Chapter 14 - The Blood on the PlatformEsther held the gun.
Alejandro stared at her.
“You killed him.”
“No.”
She pointed toward Esteban.
“He did.”
Alejandro turned.
Esteban stood several meters away.
His face expressionless.
“You're both lying.”
Esther laughed.
“Of course.”
Gabriel was still alive.
Barely.
Mateo rushed to him.
The bullet had entered his shoulder.
Not fatal.
But he was losing blood.
They escaped through the station tunnel.
Alejandro carried Gabriel.
For the first time, he heard the truth directly.
Gabriel had not abandoned Isabella.
He had been imprisoned.
Esteban had discovered the Marquez inheritance plan and wanted to control it.
But Gabriel had hidden the keys to the trust.
The final key belonged to his first grandchild.
Alejandro's unborn child.
“That is why Valeria had to be discredited,” Gabriel whispered.
“They don't need to kill the baby.”
Alejandro stared.
“What?”
“They need legal control of the child.”
Esteban's strategy was more sophisticated than anyone realized.
He didn't need murder.
He needed judges.
Doctors.
Documents.
Guardianship.
Then the child could be born into a system controlled by him.
Alejandro looked at Valeria.
The entire attack had been designed to make them look unstable.
Then Gabriel revealed the worst part.
“Esteban has already transferred parts of the trust.”
“How much?”
“Forty percent.”
Alejandro's face hardened.
“To whom?”
Gabriel looked at Esther.
“Her.”
Esther had been a puppet and beneficiary at once.
But then Gabriel added:
“She doesn't control all of it.”
“Who does?”
Gabriel coughed.
“Your child.”
Alejandro didn't understand.
“It's impossible. The baby isn't born.”
“The trust has an unborn-heir clause.”
A legal structure designed decades ago.
If a recognized biological descendant existed, the estate could not be permanently transferred.
Unless the mother was declared unfit.
Alejandro finally understood the purpose of the fake psychiatric case.
They weren't trying to kill Valeria.
They were trying to remove her legal rights.
And once that happened, the baby would become vulnerable.
Gabriel gripped Alejandro's hand.
“You have forty-eight hours.”
“For what?”
“To expose Esteban.”
“Why forty-eight?”
“Because the court hearing is already scheduled.”
Alejandro stared.
“When?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
Then Gabriel closed his eyes.
Alejandro thought he was dead.
But Mateo checked his pulse.
“He's alive.”
Gabriel whispered one final sentence.
“Ask Esteban why your father really died.”
Alejandro froze.
His father.
The man everyone thought was dead.
He turned.
His father was standing behind him.
He had heard everything.
“Because I knew who Gabriel's first ally was.”
“Who?”
His father looked toward Isabella.
Then toward Valeria.
Finally toward Alejandro.
“The person who raised you.”
Alejandro stared at him.
“You mean Esther?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
May you like
“The woman you called mother was never your guardian.”
“She was your father's enemy.”
