Chapter 3 - THE SHADOWS OF THE ESTATE
Alejandro vaulted over a low stone wall, his boots sliding in the wet red mud as he looped back toward the main ranch house through a hidden maintenance trail. His heart thundered against his ribs, but his mind was crystal clear—cold, calculating, and furious. Whoever these men were, they were looking for the plastic bag he now carried inside his coat. He slipped through the back kitchen entrance of his sprawling mansion, bolting the heavy iron-reinforced doors behind him. The house was pitch black. He rushed to the secure panic room hidden behind the walk-in wine cellar, punching the biometric code into the steel pad. The heavy hydraulic seal hissed open. He set the plastic bag on the steel desk and dumped its contents under the harsh emergency lighting. The medical papers were official documents from a private maternity clinic in Guadalajara, dated just four years prior. The name of the patient was Elena Morales—a name that meant nothing to him at first glance. But as he flipped through the pages, a legal affidavit bearing his late wife’s signature stopped him cold. Isabella had signed as a witness. More importantly, birth records showed twin girls born on the exact same stormy night Isabella had suffered her first unexplained medical emergency years ago. Alejandro stared at the documents, the room suddenly spinning around him. The dates didn't just align; they intersected with a period when Isabella had supposedly spent three months visiting an ailing aunt in Europe. The cold, bitter realization settled over his bones like frost. Isabella hadn't been in Europe. She had been hiding a secret right here on the ranch. Before Alejandro could process the seismic implications, a dull, heavy thump echoed from the main hallway upstairs. They had breached the house.
