Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Lied About Everything
Karen Mitchell had vanished.
Her bedroom was empty. Her wardrobe had been stripped. Her passport was gone, along with several hundred thousand dollars from the estate's emergency account.
Adrian stood in the doorway, reading the inventory Dante had prepared.
“She cared for Emma since birth,” he said quietly. “I trusted her with my daughter's life.”
I thought about the dumpster.
“That's exactly what she used.”
His eyes snapped toward me.
I expected another outburst, but he looked away.
“I know.”
It was the first time I had heard him admit he was wrong.
Dante discovered Karen's car abandoned near an industrial district south of the city. Inside, investigators found a burned phone, a vial of sedatives, and a child's blanket matching the one wrapped around Emma.
But there was no sign of Lucia.
Santos arrived at the estate that afternoon with a warrant and two uniformed officers.
“I have information regarding Mateo Ruiz,” she told Adrian. “If he's alive, we need to establish why he has been approaching your employees.”
“Then tell us what you know,” Adrian replied.
She hesitated.
“Your father-in-law kept a private medical charity. It paid for surgeries, hospital stays, and long-term care for children whose families couldn't afford treatment. The charity was dissolved after his death.”
“The Saint Fund,” I whispered.
Adrian looked at me.
“That name was in his private records.”
Santos nodded. “The fund was used to move money through several clinics. Some of those payments were legitimate. Others appear to have been redirected to shell companies.”
“What does that have to do with Emma?”
“Your late wife discovered that one of the shell companies was paying Karen Mitchell.”
Silence settled over the room.
Adrian's expression turned murderous.
“Why didn't the police tell me?”
“Because the lead detective assigned to the case disappeared before he could submit his report.”
“Who was he?”
Santos glanced at me.
“Daniel Santos. My older brother.”
Her voice cracked slightly on the name.
“He believed Sofia's death wasn't accidental. He was investigating the charity when his car was found in the river.”
I understood then why she had taken my case so personally.
She wasn't just searching for the truth.
She was searching for the reason her brother had died.
Dante laid the storage-vault key on the table.
“Whatever is inside locker 317 may explain the money and the murders.”
Adrian ordered the car prepared.
I stepped between him and the door.
“My sister comes first.”
“And my daughter comes first for me.”
“Then we're both running out of time.”
For a moment, we stared at each other, two desperate people with nothing left to trust.
Finally, Adrian nodded.
“We find Lucia. Then we open the vault.”
But as we left the mansion, Santos received a message from an unknown number.
She read it once.
Then again.
Her hand began to tremble.
“What is it?” I asked.
She turned the screen toward me.
The message contained a photograph of Daniel Santos, sitting alive in a dark room.
May you like
Beneath it were four words.
YOUR BROTHER IS WAITING.
