Chapter 3: The First Betrayal

The emergency lights flashed red.

Alejandro dropped to the floor and reached for Elena.

His hand found the edge of his jacket.

Then her shoulder.

She was alive.

“Elena?”

“I’m here.”

Another shot struck the concrete wall.

Security shouted.

Boots thundered across the room.

Alejandro pulled Elena behind the metal table and covered her with his body.

The cellar door slammed above them.

Someone had entered through the service passage.

Someone who knew the mansion.

A third shot rang out.

Then a man grunted.

Silence followed.

“Clear!” a guard shouted.

The main lights flickered back on.

A security officer lay wounded near the staircase.

Across the room, another man was pinned face-first against the floor.

Alejandro recognized him.

Gabriel Sanz.

His own deputy security director.

A man who had worked for the Castillo family for eleven years.

Alejandro stood slowly.

Gabriel’s weapon had fallen several feet away.

“Why?” Alejandro asked.

Gabriel said nothing.

The head of security searched him and found a small earpiece, a burner phone, and a keycard carrying Vivian’s private seal.

Vivian’s eyes narrowed.

“You idiot.”

Gabriel twisted his head toward her.

“You said the exits would be clear.”

Alejandro looked between them.

Vivian closed her eyes briefly.

That was answer enough.

“Take him upstairs,” Alejandro ordered. “Separate room from Romero.”

The guards dragged Gabriel away.

Alejandro turned toward Elena.

She was staring at the wounded security officer.

Blood spread across his sleeve.

Her breathing became shallow.

Alejandro stepped into her line of sight.

“Look at me.”

She did not.

“Elena, look at me.”

Slowly, her eyes found his.

“You’re here,” he said.

She nodded once.

“You’re in the cellar.”

Another nod.

“You’re not back in that room.”

Her lips trembled.

“No.”

“You are safe.”

She looked over his shoulder at Vivian.

“No one is safe while she can still speak to them.”

Vivian laughed bitterly.

“You think I’m the one in charge?”

Alejandro lifted the hidden phone.

“You took orders from someone.”

“I did what was necessary.”

“You imprisoned Elena.”

“To protect the Castillo name.”

“You stole my daughter.”

Vivian’s expression flickered.

“I did not steal her.”

Elena stepped forward.

“You gave her away.”

Vivian looked at her.

“I saved her.”

“From what?”

“From him.”

She pointed at Alejandro.

The accusation stunned the room.

Alejandro stared.

Vivian’s voice became low and deliberate.

“You still don’t understand. Elena was not kidnapped because she was your wife. She was taken because of what she discovered about you.”

Alejandro’s face hardened.

“What did she discover?”

Elena pressed a hand to her forehead.

Images seemed to move behind her eyes.

“I found the ledger.”

Vivian went silent.

“What ledger?” Alejandro asked.

“The black one.”

A memory surfaced.

Elena spoke slowly, fighting for each word.

“It was in your father’s study.”

Alejandro’s stomach tightened.

“My father died seven years ago.”

“I know.”

“You went into his study the night you disappeared?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Elena looked at him.

“Because someone had transferred seventy million dollars out of the Castillo Foundation.”

Alejandro froze.

The Castillo Foundation funded hospitals, schools, and emergency housing across Latin America and Europe.

Seventy million dollars could not disappear without signatures.

His signatures.

“That is impossible.”

Elena’s eyes sharpened.

“It had your authorization code.”

“I never authorized it.”

“I believed you.”

Vivian scoffed.

“At first.”

Elena ignored her.

“I traced the transfers through six companies. All of them ended with the same beneficiary.”

Alejandro waited.

“Who?”

Elena looked at Vivian.

“Moretti International.”

Vivian smiled coldly.

Alejandro stepped closer.

“You stole from my foundation.”

Vivian said nothing.

“But that is not why they took me,” Elena continued.

She turned toward Alejandro.

“The final transfer went somewhere else.”

“Where?”

“A private clinic outside Lucerne.”

Dr. Romero’s voice came from the top of the stairs.

“Don’t.”

Everyone turned.

He stood between two guards.

His face was gray.

Alejandro’s gaze sharpened.

“You have something to say?”

Dr. Romero descended slowly.

“The clinic was used for illegal fertility procedures.”

Elena’s face tightened.

Alejandro looked at him.

“What does that have to do with my wife?”

Romero swallowed.

“Your father funded the clinic for years.”

Alejandro stared.

“My father?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

The doctor looked at Elena.

“Because the Castillo family had a problem.”

Alejandro’s voice dropped.

“What problem?”

Dr. Romero took a breath.

“Every male heir born into the direct Castillo line for the last four generations suffered from the same degenerative heart condition.”

Alejandro frowned.

“I don’t have a heart condition.”

“No,” Romero said. “You don’t.”

The silence deepened.

Romero continued.

“Because you are not biologically a Castillo.”

Alejandro did not move.

It was as though the room had shifted beneath him.

Vivian watched him carefully.

Elena whispered, “That was in the ledger too.”

Alejandro looked from one face to another.

“My father raised me.”

“Yes,” Romero said.

“My mother gave birth to me.”

“No.”

Alejandro crossed the distance between them.

“Say that again.”

Romero forced himself to meet his eyes.

“You were born at the Lucerne clinic. Your biological mother was not Isabella Castillo.”

Alejandro’s jaw clenched.

“Who was she?”

Romero hesitated.

Vivian smiled.

“Tell him.”

The doctor looked at Vivian.

“You already know.”

“Of course I know.”

Alejandro’s eyes narrowed.

“Who was my mother?”

Vivian stepped closer despite the guards holding her.

Her voice softened almost tenderly.

“Her name was Sofia Moretti.”

Alejandro went still.

Vivian’s smile widened.

“My older sister.”

Elena closed her eyes.

Alejandro stared at Vivian as though seeing her for the first time.

“You are my aunt.”

“Biologically,” she said.

The word hung in the air like poison.

Alejandro felt no relief.

Only disgust.

“You knew this all along.”

“I knew more than anyone.”

“Then why destroy Elena?”

Vivian’s smile vanished.

“Because Elena found out what happened to Sofia.”

Alejandro’s hands curled into fists.

“What happened to her?”

Vivian looked at the hidden phone in his hand.

“She tried to leave the Castillo family with you.”

A chill moved through the room.

“And?”

“They stopped her.”

“Who?”

Vivian glanced upward.

Toward the mansion above them.

Then she spoke the name Alejandro least expected.

“Your mother.”

Alejandro’s face emptied.

“Isabella?”

Vivian nodded.

“The woman you buried ten years ago.”

Elena shook her head.

“No.”

Everyone turned toward her.

She looked terrified again.

“She isn’t dead.”

Alejandro’s pulse stopped.

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Elena pointed to the phone labeled MOTHER.

“That was her voice.”