Chapter 3 - The File Beneath the Floor
Alejandro did not chase the voice. That decision went against every violent impulse rising
through him, but anger was exactly what an intruder wanted: movement without information. He
pulled Elena deeper into the salon and reached for the brass lamp beside the sofa, not because
it was a weapon worth trusting but because it was better than empty hands. The emergency
lighting cast long red bands across the corridor. Somewhere beyond the wall, a door opened and
shut. Then came silence. Alejandro pressed the call button on his phone. No signal. Wi-Fi was
gone as well. The security system, the cameras, the smart locks—every expensive layer designed
to make the estate untouchable had become useless in less than ten seconds.
“Elena, can you walk?” “Yes.” “Good. We’re leaving through the west terrace.” She shook her
head. “The card first.” He stared at her. “The card is in my hand.” “That’s only the copy I
wanted you to see. The evidence that matters is hidden here.”
Alejandro almost laughed from disbelief. “You hid evidence in my house?” “Because I knew
somebody was watching me at the office, and I didn’t know whether your phones were safe.” Her
voice trembled, but her thinking remained precise. “Two nights ago, I came here during the
charity committee dinner. I put a drive in a place nobody would search unless they knew exactly
where to look.”
A faint movement sounded outside the room. Alejandro lowered his voice. “Where?” “Your father’s
library.” The answer struck him with unexpected force. The library sat at the opposite end of
the ground floor, behind a corridor lined with portraits of Valdés men who had spent
generations building fortunes and grudges. Alejandro’s father, Esteban, had died six years
earlier. Since then, Alejandro had barely changed the room. He had told people it was respect.
In truth, he had not known how to enter without hearing his father’s voice in the silence. “Why
there?”
“Because you once told me no one uses it.” “No one does.” “That’s why.” Alejandro looked toward
the dark corridor. “We are not crossing half the house for a flash drive.” Elena stepped
closer. “If we leave without it, they’ll erase the last proof we have. The card shows someone
in your study. The drive shows where the money went, who benefited, and what they were planning
next.”
“What were they planning?” Her eyes filled with the kind of fear that no bruise could explain.
“Your death.” The words landed more quietly than he expected. No dramatic shock, no immediate
denial. Just a cold emptiness. Alejandro had spent enough years around large sums of money to
know greed could turn respectable people feral. But there was a difference between stealing
from a man and deciding he no longer needed to remain alive.
“How do you know?” “Because I found an insurance structure tied to the acquisition you’ve been
negotiating. If you die before the vote, your controlling shares move into a temporary trust.
The trustee has authority to approve the sale.” “Who is the trustee?” “I couldn’t see the final
name. It was buried behind a legal entity in Luxembourg. But I found correspondence describing
the transfer as ‘the succession event.’ They weren’t waiting for an accident, Alejandro. They
were preparing for one.”
He looked at her injuries again and finally understood why she had been attacked. She had not
merely discovered theft. She had walked into a timetable. A soft click came from the salon
doorway. Alejandro lifted the lamp, but the figure that appeared was Victoria.
She raised both hands. “It’s me.” “Where were you?” Alejandro demanded. “Trying to reset the
power.” “You disappeared when the lights went out.” “Because I knew this could happen.” Elena
let out a bitter breath. “There it is.” Alejandro moved between them. “Could happen?”
Victoria’s face was pale now, the controlled mask stripped away. “I knew someone had access to
the house systems. I didn’t know they would make a move tonight.”
“Who?” “I don’t know for certain.” “Elena says someone is planning to kill me.” Victoria shut
her eyes for a moment. That was all the answer he needed. Alejandro’s voice dropped. “You
knew.” “I suspected.” “You knew enough to be afraid.” “Yes.” “And you said nothing.”
“I thought if I confronted the person quietly, I could stop it before you learned how deep it
went.” Elena stared at her. “You thought you could negotiate with people who tried to run me
off the road.” Alejandro turned sharply. “That’s what happened?” Elena nodded. “A van boxed me
in near the service road. I got out before they could trap me. One man caught me at the
embankment. I fought free and ran through the olive fields.”
Victoria looked genuinely horrified. “I didn’t know.” “You never wanted to know,” Elena said.
Another sound came from the hall, closer this time. Victoria lowered her voice. “If the
evidence is where I think it is, we need to move now.” Alejandro stared at her. “You know about
the library?”
“I know someone searched it yesterday.” The three of them stood in a triangle of suspicion.
Alejandro hated the idea of relying on Victoria. He hated more that Elena had no safe
alternative. “Lead us through the service corridor,” he said. Victoria nodded. They moved out
of the salon together, Alejandro first, Elena behind him, Victoria last. The mansion’s
emergency lights painted the marble floor with weak red pools. Every familiar object had become
sinister—the bronze sculpture in the niche, the console table, the family portraits whose
painted eyes seemed to follow their progress. At the end of the corridor Victoria opened a
narrow door usually used by staff. They entered a passage that ran behind the formal rooms,
hidden from guests. Alejandro had known it existed since childhood, but he had not walked it in
years.
Halfway through, Elena stopped. “What?” Alejandro whispered. She pointed to the floor. A thin
line of fresh mud marked one of the tiles. Someone else had used the corridor recently. They
continued faster. When they reached the library, Alejandro unlocked the old brass door with a
mechanical key. No electronics. No remote access. The room smelled of leather, cedar, and dust.
Shelves climbed to the ceiling, filled with books his father had collected more for discipline
than pleasure. Moonlight entered through tall windows, silvering the desk.
Elena crossed to the fireplace. “Under the third floorboard from the hearth.” Alejandro knelt
and pressed the seam. The board lifted. Beneath it lay a slim metal drive wrapped in plastic.
He had just closed his hand around it when the library doors slammed shut.
A lock turned from the outside. Then smoke began curling beneath the door. Victoria’s face
changed. “They’re going to burn the room.” Alejandro looked at the shelves, the dry wood, the
old paper, the curtains. His father’s library had survived war, scandal, bankruptcy, and death.
May you like
Now it had become a coffin. And somewhere on the other side of the door, the person who wanted
Alejandro dead was waiting to see whether the fire finished what betrayal had started.
