Chapter 18 - CATALINA’S LAST LIECatalina received visitors in a federal holding room with white walls, fluorescent lights, and a camera in every corner.
Without diamonds, silk, and the mansion behind her, she looked smaller.
Not weak.
Never weak.
But human enough to rot.
Valeria sat across from her with Alejandro standing behind the chair. Ramiro waited near the door. A federal agent observed from the corner.
Catalina smiled when Valeria entered.
“There she is,” she said. “The little saint of the servants’ entrance.”
Valeria folded her hands in her lap. “You asked for me.”
“I wanted to see what kind of girl destroys a family in forty-eight hours.”
“You destroyed it before I arrived.”
Catalina leaned back. “Did I?”
Her red nails were gone now, replaced by bare fingers. Somehow that made her hands look more dangerous.
“I told the boy frightening stories, yes. I hid the girl, yes. I moved money, yes.” Her eyes slid to Alejandro. “But I did not create the house that made all of it possible.”
Alejandro’s jaw tightened.
Catalina smiled. “Your father built the tunnels. Your men obeyed silence. Your servants feared questions. Your son lived in a mansion full of adults and not one of them dared contradict your grief.”
The room went quiet.
Valeria hated that Catalina could still speak pieces of truth while standing on a mountain of lies.
“What do you want?” Valeria asked.
Catalina’s gaze sharpened. “A deal.”
“No,” Alejandro said.
Catalina ignored him. “There is one more file. Lucía’s final insurance. I know where it is. Without it, Esteban may still bargain his way out.”
The federal agent leaned forward.
Alejandro’s eyes narrowed. “Where?”
Catalina looked at Valeria. “I tell her. Alone.”
“No,” Alejandro said again.
Valeria looked at Catalina. “Why me?”
“Because you are the only one in this circus who understands that survival is not morality. It is math.”
Valeria stood. “Then calculate this. You hurt a child who had already watched his mother die. You hid a baby from her father. You stole from sick children. There is no number that makes you worth trusting.”
Catalina’s smile thinned. “Your brother is alive because Alejandro paid.”
“My brother is alive because doctors saved him.”
“With money.”
Valeria leaned closer. “Money you stole.”
For the first time, Catalina’s eyes flashed.
There she was.
The woman beneath the mask.
“You think you won because cameras loved your tears?” Catalina whispered. “Poor girls are useful when they cry. But wait until they ask who you are standing beside. Wait until they remember Alejandro Ríos is not innocent.”
Valeria felt the words land.
That fear had been growing quietly in her.
What happened when the world stopped seeing her as brave and started seeing her as compromised?
What happened when staying near Mateo meant standing near Alejandro?
Catalina saw the hesitation and smiled.
Then Mateo’s voice came from the doorway.
“Valeria is good.”
Everyone turned.
Mateo stood beside Ramiro, who looked deeply uncomfortable.
“He insisted,” Ramiro muttered.
Alejandro knelt. “Mateo, you shouldn’t be here.”
Mateo walked past him and stood beside Valeria.
He looked at Catalina.
“You are bad,” he said. “But you don’t make everyone bad.”
Catalina’s face changed.
The child she had tried to silence had just taken away her final weapon.
Valeria placed a hand gently on Mateo’s shoulder.
Catalina looked from him to her.
Then, slowly, she laughed.
“Lucía hid the final file in the one place Alejandro would never look.”
Alejandro stood. “Where?”
May you like
Catalina smiled.
“In her grave.”
