Chapter 10 - THE EMPTY HOSPITAL ROOM
The hospital entered lockdown.
Security footage showed a woman wearing a maintenance uniform pushing a covered laundry cart through the service corridor.
The woman was Dr. Camila’s sister.
Valentina had been sedated and hidden beneath the linens.
Rosa noticed one detail.
The woman wore Mónica’s red bracelet.
The bracelet contained a remote key for Torres properties.
Ricardo had access to an abandoned family hotel outside Lake Chapala.
The hotel closed after storm damage three years earlier.
Alejandro’s father had built it.
Its underground service tunnels remained intact.
Police surrounded the property.
Ricardo called Alejandro from inside.
“Bring the original trust authorization.”
“Then you get the girl.”
Alejandro gripped the phone.
“If you hurt her—”
“You already hurt her.”
“You left her with Mónica.”
The accusation was chosen carefully.
Ricardo wanted guilt to control the conversation.
Alejandro forced himself to breathe.
“I am bringing the document.”
Detective Mendoza shook her head.
The original authorization was unnecessary.
Valentina’s shares had already been placed under emergency independent control.
Ricardo did not know that.
Alejandro carried a false folder into the hotel.
A transmitter rested beneath his shirt.
The lobby smelled of damp wood and old lake water.
Ricardo waited beside the empty reception desk.
Valentina was not with him.
“Where is she?”
“Safe for now.”
Alejandro placed the folder on the counter.
Ricardo opened it.
Blank paper.
His smile disappeared.
“You think police can reach her before the lower rooms flood?”
He pressed a remote.
Somewhere beneath them, machinery started.
The hotel’s old emergency pumps reversed.
Lake water began entering the service tunnels.
Valentina was trapped below.
Ricardo ran toward the rear stairs.
Police entered.
Alejandro ignored every order and took the basement corridor.
Water covered the first steps.
He heard Valentina screaming.
“Daddy!”
He followed the sound into the darkness.
A locked maintenance cage stood at the far end.
Valentina clung to the bars as water rose around her knees.
Alejandro entered the water.
The remote key would not open the cage.
Ricardo had changed the code.
Then Valentina held up her pink hair clip.
“Rosa said small things open big locks.”
The clip fit inside the emergency release.
Alejandro turned it.
The cage opened.
He lifted his daughter as water reached his waist.
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Behind them, a support beam collapsed.
The tunnel entrance disappeared beneath debris.
