Chapter 3: The Woman Who Knew Too Much
The number was blocked.
No name.
No location.
Just those three words sitting on the screen like a warning someone had been waiting years to send.
Mariana typed back: *Who is this?*
No reply.
She set the phone face-down on her knee and looked at Mateo.
He had finally gone still against her chest, one fist curled around the lapel of her jacket.
His breathing was shallow but even.
His eyes were closed.
She didn't move.
Didn't adjust her position even when her arm went numb.
Her phone rang.
Her commanding officer, Colonel Vega.
"I pulled the records," he said.
"Mariana, someone attempted to file a transfer of ownership on that property eight months ago."
"Attempted?"
"The notary flagged it.
Your name was on the deed as sole owner and the signature on the transfer document didn't match your registered signature on file with the federal registry.
The transfer was rejected and a fraud alert was placed on the property."
Mariana's jaw tightened.
"Ricardo tried to forge my signature."
"That's what the records suggest.
The alert is still active.
No one can legally transfer or mortgage that property without your physical presence and verified identification."
"He didn't know that."
"Apparently not."
She looked through the windshield again.
The light in the front bedroom had gone on.
Elvira's silhouette moved across the curtain, then stopped.
Standing still.
Looking out.
"There's something else," Vega said.
"The construction company.
It was restructured fourteen months ago.
Ricardo removed your name as co-director and listed himself as sole owner.
He used a power of attorney document."
"I never signed a power of attorney."
"I know."
The word landed between them like a stone dropped into still water.
"He forged that too," Mariana said.
"Someone did.
I'm sending you the scanned documents now.
You'll want a lawyer to look at them tonight."
She already knew which lawyer.
Her mother's old friend, Licenciada Patricia Ruiz, who had drawn up the original property deed and kept a copy in her office safe for exactly this kind of reason.
Mariana had always thought that was excessive caution.
She understood now that her mother had known something about Ricardo that Mariana had refused to see.
Her phone buzzed again.
The documents from Vega.
And below them, another message from the unknown number.
*"The baby isn't Brenda's either.
Ask Elvira who the real mother is."*
Mariana read it twice.
She typed: *Tell me who you are.*
This time, a reply came.
*"I used to work in that house.
I left six months ago.
I couldn't stay and I couldn't speak.
But I kept everything.
Every document they made me witness.
Every photograph.
Every time they made me sign something and told me it was nothing."*
Mariana's hand tightened on the phone.
"Who are you?" she typed again.
*"My name is Sofía.
I was their housekeeper.
And I have a folder with your name on it that Ricardo told me to burn the day you left for your assignment.
I didn't burn it.
I've been waiting for you to come back."*
Mateo stirred against her chest.
Made a small sound, not a word, just a breath shaped like something that might one day become a word again.
Mariana pressed her lips to the top of his head.
"Sofía," she typed.
"Where are you right now?"
The reply came in under ten seconds.
*"Parked two streets behind you.
I followed you from the house.
I've been following you since the airport.
I needed to make sure it was really you before I came forward."*
Mariana went very still.
May you like
She looked in the rearview mirror.
Halfway down the dark street, a small white car sat with its lights off.
