Chapter 7: Rosa’s Real Name
Alejandro stared into the rain until the helicopter disappeared beyond the black outline of the hills.
Then he turned to Elena.
“What do you mean Rosa is Lucía’s grandmother?”
Elena stood beside the window, one hand pressed against the cold glass.
Her face was pale.
Exhausted.
Yet for the first time since Alejandro had found her, she no longer looked broken.
She looked like a woman forcing herself to step back into a nightmare because her child was still trapped inside it.
“Her name isn’t Rosa,” Elena said.
Alejandro waited.
“She told me her real name during the second year.”
“What is it?”
“Teresa Bell.”
The name hit him immediately.
The nurse Dr. Romero had claimed received Lucía after birth.
Alejandro turned toward the doorway.
“Security.”
The head of security stepped in.
“Sir.”
“Pull every record connected to Teresa Bell. Hospitals, border crossings, financial accounts, aliases, everything.”
The man nodded and left.
Alejandro looked back at Elena.
“Romero said Teresa disappeared six months after Lucía was born.”
“She did.”
“Then how did she become Rosa?”
“She was already Rosa.”
Alejandro frowned.
Elena slowly sat at the edge of the bed.
“Rosa had worked in this mansion for almost fifteen years. Quietly. Mostly in the laundry and kitchen. Isabella trusted her because she believed Rosa could not read.”
“But she could.”
“Yes.”
“And she was also a nurse?”
“Before coming here.”
Alejandro remained near the window.
He wanted to sit beside Elena.
He did not.
Not yet.
“Why would Isabella place a nurse inside this house years before you disappeared?”
Elena looked at him.
“She didn’t.”
“Then who did?”
“Sofia.”
The room fell silent.
Alejandro’s biological mother.
Vivian’s older sister.
The woman he had never known.
Elena continued.
“Rosa—Teresa—was Sofia’s closest friend. They worked together at the Lucerne clinic when they were young.”
Alejandro’s chest tightened.
“She knew my mother?”
“She helped deliver you.”
“And Sebastian?”
“Yes.”
He looked down.
Another piece of his life had been standing in front of him for years.
Invisible because he had never thought to ask.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She was afraid.”
“Of Isabella?”
“Of everyone.”
Elena’s voice softened.
“Sofia made her promise that if anything happened, she would stay close to you without revealing who she was.”
Alejandro gave a bitter laugh.
“So another person decided that lying to me was protection.”
Elena looked toward the open door.
“In this family, truth was treated like a weapon. Everyone believed they had the right to decide when you were strong enough to survive it.”
“And you?”
She met his eyes.
“I tried to tell you.”
He nodded once.
The answer hurt because it was true.
Alejandro picked up the red box.
The silver medallion lay inside.
“Why did Vivian say Rosa helped keep Lucía alive?”
“Because Teresa switched the babies.”
Alejandro’s head lifted.
“What babies?”
Elena’s expression tightened.
“There was another woman at the clinic.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know her full name. Only Camila.”
“What happened to her?”
“She gave birth the same night I did.”
Alejandro stepped closer.
“Another girl?”
Elena nodded.
“Isabella wanted Lucía removed without leaving a trail. Teresa knew she couldn’t stop them, so she changed the identification bracelets.”
Alejandro looked at the hospital tag.
“Then the baby listed as Castillo—”
“Was Camila’s daughter.”
“And Lucía?”
“Was registered under another name.”
Alejandro’s mind raced.
“That means the official records Isabella kept could be false.”
“Yes.”
“Then how did Sebastian find her?”
Elena looked away.
“I think Teresa told him.”
“Why would she trust him?”
“Because Sebastian claimed he wanted to protect Lucía.”
Alejandro’s jaw hardened.
“And did he?”
Elena did not answer immediately.
“Maybe at first.”
The head of security returned holding a tablet.
“Sir, we have partial results.”
Alejandro took it.
A photograph appeared.
Rosa, much younger, wearing a white nurse’s uniform beside a dark-haired woman with strong eyes.
Sofia Moretti.
Alejandro stared at the image.
The resemblance was undeniable.
His own eyes.
His own jaw.
His own habit of holding his shoulders rigid when standing for a photograph.
He had inherited more from her than blood.
“There’s more,” the security chief said.
He swiped to another document.
“Teresa Bell crossed into Spain under the name Rosa Delgado fourteen years ago. Her entry was sponsored by Isabella Castillo.”
Alejandro frowned.
“Isabella knew who she was.”
“Yes.”
“Then why keep her close?”
Elena answered before the guard could.
“To watch her.”
The security chief opened another file.
“We also found a private trust created three years ago for Lucía Reyes.”
“Sebastian’s trust?”
“Yes. But the original signatory was Teresa Bell.”
Alejandro looked at Elena.
“So Teresa arranged Lucía’s placement.”
“She must have.”
“Then Sebastian took control later.”
