Chapter 12 - María’s Choice
María was offered police protection.
She refused at first.
“My place is with Sofía.”
Roberto disagreed.
“Your place is somewhere safe.”
María smiled sadly.
“That is what I was trying to give her.”
She accepted protection only after Sofía asked her.
“Please go.”
Sofía held María’s hands.
“I don’t want the bad man to scare you.”
María kissed her forehead.
“I’ll come back.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
She moved to a secure hotel.
The next morning, Vanessa’s attorney contacted her.
He claimed he wanted to discuss a civil settlement.
Maya told María not to respond.
María had another idea.
With investigators’ approval, she accepted the meeting wearing a recording device.
Vanessa’s attorney arrived alone.
He offered María two million dollars.
She laughed.
“I cleaned houses for twenty-three years.”
“You think money suddenly makes me forget a child crying?”
The attorney leaned closer.
“This is not about forgetting.”
“It is about remembering the right things.”
“And what are the right things?”
“That Mrs. Alvarez never harmed Sofía.”
“That Roberto Morales is controlling.”
“That you manipulated the child because you resented Vanessa.”
María remained calm.
“And Elena?”
The attorney paused.
“What about Elena?”
“Should I remember the right things about her too?”
Silence.
Then the attorney made his mistake.
“My client did not cause the crash.”
María had never mentioned the crash.
Investigators listening nearby immediately noticed.
Neither Vanessa nor her legal team was supposed to know that María had connected her allegations to Elena’s death.
The lawyer realized too late.
He stood.
“This meeting is over.”
María looked at him.
“No.”
“I think it just started.”
Police questioned him within the hour.
He claimed Vanessa had told him privately that Gabriel arranged the crash.
He insisted he believed she was lying.
Attorney-client privilege complicated what could be used.
But another door had opened.
That evening, María returned home.
Sofía ran toward her voice.
María dropped to her knees and caught the child.
Roberto watched from the hallway.
“You came back.”
Sofía said.
“I promised.”
María answered.
Sofía touched María’s cheek.
Then she whispered.
“Vanessa never kept promises.”
Roberto felt the words more deeply than Sofía knew.
Later that night, Roberto made María an offer.
“I want you to become Sofía’s legal emergency guardian if anything happens to me.”
María stared at him.
“Mr. Morales—”
“No.”
“Roberto.”
“You have already acted like family when people with titles did not.”
María’s eyes filled.
“I don’t want your money.”
“I know.”
“That is exactly why I trust you.”
María agreed.
The paperwork was prepared.
Then a security alarm sounded.
Not at the mansion.
At Sofía’s therapy center.
Roberto checked the live feed.
A black sedan had arrived.
A staff member was walking Sofía toward it.
But Sofía was supposed to be at home.
The girl on the screen was not Sofía.
It was a decoy.
Mateo smiled grimly.
“We baited the hook.”
The sedan left.
Police followed.
May you like
And for the first time, Gabriel Alvarez had no idea he was driving directly into a trap.
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