Chapter 4 - THE BROTHER WHO WASN'T IN THE HOSPITAL
Damian found blood on the staircase.
Not much. A few drops beside the handrail and one dark smear near the exit.
He followed the trail to the courtyard, where the security gate hung open.
Elena's phone lay broken beneath a parked car.
She had been taken.
For the first time in years, Damian felt something dangerously close to helplessness.
He ordered every road leading away from the estate monitored, then turned on Rafael.
"Where would they take her?"
Rafael rubbed a hand over his face.
"Somewhere you won't look."
"That's not an answer."
"Then stop asking questions you already know the answers to."
Damian seized his uncle's jacket.
"Someone has my employee. They threatened her brother. Now she's missing. If you know anything, this is your last chance."
Rafael didn't resist.
"Your father had enemies long before you inherited his empire. One of them believed Maria Cruz had stolen a ledger that could expose an entire network of politicians, judges, and businessmen."
"What ledger?"
"The one your father used to keep everyone under control."
"And Elena?"
"Maria hid something in this house before she disappeared. Your father believed Elena might eventually find it."
Damian released him.
"You've known this all along."
"I knew enough to be afraid."
A guard hurried into the room.
"Boss, we checked St. Mary's. Elena's brother isn't there."
Damian turned.
"What?"
"The hospital has no patient under that name. The medical records are real, but the admission was canceled weeks ago."
The threat against Elena's brother had been designed to control her.
But why invent a patient?
Damian called the hospital administrator himself. A few minutes later, the truth emerged.
Elena's younger brother, Mateo, had been admitted to a rehabilitation facility under a different name. Someone had arranged his transfer through a private medical foundation.
The foundation's largest donor was Isabella Vale.
Damian stared at the name on the screen.
His fiancée had been paying for Mateo's treatment.
She had also been hiding him.
At the same time, Victor sent another message.
Found the vehicle. West industrial district. Warehouse 19. Come alone.
Damian knew better than to follow an anonymous instruction without precautions. He sent two trusted men to establish surveillance while he approached the warehouse from the opposite side.
Inside, he found Elena sitting in a metal chair, her wrists bound with plastic restraints.
Victor stood behind her.
A pistol rested against the back of her chair.
"You're late," Victor said.
Damian kept his hands visible.
"Let her go."
"First, you need to understand something. Your father didn't survive the bombing by accident. Someone arranged his escape. Someone arranged the funeral. Someone made sure you inherited the empire."
"Rafael?"
Victor laughed.
"Rafael was the convenient villain. He wanted control, but he didn't order the explosion."
"Then who did?"
Victor looked at Elena.
"Ask her."
Damian turned.
Elena's face crumpled.
"I didn't know," she whispered. "I swear I didn't know until recently."
"Know what?"
"My mother worked for your father because she was investigating the people who financed his businesses. She discovered that someone inside his own family was selling information to his enemies."
"Who?"
"She told me the evidence was hidden where the family kept its most precious possessions."
Damian thought of the locked room beneath the east wing.
Victor nodded.
"Exactly. And the evidence points to someone neither you nor Rafael ever suspected."
He removed a small photograph from his pocket and tossed it across the floor.
Damian picked it up.
The image showed his father, alive and standing outside a private clinic.
Beside him was Isabella Vale.
The date was six months ago.
Damian looked up slowly.
"How long have you been working for her?"
Victor smiled.
"Long enough to know that your wedding is going to be the most expensive funeral Chicago has ever seen."
Then he released Elena's restraints.
She stumbled toward Damian.
Victor stepped backward through a side door.
A second later, the warehouse exploded in gunfire.
Damian pulled Elena behind a concrete pillar. His men returned fire from outside.
When the shooting stopped, Victor had vanished.
On the floor where he had stood lay a silver ring engraved with the Reyes family crest.
Elena stared at it.
"That's impossible."
"What is?"
She pointed to the crest.
"My mother had one exactly like it."
Damian picked up the ring.
Inside the band, a name had been engraved in tiny letters.
Not Reyes.
Not Hale.
May you like
Cruz.
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