Chapter 2 - THE DRAWING NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO SEE
The following morning, Mateo refused breakfast.
Instead, he quietly followed Valeria through the mansion while she dusted antique furniture.
He still didn't speak.
But he stayed close enough that his tiny hand occasionally brushed the back of her apron.
It was the closest thing to trust anyone had ever witnessed.
Alejandro watched from a distance.
Hope felt unfamiliar.
Dangerous.
Later that afternoon, Valeria entered the playroom.
Thousands of dollars worth of toys filled every shelf.
None had been touched.
Instead, Mateo walked toward an old wooden box hidden beneath a cabinet.
Inside were crayons.
Paper.
A faded stuffed rabbit.
He pushed the paper toward Valeria.
She smiled.
"You want me to draw?"
Mateo slowly shook his head.
He picked up a black crayon.
Then another.
Then a red one.
For nearly twenty minutes, he drew without lifting his eyes.
When he finished, he silently handed her the page.
Valeria's smile disappeared.
The drawing showed three people.
A woman lying on the ground.
A little boy beside her.
And another woman standing nearby.
The standing woman wore bright red earrings shaped like roses.
Across the page, Mateo had drawn dozens of black circles around her face.
Almost like...
bullets.
At the bottom, he had written his very first word in two years.
"MALA."
Bad.
Valeria's heartbeat quickened.
She carried the drawing directly to Alejandro.
"Did your wife own earrings like these?"
Alejandro looked closely.
"No."
He frowned.
"But..."
He opened an old family photo album.
There she was.
Camila.
His late wife's personal assistant.
Standing beside them at a charity gala.
Wearing identical red rose earrings.
Alejandro stared at the photograph.
His expression hardened.
Camila had resigned the day after the assassination.
She had disappeared.
No one ever questioned why.
May you like
Now...
a four-year-old child had just identified her.
