Chapter 2: The Name That Stopped Everything
Raul stood up so fast his chair scraped across the tile.
"Don't answer it," he said.
His voice was different now.
Quiet.
Controlled.
The voice of a man who understood exactly what was standing on the other side of that door.
Victor looked at his father.
"What are you talking about?
I'll handle it."
"You don't know what you're dealing with." Raul grabbed his arm.
"That woman — who did she contact?
Show me the phone."
Victor held up the shattered screen.
"It's destroyed.
Doesn't matter."
Raul's face went gray.
"It matters more than anything you've ever done in your life."
The knock came again.
Slower this time.
More patient.
Helena had stopped laughing.
Nora had lowered her phone.
I pressed my hand against the floor and pushed myself up.
Every part of me was in pain.
But I needed to see his face when the door opened.
Victor reached for the handle.
Raul said one name — quietly, like a warning — and Victor froze with his hand still on the door.
I knew that name.
It was the name I had carried as my last protection for three years.
May you like
The name Victor's family had made me promise never to speak out loud.
And I had just sent it two words.
