Alejandro caught Luca by the sleeve.

“Why is there board wax on your cuff?”

Luca pulled free.

“I handle confidential documents every day.”

“Not from my private cabinet.”

Isabella stepped between them.

“You need a doctor, not another accusation.”

Alejandro pointed at the door.

“Leave my home.”

“You cannot remove a board officer during an incapacity review.”

“What review?”

She opened her handbag and placed a sealed document on the desk.

“At nine tomorrow morning, the board will vote to suspend you.

Elena will be named as the woman who compromised your judgment.”

Elena picked up the document.

“You prepared this before he drank the wine.”

Isabella smiled.

“Responsible officers prepare for emergencies.”

“You prepared to take his chair.”

“I prepared to save what our father built.”

Alejandro tore the envelope in half.

“Our father left control to me.”

“He left it to the child who could protect it.”

“And you decided that meant you.”

Isabella turned to Elena.

“Tell him what else you kept from him.”

Elena went still.

Alejandro looked at her.

“What does she mean?”

“Ask her why Emma carries your mother’s middle name,” Isabella said.

Emma appeared in the hall with Gabriel.

“My middle name is Sofia.”

Alejandro’s voice dropped.

“My mother was Sofia.”

Elena reached for him.

“I gave Emma that name because I never stopped loving you.”

“Then why come back under another name and hide beneath my house?”

“Because Isabella’s letter said you knew about the baby and wanted us gone.”

“That is not enough.”

“She also sent me a recording.”

Isabella’s eyes narrowed.

“There was no recording.”

Elena turned toward her.

“I never said whose voice was on it.”

Isabella’s lips parted, then closed.

Alejandro stepped closer.

“You knew about the recording because you made it.”

“You are choosing her word over mine.”

“I’m choosing the mistake you just made.”

Luca reached for the broken laptop.

Gabriel blocked him.

“Put it down.”

“You take orders from me.”

“Not anymore.”

Emma tugged at Elena’s hand.

“Mama, my rabbit feels funny.”

Elena squeezed the toy.

Something crackled inside its body.

She opened the stitched pocket in its back and pulled out a folded envelope.

“What is that?” Alejandro asked.

“I don’t know.”

Gabriel examined the torn stitches.

“Someone placed it there recently.”

Elena unfolded the paper.

The ink had faded, but Alejandro recognized the signature.

“It’s a letter from me.”

She read aloud.

“‘Elena, I went to your apartment, but you were gone.

Isabella says you resigned and left the country.

If that is what you want, I will respect it.

If it is not, call me.

I will wait.’”

Elena pressed the letter to her mouth.

“You wrote to me.”

“I wrote twelve times.”

“I received none of them.”

Gabriel looked at the envelope.

“The stamp was never used.

Someone kept this.”

Emma touched Elena’s tears.

“Does this mean he wanted us?”

Alejandro’s voice broke.

“Yes.”

Elena faced him.

“The painful truth is that I believed a forged letter because I was frightened.

I took Emma away from a father who wanted her.”

“And I believed you left because money mattered more than I did,” Alejandro said.

“I let pride stop me from finding you.”

Emma put one hand on each of their faces.

“You both made the same sad mistake.”

A harsh alarm sounded from the study.

Gabriel checked the security panel.

“The archive room is open.”

They rushed upstairs.

Flames crawled along a stack of old files, and Luca was nowhere in sight.

Isabella stood by the garden doors with her coat on.

“Elena’s personnel file was in that room,” she said.

“Now I suppose we’ll never know what it contained.”

Gabriel pointed at the open gate on the monitor.

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“Luca didn’t run alone.

He took the original security server—and someone just unlocked the gate for him from Isabella’s phone.”