PART 27: COME HOME
The address arrived one minute later.
It was not a warehouse.
Not an abandoned house.
Not some remote hiding place.
It was our childhood home.
The house where Isabella and I had shared a bedroom.
The house where our mother had taught us to bake.
The house where Ernesto had eaten Sunday dinner with us every week.
Julian wanted to call the police.
“No,” I said. “If she sees them, Isabella dies.”
Gabriel placed a small tracking device inside my coat.
“We’ll stay close.”
I drove there alone.
Every light in the house was burning.
The front door opened before I reached it.
My mother stood inside wearing the same black dress from the photograph.
She looked older.
Tired.
But not frightened.
“Come in,” she said.
I stepped across the threshold.
The door locked behind me.
“Where is Isabella?”
“Safe—for now.”
My mother led me into the dining room.
The table had been prepared for three.
Candles.
Wine.
And Ernesto’s favorite meal.
At the far end sat Isabella.
Her wrists were tied to the chair.
A bruise darkened her cheek.
But she was alive.
Our eyes met.
Fifteen years disappeared in a single breath.
Then my mother placed a gun on the table.
“You think you understand what happened,” she said.
“You poisoned Ernesto.”
“Yes.”
The word came without hesitation.
Isabella closed her eyes.
I felt something inside me shatter.
“Why?”
My mother poured herself a glass of wine.
“Because Ernesto discovered what Ricardo had done.”
“What did Ricardo do?”
“He stole millions from the family company. Patricia helped him hide it. When Ernesto threatened to expose them, Ricardo came to me with a choice.”
“What choice?”
“Help them silence Ernesto—or watch both my daughters die.”
Isabella shook her head violently.
“She’s lying. She always lies.”
My mother’s expression hardened.
“I saved this family.”
“You imprisoned Isabella for fifteen years!”
“I kept her hidden because Ricardo believed she had Ernesto’s evidence.”
“Did she?”
My mother looked toward Isabella.
Then smiled faintly.
“That is why you’re here.”
She reached beneath the table and produced a small silver key.
“Ernesto hid a recording inside this house. Isabella knows where it is, but she refuses to tell me.”
I turned toward my sister.
“Is that true?”
Tears filled Isabella’s eyes.
“The recording proves who planned everything.”
“You said Mom did.”
“She poisoned him,” Isabella whispered. “But she wasn’t the mastermind.”
A floorboard creaked behind me.
Someone had entered the room.
I turned slowly.
Ricardo stood in the doorway with a gun aimed at my mother.
“You always talked too much, Elena.”
My mother froze.
Ricardo stepped inside and locked the door.
Then he looked at me.
“You brought Gabriel here, didn’t you?”
I said nothing.
Ricardo smiled.
“That was a mistake.”
He placed a phone on the table and turned the screen toward us.
The live video showed Gabriel and Julian outside beside their car.
A red laser dot moved across Julian’s chest.
Ricardo’s thumb hovered over a button.
“One wrong move,” he whispered, “and your brother dies first.”
