Chapter 2 – The Secret Beneath the West Wing
Within an hour, Castillo Security sealed every entrance to the estate.
No one was allowed to leave.
Alejandro ordered every hard drive recovered, including backups Vivian insisted had been "accidentally deleted."
His head of security, Daniel Brooks, soon returned with disturbing news.
"The cameras from the west wing disappeared three years ago."
"Destroyed?"
"No."
Daniel held up a hidden server.
"They were copied."
Deep beneath the mansion's wine cellar, technicians uncovered a concealed recording room hidden behind a false wall.
Dozens of monitors.
Thousands of hours of footage.
Every day.
Every hallway.
Every punishment.
Alejandro watched in horror.
There was Elena...
Scrubbing marble floors before sunrise.
Serving guests who whispered cruel comments about "the strange maid."
Being denied food for speaking Spanish instead of English.
Being locked overnight inside a storage room after insisting she was Mrs. Castillo.
One recording showed Vivian kneeling beside Elena.
She smiled sweetly while speaking words colder than ice.
"Every year Alejandro keeps searching for you, I inherit more control."
Another video showed a private physician injecting Elena with powerful sedatives.
The doctor calmly explained they would blur her memory and make her easier to manipulate.
Alejandro slammed his fist against the desk.
The monitors shook.
Daniel quietly handed him another folder.
"We identified the doctor."
"So arrest him."
"He boarded a flight yesterday."
Alejandro smiled without humor.
"He won't land as a free man."
Meanwhile, Elena sat wrapped in a blanket inside the library.
A psychologist spoke gently with her while nurses treated old fractures that had never healed correctly.
When Alejandro entered, she looked at him cautiously.
"I tried to come home," she whispered.
"What stopped you?"
"They told me you remarried."
His eyes widened.
"They showed me photographs."
"They were fake."
"I know now."
Tears filled her eyes.
"I stopped believing my own memories."
Alejandro knelt before her.
"You don't have to remember everything today."
He carefully took her trembling hand.
"You only have to know one thing."
"I'm here."
For the first time in three years...
Elena allowed herself to cry in his arms.
Outside the library, police vehicles filled the driveway.
Vivian Moretti was waiting with her attorney.
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She still believed money could erase the truth.
She had no idea the worst evidence had yet to be discovered.
