Chapter 17 - THE FATHER’S CONFESSION|
Daniel Reyes chose a church parking lot for the meeting.
It was nearly empty when Nadia arrived with Marcos and Evelyn. Rain fell steadily, turning the asphalt into a dark mirror. Daniel stood beneath the awning near the side entrance, looking older than she remembered.
He had lost weight. His hands shook.
When he saw Nadia, he took a step forward.
“Sweetheart.”
She stopped several feet away.
“Don’t call me that.”
His face crumpled.
“I deserve that.”
“You deserve more than that.”
Marcos remained beside the car while Evelyn watched the street.
Daniel reached into his coat and removed a small envelope.
“Cristian gave me this the week before he died. He said if anything happened to him, I was to give it to you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I was afraid.”
“You sold his location.”
“I know.”
The admission seemed to drain the strength from him.
“I told myself they only wanted to question him. Isabel said he had stolen confidential records and that my cooperation would help bring him home safely. Rafael promised the debt would disappear.”
Nadia stared at him.
“You believed them?”
“I wanted to believe them.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No,” he whispered. “It isn’t.”
He held out the envelope.
Inside was a photograph of Cristian standing beside a woman Nadia had never seen. On the back, her brother had written a date and a location: a motel outside the city.
Beneath it was a note.
If they tell you I was alone, they’re lying. Someone helped me get the records out.
Nadia looked up.
“Who is she?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t know. Cristian never told me her name. He said she was a witness who could prove the transfers were being coordinated from inside the Carrera family.”
“Why didn’t you tell the police?”
“Because I knew the people I had betrayed him to could reach the police before I could.”
Nadia’s eyes burned.
“You could have told me.”
“I thought they would come for you.”
“They came anyway.”
Daniel looked toward the ground.
“I’m sorry.”
The words were small, almost useless.
Nadia had imagined this moment many times. In some versions, she screamed at him. In others, she walked away without looking back.
Now she felt only exhaustion.
“I don’t know if I can forgive you,” she said.
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Good.”
She turned toward the car.
Daniel called after her.
“There’s something else.”
Nadia stopped.
“Cristian told me the woman in the photograph wasn’t just a witness. She was the person who first discovered the hidden accounts. He said she had worked for Marcos’s father.”
Marcos came closer.
“What was her name?”
Daniel looked at him.
“Your father called her Elena.”
Marcos froze.
“My mother’s name was Elena.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Not your mother. Another Elena. Your father said she was the only person who knew where the original ledger was hidden.”
Evelyn took the photograph.
“Is she alive?”
Daniel’s answer was barely audible.
“I don’t know. But Cristian believed she was.”
Nadia looked at the image again.
The woman’s face was partially obscured by shadow.
On her wrist was a distinctive bracelet.
Marcos recognized it immediately.
He had seen it in his father’s study, inside a box that Rafael had insisted should never be opened.
May you like
The past had just given them a new name.
And a new reason to fear the future.
