PART 29: THE FOURTH GUEST<\/p>\n
Glass crunched somewhere in the darkness.<\/p>\n
Ricardo stopped breathing loudly.<\/p>\n
Even the sirens outside had gone silent.<\/p>\n
A hand still gripped my arm.<\/p>\n
I assumed it belonged to Isabella.<\/p>\n
Then she whispered from across the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
My blood turned cold.<\/p>\n
The person holding me was someone else.<\/p>\n
I tore myself free just as the emergency lights flickered on.<\/p>\n
A shadow moved behind the curtains.<\/p>\n
Tall.<\/p>\n
Dressed in black.<\/p>\n
Holding a suppressed pistol.<\/p>\n
Ricardo raised his weapon.<\/p>\n
The stranger fired first.<\/p>\n
The bullet struck Ricardo\u2019s shoulder and spun him onto the floor.<\/p>\n
My mother lay nearby, bleeding but conscious.<\/p>\n
The stranger stepped into the dim light.<\/p>\n
Isabella gasped.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. You\u2019re dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man removed his hood.<\/p>\n
Gabriel.<\/p>\n
But something was wrong.<\/p>\n
The Gabriel we knew was outside with Julian.<\/p>\n
This man had the same eyes.<\/p>\n
The same face.<\/p>\n
Only older.<\/p>\n
A scar crossed his left cheek.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy name isn\u2019t Gabriel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy name is Samuel Keller.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Keller\u2019s son.<\/p>\n
He revealed that his father had hidden him after Ernesto\u2019s murder. For fifteen years, Samuel had followed the people responsible, using Gabriel\u2019s identity whenever he needed access to our family.<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen who is outside?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real Gabriel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ricardo laughed weakly from the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou still don\u2019t understand, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuel pointed the pistol at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Ricardo continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were four people at the hotel that night.\u201d<\/p>\n
The receipt had listed only three.<\/p>\n
Ernesto.<\/p>\n
Ricardo.<\/p>\n
Isabella.<\/p>\n
But someone else had entered through the service hallway.<\/p>\n
Someone whose name never appeared in the records.<\/p>\n
Samuel\u2019s hand began to tremble.<\/p>\n
Ricardo smiled through the pain.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell them who poured the poison.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother struggled to sit up.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t listen to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ricardo looked directly at Samuel.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father didn\u2019t simply change Ernesto\u2019s death certificate. He supplied the poison.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuel\u2019s face collapsed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk Isabella.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone turned toward her.<\/p>\n
She was crying silently.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsabella?\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n
She lowered her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Keller brought the poison, but he didn\u2019t pour it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho did?\u201d<\/p>\n
Before she could answer, the front door burst open.<\/p>\n
Julian and the real Gabriel entered with police officers behind them.<\/p>\n
Weapons raised.<\/p>\n
Ricardo dropped his gun.<\/p>\n
Samuel slowly lowered his.<\/p>\n
For one brief moment, I believed it was over.<\/p>\n
Then Isabella reached beneath the table.<\/p>\n
She pulled out a second recorder.<\/p>\n
Pressed play.<\/p>\n
And a woman\u2019s voice filled the room.<\/p>\n
My voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Ernesto refuses to sign,\u201d the recording said, \u201cput the poison in his champagne.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone turned toward me.<\/p>\n
I stared at the recorder in horror.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat isn\u2019t possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isabella looked into my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d she whispered. \u201cBut you were the fourth person at the hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n
PART 29: THE FOURTH GUEST Glass crunched somewhere in the darkness. Ricardo stopped breathing loudly. Even the sirens outside had gone silent. A hand still gripped my arm. I assumed … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3882,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851\/revisions\/3882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}