Chapter 2: The Woman Who Stole a Life
Chapter 2: The Woman Who Stole a Life
By sunrise, federal investigators had transformed the Castillo mansion into an active crime scene.
Every room was photographed.
Every employee interviewed.
Every security camera confiscated.
One detective approached Alejandro carrying a hard drive recovered from an old maintenance office.
"Sir..."
"I think you need to see this."
The footage dated back exactly three years.
It showed Elena walking through the garden on the afternoon she disappeared.
She was smiling while talking on the phone.
Then Vivian appeared behind her.
The recording had no audio.
But it showed everything else.
Vivian handed Elena a bottle of water.
Minutes later, Elena stumbled.
She collapsed.
Two men wearing landscaping uniforms carried her unconscious body into a delivery van.
Alejandro couldn't breathe.
The van drove away.
Not toward the city.
Toward the servants' entrance.
His wife had never left the estate.
The disappearance the entire country had followed...
Had been staged before his own security cameras.
Investigators soon uncovered something even darker.
Several former employees had vanished over the past three years.
Most had accepted generous severance packages.
Others had simply disappeared.
Until an elderly gardener finally spoke.
He had been terrified for years.
"I saw everything."
"They threatened my family."
He revealed that Vivian had slowly replaced loyal employees with people personally loyal to her.
Anyone who questioned Elena's sudden disappearance lost their job within days.
Others signed nondisclosure agreements after receiving enormous payments.
The mansion had become a prison disguised as a home.
Meanwhile, Elena remained inside the medical suite.
Fragments of memory returned like broken pieces of glass.
A piano.
Their wedding dance.
A small café in Florence.
Alejandro proposing during a thunderstorm.
Then...
Pain.
Hands holding her down.
A locked room.
A woman whispering:
"You don't have a husband."
"You belong here."
She screamed.
Doctors rushed inside.
Alejandro reached for her hand.
"It's okay."
"I'm here."
She looked at him with tears streaming down her face.
"I remember..."
She whispered.
"You never stopped looking."
Alejandro nodded.
"Never."
She burst into tears.
May you like
For the first time in three years...
She remembered his name.
