PART 4 – The Truth in the Bloodline
Three days later, Valeria woke up.
The hospital room was quiet.
Miguel was sitting beside her.
Santiago was finally stable.
Her eyes slowly opened.
“Miguel…”
His hand tightened around hers immediately. “I’m here.”
Tears filled her eyes instantly—but she didn’t cry loudly. She never did.
Just silent shaking breaths.
“I tried to call you,” she whispered. “She took my phone… she said you didn’t want to hear from me anymore…”
Miguel closed his eyes.
“I know,” he said.
Valeria hesitated.
“There’s something else…”
Miguel looked up.
“She said… she did this because I wasn’t the first.”
A pause.
Miguel frowned. “What do you mean?”
Valeria swallowed.
“She said… your father’s first wife died the same way.”
Silence hit the room like a wall.
Miguel felt his chest tighten.
For the first time, he understood.
This wasn’t just cruelty.
It was repetition.
A pattern.
A legacy of control.
A nurse quietly placed a file on the table.
Old medical records.
Names.
Two previous women.
Both connected to Doña Carmen’s past influence.
Both ended in “medical complications after childbirth.”
Miguel stared at the file.
His voice came out barely human.
“How many?”
No answer.
May you like
Because the truth was already written.
Too many.
