mariana turned.
A man stepped out of the shadows.
Thirty years old.
Scar above his eyebrow.
Same eyes as hers.
Same birthmark.
Three dots.
He looked at Mariana.
May you like
And smiled.
“Hello, little sister.”
