Chapter 4 - The Secret in Mateo’s Room
The mansion became chaos.
Emergency lights flashed red across the marble floors.
Guards shouted into radios.
Somewhere near the staff corridor, glass shattered.
Alejandro grabbed Javier by the collar and slammed him against the wall.
“If my son is hurt—”
Javier smiled through clenched teeth.
“You should have listened when Camila begged you.”
Marcus pulled Alejandro away.
“Sir, we need to move.”
Another shot rang out.
Alejandro ran toward the staff wing with Marcus close behind.
Two guards were already down near the corridor entrance—not dead, but bleeding from their shoulders. A third guard was firing toward the kitchen.
Valeria stood at the far end of the hallway, pressed against a locked door.
She held Mateo in her arms.
The boy’s face was buried in her neck.
“Mr. Ríos!” she cried.
Alejandro moved forward.
A masked man stepped from behind the kitchen counter and raised a weapon.
Marcus fired first.
The man dropped.
Alejandro reached Valeria and Mateo.
“Are you hurt?”
Valeria shook her head, but her hands were trembling.
“Mateo told me where to hide,” she said. “He said there was a room behind his bedroom closet.”
Alejandro looked down at Mateo.
The child lifted his head.
“Secret room,” he whispered.
Alejandro’s blood ran cold.
“Who showed you?”
Mateo’s eyes filled with tears.
“Uncle Javier.”
Marcus exchanged a look with Alejandro.
Javier had been using the mansion for more than secret meetings.
He had built hiding places.
Escape routes.
Possibly surveillance rooms.
Alejandro carried Mateo upstairs himself.
Valeria followed closely.
Inside Mateo’s bedroom, nothing looked unusual. Toys were scattered across the carpet. A small bed shaped like a race car sat near the window. Framed photos of Camila and Mateo hung on the walls.
Mateo walked to the closet.
He pushed aside a row of tiny shirts.
Then he tapped the back wall three times.
Nothing happened.
He tapped again.
A faint click sounded.
The wood panel slid open.
Behind it was a narrow hidden room.
Alejandro stepped inside.
His stomach turned.
The room contained monitors.
Security feeds.
Recordings.
Photos.
Dozens of them.
Photos of Camila.
Photos of Mateo.
Photos of Alejandro’s meetings.
There were timestamps from months before Camila’s death and dates from long after.
Then Valeria saw something on one monitor.
A video feed from the night Camila died.
She covered her mouth.
Alejandro pressed play.
The footage showed Camila in the north wing, arguing with Javier.
“You can’t keep doing this,” Camila said. “Alejandro doesn’t know what you’re using his businesses for.”
“He knows enough,” Javier replied.
“No. He believes the money is moving through construction contracts. He doesn’t know you’re using the trucks to transport weapons.”
Alejandro felt as though the floor had disappeared beneath him.
Camila continued.
“I have copies. If anything happens to me, people will find out.”
Javier’s face twisted.
“You always thought you were better than us.”
“I wanted to save my family.”
“No,” Javier said. “You wanted to take my brother away.”
The recording ended.
Mateo began crying again.
“Mommy yelled,” he whispered. “Then Uncle Javier said I had to be quiet.”
Valeria knelt beside him.
“You don’t have to be quiet anymore.”
Alejandro turned toward Marcus.
“Get every file from this room. Send copies to an attorney outside our organization. Someone Javier cannot reach.”
Marcus nodded.
“You’re going to the authorities?”
Alejandro looked at his son.
“I should have gone years ago.”
At that moment, the bedroom door opened.
Javier stood there.
His hands were free.
One guard lay unconscious behind him.
And in Javier’s hand was a gun.
“Give me the boy,” Javier said.
Alejandro stepped in front of Mateo.
“No.”
Javier’s eyes were wild now.
“You don’t understand what happens if the evidence leaves this house. People bigger than both of us will come. They will burn everything down.”
“Then let it burn,” Alejandro said.
Javier raised the gun.
Valeria pulled Mateo behind her.
Alejandro did not move.
“You killed the mother of my child,” he said. “You terrorized my son. You used my name to poison this family.”
Javier’s finger tightened on the trigger.
Then Mateo stepped forward.
His small voice filled the room.
“Stop.”
Everyone froze.
Mateo looked directly at Javier.
His tears ran down his cheeks, but he did not look away.
“You hurt Mommy.”
Javier’s hand began to shake.
Mateo took another step.
“You hurt me.”
The gun lowered.
Just slightly.
That was enough.
Marcus moved from the side and disarmed Javier in one clean motion.
Javier fell to the floor.
Alejandro looked at his brother.
For years, men had feared Alejandro because they believed he was capable of anything.
But now, standing over Javier, he made a different choice.
“Call the police,” he said.
Not his men.
Not his contacts.
The police.
May you like
And for the first time, Javier Ríos looked truly defeated.
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