Chapter 2: The Marks That Don't Lie
Mariana didn't go to a hotel.
She went to her car, sat in the driver's seat, and held Mateo against her chest while he fought her like a cornered animal.
She didn't let go.
Not once.
She just kept whispering his name until his breathing slowed.
It took forty minutes before he stopped trembling.
She looked down at his neck.
The chain had left marks.
Old ones.
Not from today.
Her hands went still.
She pulled out her phone and took photographs.
Every mark.
Every scar on his knees.
The torn shirt.
The dirt still caked under his fingernails from fighting a dog for food.
Then she made a call.
Not to a lawyer.
To her former commanding officer.
"I need a favor," she said quietly.
"I need someone to pull the property records on a house in Coyoacán.
Tonight."
A pause.
"Mariana...
are you back?"
"I am.
And Ricardo filed for abandonment while I was on a classified operation he knew I couldn't speak about."
Silence on the line.
Then: "Send me the address."
She looked back at the house through the windshield.
The lights were still on.
She could see Elvira's shadow moving behind the curtain.
Then her phone buzzed.
A message.
Unknown number.
Three words:
*"She has everything."*
Mariana stared at the screen.
May you like
Who sent that?
And what did they mean by everything?
