“I couldn’t save him. That haunts me every night. I’m not going to make the same mistake twice.” Ramiro stared at her for a long time, assessing whether he could trust this stranger. Finally, he spoke. That night I drank a lot. I’d lost my job. I was devastated. I fell asleep on the sofa and don’t remember anything else until I woke up with blood on my hands and Sara on the floor. I called 911, tried to help her, and when the police arrived, they arrested me. Did you hear anything? Did you see anyone?
Nothing, but now I know something I didn’t know before. Dolores leaned toward…
“What did he tell you, Salomé?” Ramiro closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were filled with tears. “My daughter was there that night. She saw everything from the hallway. She was three years old and she saw everything.
She told me that someone entered the house after I fell asleep. Someone she knew, someone she trusted.” “Who?” Ramiro uttered a name Dolores already suspected. “My brother Gonzalo, my own flesh and blood.”
Dolores arrived home after midnight. Ramiro’s revelations swirled in her mind. A traitorous brother, a child witness. Five years of silence. Why had Salomé never spoken? What had kept her quiet for so long? She opened the door and turned on the light. What she saw paralyzed her. Her house had been ransacked. Drawers open, papers on the floor, books knocked off the shelves. Whoever had entered wasn’t looking to steal; they were looking for something specific. The Fuentes case file was carefully carried through the mess to her desk.
The file was still there, seemingly untouched, but on top of it was something new: a photograph. It was an old photo of Sara Fuentes, smiling, young, full of life. Someone had drawn a red X over her face with a permanent marker. Underneath it was a handwritten note. Some truths must remain buried. Stop investigating or you’ll end up like her. Dolores’s hands trembled, not from fear, but from rage. Whoever sent this message didn’t know Dolores Medina.
They didn’t know she had survived a heart attack, a failed marriage, 40 years of facing criminals in court. They didn’t know that threatening her was the worst possible strategy. She picked up her phone and called Carlos. “Someone broke into my house. Do they know I’m investigating? That means there’s something they don’t want me to find out. Double your efforts. I want to know everything about Gonzalo Fuentes, about Judge Aurelio Sánchez, and about any connection between them. And I want to know what Sara discovered before she died.”
Outside, a black car was parked at the end of the street. Inside, someone watched Dolores’s house with the patience of a predator. The hunt had begun. Ticarlos worked all night and delivered his findings to Dolores at a discreet café far from the city center. What he brought was explosive. Gonzalo Fuentes went from being an office worker to a real estate developer in less than two years, he explained, spreading documents on the table. Right after his brother was convicted, he started buying properties.
Many properties. With what money? That’s the point. He inherited his parents’ land. Land that supposedly belonged to Ramiro as well. But according to this will, Carlos pointed to a document. The parents left everything to Gonzalo.
Dolores examined the will. Something didn’t add up. Ramiro’s parents died six months before the crime. And this will surfaced after the conviction. Exactly. And the lawyer who validated it was Aurelio Sánchez. Before becoming a prosecutor, he practiced as a private attorney. This was one of her last cases before joining the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Dolores felt the pieces were starting to fall into place. Then Aurelio validated a suspicious will that benefited Gonzalo. Later, he became a prosecutor and took the case against Ramiro. And now they’re both partners in real estate.
There’s more, Carlos said, lowering his voice. Sara Fuentes worked as an accountant before she got married. Five years ago, weeks before she died, she requested copies of several legal documents belonging to the Fuentes family, including her in-laws’ original will. The original will, different from the one Aurelio validated.
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