Chapter 9 - Where Is Inés?
Camila’s team traced Inés’s last known movement through the mansion security system.
At 8:14 the morning after Valeria was injured, Inés entered the kitchen.
At 8:31, Marcela entered.
At 8:46, both women left through the service garage.
Only Marcela returned.
Esther claimed she knew nothing about it.
Nobody believed coincidence anymore.
Traffic cameras captured Marcela’s SUV heading west.
Two hours later, the vehicle returned.
Camila mapped the route.
One camera caught the SUV near a family-owned ranch outside Valle de Bravo.
Agents were dispatched.
Alejandro wanted to go.
Camila refused.
“You are emotionally involved and potentially a witness.”
Alejandro hated it.
But he listened.
Valeria remained in the hospital for another night.
By afternoon, she was allowed to leave under strict bed-rest instructions.
Alejandro rented a private apartment rather than taking her back to the mansion.
For the first time since their marriage, they slept somewhere that did not belong to the Aranda family.
At 6:20 p.m., Camila called.
They found Inés.
Alive.
She had been locked inside a guest cottage on the ranch.
There were no severe injuries.
But her phone and identification had been taken.
A ranch employee claimed Marcela told him Inés was emotionally unstable and needed privacy.
Inés told a different story.
Marcela had driven her there after threatening her daughter.
“If you say anything about Valeria, Sofía loses her job.”
Inés had refused to stay silent.
So Marcela took her phone.
Then she left her at the ranch.
When investigators brought Inés to Mexico City, she asked to see Valeria.
The older woman cried the moment she entered the apartment.
“I am sorry.”
Valeria hugged her carefully.
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
Inés looked at Alejandro.
Fear still lived in her eyes.
“I knew about the rooms.”
Alejandro nodded.
“So did my father.”
Inés began to cry harder.
“Your father was trying to stop them.”
She revealed what Ricardo had meant in the photograph.
Seven years earlier, Ricardo discovered one of his trucks had been switched before a shipping run.
The original truck carried legal architectural materials.
The replacement contained stolen paintings.
Inés saw Marcela supervising the change.
Ricardo confronted his daughter.
Three days later, he died.
Alejandro’s face went white.
“Did you tell the police?”
“I tried.”
Inés shook her head.
“Your mother’s attorney told me I would be accused of theft.”
“What attorney?”
Inés whispered the name.
“Víctor Salcedo.”
Alejandro knew him.
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Salcedo was still the Aranda family’s chief legal adviser.
And according to his phone records, he had spoken to Marcela sixteen times in the last three days.
