PART 37: THE WOMAN BEHIND THE DOOR<\/p>\n
We dropped to the floor.<\/p>\n
The gas burned my throat.<\/p>\n
Patricia tore a curtain from its rail and pressed pieces of fabric into our hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cCover your faces!\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside, gunfire erupted.<\/p>\n
Victoria\u2019s men shouted in the corridor.<\/p>\n
Then the hospital speaker crackled again.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdrian,\u201d Margaret said, \u201cthere\u2019s an oxygen valve behind Ernesto\u2019s bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adrian pulled the bed away from the wall.<\/p>\n
Behind it was a red lever.<\/p>\n
He turned it.<\/p>\n
Fresh air blasted through the emergency vents, forcing the gas from the room.<\/p>\n
Mateo and Julian rammed the locked door together.<\/p>\n
It would not move.<\/p>\n
Then three gunshots struck the lock from the other side.<\/p>\n
The door opened.<\/p>\n
Margaret Morris stood there holding a pistol.<\/p>\n
She looked nothing like the quiet investigator who had guided us for months.<\/p>\n
Blood covered one sleeve.<\/p>\n
Her face held no fear.<\/p>\n
My mother stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you really my daughter?\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret\u2019s expression softened.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy name is Clara.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elena began to cry.<\/p>\n
Clara had discovered the truth when she was seventeen.<\/p>\n
Victoria had raised her inside the criminal organization, training her to gather secrets and destroy enemies. But Clara secretly copied every document she found.<\/p>\n
For twenty years, she had been building a case against Victoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you come to me?\u201d Elena asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause everyone who loved you became leverage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clara turned toward Ernesto.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd because he made me promise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ernesto\u2019s heartbeat weakened.<\/p>\n
Clara knelt beside him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is the master file?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ernesto whispered something into her ear.<\/p>\n
She went pale.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he say?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Clara looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe black ledger is a decoy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The real evidence was stored beneath the old Vargas estate.<\/p>\n
It contained recordings, bank transfers, names, and proof of every murder Victoria had ordered.<\/p>\n
But there was a problem.<\/p>\n
The vault required two biological signatures.<\/p>\n
Victoria\u2019s.<\/p>\n
And her daughter\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Mine.<\/p>\n
Before I could respond, the lights flickered.<\/p>\n
A security screen illuminated the corridor.<\/p>\n
Victoria appeared on it from inside a moving car.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have something I need,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The camera shifted.<\/p>\n
Isabella was sitting beside her, unconscious.<\/p>\n
I turned toward the hospital room.<\/p>\n
The chair where Isabella had been standing was empty.<\/p>\n
Victoria had taken her during the gas attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want your sister alive,\u201d Victoria continued, \u201cbring my daughter to the estate before sunrise.\u201d<\/p>\n
The screen went black.<\/p>\n
Julian looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a trap.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clara reloaded her weapon.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019ll kill you once the vault opens.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind us, Ernesto suddenly stopped breathing.<\/p>\n
The heart monitor became one continuous tone.<\/p>\n
Patricia rushed toward him.<\/p>\n
But Ernesto\u2019s hand fell from the bed.<\/p>\n
Inside it was a small piece of paper.<\/p>\n
I unfolded it.<\/p>\n
Four words were written in blood:<\/p>\n
ISABELLA WORKS FOR VICTORIA.<\/p>\n
PART 37: THE WOMAN BEHIND THE DOOR We dropped to the floor. The gas burned my throat. Patricia tore a curtain from its rail and pressed pieces of fabric into … <\/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-3862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862","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=3862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3874,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions\/3874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}