Chapter 2: The Letter That Should Have Never Been Found
I crawled toward it.
My hands were shaking so badly I almost dropped it.
When it fell during the struggle, the bottom plate had come loose.
A hidden compartment.
Arturo had always been practical. Always fixing things. Always hiding spare money “just in case.”
But this wasn’t money.
It was paper.
Folded. Yellowed. Sealed with old tape.
My heart started pounding before I even touched it.
“No…” I whispered. “This can’t be…”
But I opened it anyway.
His handwriting.
Large. Clumsy. Real.
And the world stopped.
“Elena, my love. If you are reading this, I did not return.”
“I swear I never meant for any of this to happen…”
“At the factory, I saw something I should not have seen. Trucks leaving at dawn. They are not carrying goods…”
“They are carrying something else.”
My breath stopped.
I kept reading.
“They found out I was asking questions. The supervisor told me clearly: stay silent or disappear.”
“I chose not to be part of it.”
“I tried to go to the police, but I think they are involved too.”
A pause.
Then the line that broke me completely.
“If I do not come home, do not search for me. Take Diego and hide. Go to your sister’s. Please, Elena. Trust no one.”
My chest collapsed.
He didn’t leave us.
He tried to protect us.
But the last paragraph… written in smaller letters… made my blood turn cold.
“If you are reading this years later, it means they succeeded in erasing me.”
May you like
“And the one who ordered it…”
“…is your brother, Roberto.”