“That’s what I believe.”
The security chief hesitated.
“Sir, there is one more thing.”
He displayed a copy of a handwritten letter.
It was addressed to Alejandro.
The date was only six weeks after Elena’s disappearance.
Alejandro read the first lines.
Mr. Castillo,
Your wife is alive. Your daughter is alive. Do not trust Sebastian Vale. Search beneath the west chapel—
The letter ended abruptly.
Alejandro looked up.
“Where was this found?”
“In the archive of your private security firm.”
His face went cold.
“I never saw it.”
“No, sir.”
“Who received it?”
The guard swallowed.
“Gabriel Sanz.”
The deputy security director who had just tried to kill them.
Alejandro closed his eyes.
Teresa had attempted to reach him.
Six weeks after the kidnapping.
The message had been intercepted.
“West chapel,” Elena whispered.
Alejandro turned.
“The monastery has two chapels,” she said. “An old one and a newer one.”
“You’ve been there?”
“No. Isabella showed me photographs.”
“Why?”
“To frighten me.”
Elena stood.
“She said Sofia was buried beneath the old chapel.”
Alejandro’s expression changed.
“My mother is buried there?”
“That’s what Isabella claimed.”
“And you never told me?”
“I didn’t know whether it was true.”
A new sound came from the tablet.
An incoming encrypted call.
The security chief looked at Alejandro.
“It’s from the helicopter.”
“Trace it.”
He answered.
For several seconds there was only rotor noise.
Then Rosa’s voice came through.
“Alejandro?”
He gripped the device.
“Teresa.”
A sharp breath.
“You know.”
“Elena told me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No. Listen carefully. Vivian thinks Romero is helping her.”
“He isn’t?”
“No.”
“Then what is he doing?”
Before Rosa could answer, a man shouted in the background.
The phone shifted.
Rosa spoke faster.
“Do not go through the monastery’s main gate. There are men waiting. Use the old river path.”
“Where is Lucía?”
“Beneath the west chapel.”
Alejandro glanced at Elena.
Rosa continued.
“But Isabella is not the only one holding her.”
“Who else?”
A hand struck something near the phone.
Rosa gasped.
Then whispered one name.
“Sebastian.”
The call ended.
Alejandro immediately looked at the security chief.
“Location?”
The guard studied the signal map.
“The helicopter is descending fifteen kilometers north of Toledo.”
“Near the monastery?”
“No.”
“Where?”
The guard zoomed in.
“An abandoned airfield.”
Elena looked at Alejandro.
“Vivian is changing the plan.”
“No,” he said.
His eyes hardened.
“She’s being redirected.”
“By Sebastian?”
“Or Isabella.”
Alejandro reached for his coat.
“Prepare two teams. One for the airfield. One for the monastery.”
Elena stepped in front of him.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You do not get to decide that.”
The force in her voice stopped him.
She moved closer.
“For three years, they decided where I slept, what I ate, when I spoke, and whether I was allowed to remember my own child.”
Alejandro said nothing.
“You said you would open every door they closed.”
“I meant it.”
“Then don’t close this one.”
He looked at her for a long moment.
Every instinct told him to protect her by keeping her inside the mansion.
Every lesson of the last hour told him that was exactly how this family justified control.
Finally, he nodded.
“You stay with me.”
“I stay because I choose to.”
“Yes.”
Elena took the red box.
Then she removed the memory card.
“We’ll need this.”
Alejandro looked at the image of the monastery on the security map.
“What else is on it?”
“One file I never opened.”
“Why?”
“Because Isabella told me it would make you hate me.”
Alejandro held her gaze.
“Do you believe her?”
Elena looked toward the rain.
“No.”
She inserted the card into the laptop.
A second hidden folder appeared.
Protected by a password.
The title was one word.
SOFIA.
Alejandro stared at it.
“What is the password?”
Elena placed her fingers on the keyboard.
“March eighteenth.”
Lucía’s birthday.
The folder opened.
Inside was a video recorded more than thirty years earlier.
Sofia Moretti appeared on the screen, holding two newborn boys.
Her face was wet with tears.
A younger Teresa stood beside her.
Sofia looked directly into the camera.
“If my sons ever see this, then Isabella broke her promise.”
Alejandro’s breathing stopped.
Sofia kissed one baby’s forehead.
Then the other.
“One of you will be raised in the light.”
Her voice trembled.
“The other will be raised in the shadows.”
The image shifted.
A younger Isabella stepped into frame.
Sofia looked at her with fear.
Then said the words that changed everything.
“But neither Alejandro nor Sebastian is the child Isabella truly wants.”
Alejandro leaned closer.
Sofia looked directly into the lens.
“She wants the daughter I gave birth to before them.”
Elena turned toward Alejandro.
He stared at the frozen image.
“You have a sister.”
Before either of them could speak, the video continued.
May you like
Sofia’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“And her name is Vivian.”
