Chapter 5 - THE BLOOD BETWEEN THEM
Elena left the hospital before sunrise.
She needed air.
Space.
Anything that did not contain the name Cárdenas.
Rodrigo found her on the roof parking deck staring at the mountains.
“My father,” Elena said without turning. “Your father.”
“Yes.”
“So what does that make me?”
“My half-sister.”
The words felt wrong the moment Rodrigo said them.
Elena closed her eyes.
Every strange moment between them suddenly became unbearable.
The quiet intimacy in the library.
His hand against her face.
The feeling she had refused to name.
She stepped farther away.
Rodrigo understood.
“We didn’t know.”
“That doesn’t make it less disgusting.”
“Elena—”
“Don’t.”
She turned.
“I need to leave.”
He did not follow.
For 2 days, Elena remained beside Carmen.
Rodrigo returned to the mansion and buried himself in work.
Then the DNA results arrived.
Mateo placed the envelope on Rodrigo’s desk.
Rodrigo had ordered the test using archived genetic material from Esteban’s medical records and Elena’s voluntarily provided sample.
He opened it.
Read once.
Then again.
Probability of paternity: excluded.
Rodrigo stared.
“Elena is not my father’s daughter.”
“No.”
“Then Carmen lied.”
“Or someone lied to Carmen.”
Rodrigo immediately drove to the hospital.
Elena was asleep in a chair beside Carmen’s bed.
He touched her shoulder.
She woke sharply.
“What?”
“You’re not my sister.”
Elena stared at him.
“That is an extremely strange sentence to wake someone with.”
He handed her the report.
She read it.
Her hands shook.
Carmen woke.
Elena faced her.
“You said Esteban was my father.”
“That’s what Isabel told me.”
Rodrigo stepped closer.
“Did you ever meet him?”
“No.”
“Did you see anything proving it?”
Carmen hesitated.
“A letter.”
“Where?”
“I burned it. Isabel made me.”
Rodrigo paced.
“Someone wanted Elena hidden under the Cárdenas name without actually being a Cárdenas.”
Elena looked between them.
“Why?”
Carmen suddenly remembered something.
“The necklace.”
“What necklace?”
“Lucía wore it when she came to the hospital.”
Carmen described a gold pendant shaped like a compass.
Rodrigo stopped.
He knew that symbol.
Victor Luján wore the same one on his signet ring.
The former CFO.
The man photographed meeting Sebastián.
Within hours, Rodrigo had investigators digging into Victor’s history.
The truth arrived piece by piece.
Twenty-seven years earlier, Victor had been 24, newly married, ambitious, and secretly involved with Lucía Valdés.
Lucía became pregnant.
Victor refused to acknowledge the child because his wife’s family controlled the money that launched his career.
When Lucía died during childbirth, Isabel threatened to expose him.
Victor responded by threatening to take the baby and bury Isabel financially.
So Isabel invented a more dangerous father.
Esteban Cárdenas.
A name powerful enough to make Victor stay away.
For decades, the lie worked.
Until Camila discovered it.
And in searching for Elena’s history, she had stumbled onto Victor’s financial crimes.
Elena sat silently after Rodrigo explained.
“So Victor Luján is my father.”
“Biologically.”
She laughed without humor.
“Apparently biology is having a very busy week.”
Rodrigo sat beside her.
“You don’t owe him anything.”
“I know.”
“You also don’t owe me anything.”
Elena looked at him.
“That sounds suspiciously like you’re trying to say something.”
For the first time in years, Rodrigo smiled.
A real smile.
Small, uncertain, almost rusty.
Elena stared.
“You can do that?”
“What?”
“Smile.”
“It happens rarely.”
“I was starting to think your face lacked the necessary muscles.”
He almost laughed.
Then their eyes met.
The humor disappeared.
Something warmer replaced it.
Rodrigo leaned slightly closer.
Elena did too.
Then the hospital door opened.
Mateo entered.
“Sorry.”
Neither believed him.
His expression was serious.
“We found Victor.”
Rodrigo stood.
“Where?”
“Dead.”
Elena’s face drained.
Victor Luján had been discovered in his car outside Santiago.
One gunshot.
Police initially suspected suicide.
Mateo did not.
“He left something,” Mateo said.
“A note?”
“A voicemail. Sent to Rodrigo 7 minutes before he died.”
Rodrigo played it.
Victor’s frightened voice filled the room.
“Rodrigo, if you’re hearing this, I waited too long. Camila was right. I helped move the money, but I didn’t kill her. I swear to God. Your brother knows part of it, but Sebastián isn’t the one you should fear.”
Static.
Heavy breathing.
Then:
“Look at the foundation. The answer has been sitting beside you for years.”
The recording ended.
Rodrigo frowned.
The Cárdenas Foundation had been chaired by only one person for the last 9 years.
His mother.
Mercedes Cárdenas.
That evening, Rodrigo returned home.
Mercedes was waiting in the library.
Elegant.
Calm.
Perfectly composed.
She poured herself tea.
“I hear Carmen Salgado survived.”
Rodrigo stopped.
He had told no one that Carmen had been attacked.
Mercedes smiled.
Then Rodrigo understood.
His mother set down the cup.
“You always were too sentimental about Camila.”
Rodrigo stared at her.
“What did you do?”
Mercedes’s expression remained almost tender.
“What I had to do to protect this family.”
May you like
Upstairs, unseen by either of them, Elena stood frozen behind the railing.
Her phone was recording everything.
