Chapter 14 - The Son Who Lied
Santiago’s accusation was broadcast within minutes.
He stood beside Rafael Cordova and three attorneys.
His face was pale.
There were bruises on his wrists.
“I was abducted by men connected to Daniel Salgado.”
Rafael stared straight ahead.
But something in his face was wrong.
He did not look angry.
He looked terrified.
Santiago continued reading from a statement.
“They demanded information about my family.”
Then his voice cracked.
His attorney touched his shoulder.
I watched carefully.
Santiago glanced toward someone standing outside the camera frame.
Fear.
Not guilt.
Fear.
“They have someone,” I said.
Victor looked at me.
“Who?”
“Someone Rafael cares about.”
We checked his family.
His wife was at home.
His two younger children were at school.
Then Mateo found it.
Rafael’s mother, seventy-nine-year-old Lucia Cordova, had canceled a medical appointment that morning.
Her driver could not be reached.
Sebastian was not merely controlling the boys.
He was controlling their parents.
I called Rafael.
He answered but said nothing.
“Your mother.”
Silence.
“I know.”
His breathing changed.
“I can find her.”
“You can’t.”
“Rafael.”
“They told me if I speak to you again, she dies.”
The call ended.
That was when my anger became something colder.
Sebastian believed every relationship could be turned into leverage.
He had taken Elena.
He had used our daughter’s attack.
Now he was threatening an old woman to control a billionaire.
He had spent nineteen years pretending to be The Ghost.
But he had misunderstood me completely.
Fear had never been my greatest weapon.
Trust was.
I contacted Rafael through a method Sebastian could not easily monitor.
Not with a threat.
With a promise.
HELP ME END THIS, AND YOUR FAMILY WALKS AWAY FROM ME.
Rafael responded fifteen minutes later.
HOW?
I needed Santiago to keep lying publicly.
I needed Sebastian to believe Rafael remained obedient.
And I needed one thing from Cordova Construction.
Access to a building Sebastian had quietly renovated three years earlier.
A private estate outside Greenwich.
Blueprints showed an underground medical wing.
When Renata saw the address, she grabbed her board.
She wrote one name.
EMMETT.
“What about him?”
She wrote.
HE SAID HIS GRANDFATHER KEPT A GHOST IN THE BASEMENT.
Every hair on my arms rose.
We had assumed Emmett was joking about Sebastian owning my criminal identity.
Maybe he had meant something else.
Maybe the ghost in Sebastian Varela’s basement was not me.
That night, Rafael sent us the architectural plans.
The underground level contained six rooms.
Five had labels.
Storage.
Mechanical.
Security.
Wine cellar.
Archive.
The sixth had no label.
May you like
Only a number.
214.
