Chapter 4 - THE AMBUSHRosa turned around slowly, her back slamming against the open safe.
Valeria stood in the doorway of the sitting room. She was no longer wearing her soft bathrobe; she was dressed in a sharp black silk suit, her eyes cold, unfeeling, and completely devoid of humanity. Standing directly behind her was Inspector Bravo, holding a silenced 9mm pistol pointed straight at Rosa’s chest.
Rosa clutched the thick dossier against her chest, her breathing frantic.
“You... you killed Sofia,” Rosa whispered, her voice shaking with horror. “And you’re killing little Camila...”
Valeria walked slowly into the room, a light, mocking laugh escaping her lips. She took a pair of thin leather gloves from her pocket and pulled them onto her slender hands.
“Sofia was weak,” Valeria said casually, adjusting her gloves. “She was a quiet, simple woman who happened to inherit a empire she didn't deserve. Esteban needed a true partner. A woman with ambition, intelligence, and power. But he was so hopelessly devoted to his pathetic little wife that he never would have looked at me while she was alive.”
“You are a monster!” Rosa yelled, tears of absolute fury burning her eyes. “She trusted you! Esteban trusts you!”
“Esteban believes whatever I tell him to believe,” Valeria corrected her coldly. “He is so blinded by his grief and his pathetic hope that he sees me as his savior. In one month, after our wedding in Valle de Guadalupe, Camila will peacefully pass away in her sleep. The doctors will mourn her ‘rare genetic disease.’ Esteban will be broken, completely dependent on me. And within two years... Esteban will suffer a sudden, tragic heart attack, leaving me as the sole owner of Torres Global.”
Valeria stepped closer, her eyes fixing on the dossier in Rosa’s hands.
“And you,” Valeria whispered, gesturing to Bravo, “are just an illiterate cleaning woman who got too curious.”
Bravo stepped forward, raising the heavy pistol toward Rosa’s head. “Should I take her to the basement, Miss Montes?”
“No,” Valeria instructed calmly. “The basement leaves traces. Put her in the back of the utility van. Drive her out to the cliffs along the Highway to Toluca. Make it look like an accidental fall. A tragic story of a grieving, unstable housekeeper who lost her mind and jumped.”
“Please...” Rosa begged, looking past Valeria toward the door. “Don't hurt the child... take my life, but stop giving her the poison! She’s just a baby!”
Valeria smiled, reaching out and gently touching Rosa’s cheek with her leather-gloved hand.
“The baby goes to join her mother, Rosa,” Valeria murmured softly. “It’s mercy, really.”
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Bravo stepped forward, slamming the heavy handle of the gun across Rosa’s temple.
A blinding flash of red light exploded behind Rosa’s eyes. Darkness rushed in from all sides, and she collapsed onto the velvet carpet, the secret dossier slipping from her unconscious fingers.
