Chapter 11 - VALERIA’S BROTHERValeria did not remember running.
One second she was in the foyer.
The next, she was inside Mateo’s room with both children, locking the door while smoke seeped beneath it and gunfire echoed from distant halls.
Mateo was crying but not screaming.
That mattered.
Valeria grabbed towels from the bathroom, wet them in the sink, and shoved them against the crack beneath the door.
Valentina clung to her neck, whimpering.
“It’s okay,” Valeria whispered, though nothing was okay. “We stay low. We breathe slowly.”
Mateo crawled beside her.
Then he pointed toward the closet.
Valeria opened it and found what looked like a built-in shelf.
Mateo pushed the lower panel.
A hidden crawlspace opened.
Of course.
This house had more secrets than walls.
“Where does it go?” Valeria asked.
Mateo whispered, “Mamá hide.”
Valeria understood.
Lucía had hidden him there once.
Maybe more than once.
She guided Valentina inside first, then Mateo.
Before following, she heard a phone buzzing on the nightstand.
Alejandro’s spare phone.
The screen showed a hospital number.
Valeria answered with shaking hands.
“Hello?”
“Valeria Gómez?” a nurse said quickly. “This is Santa Elena Hospital. Your brother Diego is safe, but there was an incident.”
Her blood turned to ice.
“What incident?”
“A man attempted to enter his room with false authorization. Mr. Ríos’s security stopped him.”
Valeria closed her eyes in relief.
Then the nurse added, “Diego keeps asking for you.”
Valeria pressed her fist to her mouth.
She wanted to split herself in two.
One body to protect Mateo and Valentina.
One body to run to her brother.
The line crackled.
Then another voice came on.
A boy’s voice.
“Vale?”
She almost broke.
“Diego.”
“Are you okay?”
She laughed through tears because he was the one in a hospital bed asking about her.
“I’m okay.”
“You sound scared.”
“I am,” she admitted.
Diego was quiet for a moment. “Then do what you tell me.”
“What’s that?”
“Breathe. Count. Don’t let fear drive.”
Valeria closed her eyes.
Her twelve-year-old brother, sick since birth, had always been braver than anyone gave him credit for.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too. Also, the scary men outside my room said your boss is terrifying.”
Despite everything, Valeria smiled.
“He is.”
“Good,” Diego said. “Tell him to stay terrifying.”
The call ended.
Valeria crawled into the hidden space and pulled the panel shut.
Inside, it was narrow but clean. Mateo sat with his knees to his chest. Valentina leaned against him, and he awkwardly placed one arm around her.
Brother and sister.
Together at last inside the walls that had separated them.
Valeria’s heart ached.
Outside the room, footsteps approached.
The doorknob turned.
Locked.
A man cursed.
The door shook.
Mateo looked at Valeria with huge eyes.
She put a finger to her lips.
The door cracked under a heavy blow.
Again.
Again.
Then Alejandro’s voice thundered from the hall.
“Get away from that door.”
A struggle.
A crash.
Silence.
“Valeria!” Alejandro shouted. “Mateo!”
She opened the panel.
Alejandro stood in the doorway, smoke behind him, blood on his sleeve that did not appear to be his.
Mateo crawled out first and ran to his father.
Valeria passed Valentina into Alejandro’s arms.
For one moment, all three Ríos children—one grown man, one wounded boy, one hidden girl—held each other in a ruined bedroom.
Then Ramiro appeared behind Alejandro.
“Esteban escaped through the chapel tunnel. Catalina is secured. Socorro is alive. But we have a bigger problem.”
Alejandro looked up.
Ramiro’s face was grim.
“Esteban’s men took the evidence room.”
Valeria touched the front of her uniform.
Lucía’s flash drive and phone were still there.
“Not all of it,” she said.
Alejandro stared at her.
Then, for the first time since she entered the mansion, he smiled.
Not warmly.
May you like
Not softly.
Like a man discovering the smallest person in the room had become his strongest weapon.
