CHAPTER 4
Alexander didn't sleep.
He never even tried.
Instead, he sat alone in the dining room with every light turned off except one small desk lamp.
The glow illuminated dozens of folders spread across the table.
Corporate filings.
Court records.
Marriage licenses.
Property deeds.
Everything pointed back to the same place.
Not just Carmen.
An organization.
At exactly 2:17 a.m., one of his encrypted phones vibrated.
Unknown number.
He answered without speaking.
For several seconds, only static could be heard.
Then a man's voice.
Low.
Careful.
"They know you're digging."
Alexander remained silent.
"They've already started deleting records."
"I expected that."
Another pause.
"But they missed something."
Alexander leaned forward.
"What?"
"The original partnership registry."
His eyes narrowed.
"I thought it disappeared years ago."
"So did they."
The caller gave him an address.
"A storage archive."
"Basement level."
"Locker 418."
"You have until tomorrow morning."
Then the line went dead.
Across town...
Carmen wasn't asleep either.
She stood before an enormous wall-sized screen inside her private office.
A digital map displayed dozens of interconnected companies.
Each connection represented millions of dollars.
Every marriage...
Every inheritance...
Every trust...
Every acquisition...
The network looked less like a business.
More like a spider's web.
Her chief legal adviser entered quietly.
"Three more records have been accessed."
"By Alexander?"
"Yes."
Carmen nodded once.
"He learns quickly."
The adviser hesitated.
"There is another problem."
Carmen looked at him.
"The archive."
For the first time that night...
Something changed in her expression.
Only slightly.
"Who told him?"
"We don't know."
She stood perfectly still.
Then spoke calmly.
"Find the leak."
"If you can't..."
She didn't finish the sentence.
She didn't need to.
The following morning...
Alexander arrived at the storage facility before sunrise.
The building looked abandoned.
Concrete walls.
Rusted security gates.
Dust everywhere.
The elderly caretaker checked his identification twice before unlocking the basement.
"Locker 418?"
he asked.
"No one's opened that in almost twenty years."
Alexander's heartbeat quickened.
The old man handed him a key.
"I don't even remember who rented it."
The metal door groaned open.
Inside sat only three cardboard boxes.
Nothing else.
Alexander carefully lifted the first lid.
Financial ledgers.
Old accounting books.
Nothing important.
The second box contained photographs.
Wedding receptions.
Corporate dinners.
Political fundraisers.
He almost closed it.
Then he noticed something strange.
Every photograph contained the same woman.
Carmen.
Standing beside different young couples.
Always smiling.
Always watching.
As if she had attended weddings that had nothing to do with her own family.
Alexander whispered,
"My God..."
The third box changed everything.
Inside rested a leather binder.
Its cover carried no title.
Only one embossed symbol.
A gold circle.
Broken by a single vertical line.
He opened it.
The first page contained only six words.
Transfer Candidates — Confidential Family Program
Alexander felt his pulse racing.
He turned another page.
Names.
Dates.
Assets.
Net worth.
Relationship status.
Next to every woman's name appeared a score.
Compatibility.
Inheritance potential.
Family vulnerability.
Emotional profile.
It wasn't a family record.
It was a selection process.
His phone rang.
Elena.
"Alexander?"
"You need to come home."
Her voice was shaking.
"What happened?"
"Sofia..."
A long silence.
"She's gone."
Alexander's blood ran cold.
"What do you mean gone?"
"I woke up..."
"Her room was empty."
"The front door was open."
Alexander grabbed the binder.
"I'm coming."
"No."
Elena interrupted him.
"There was something else."
"What?"
"A letter."
When Alexander reached the house fifteen minutes later, Elena was standing in the kitchen.
Her hands trembled as she handed him a single folded sheet of paper.
It wasn't written by Sofia.
It was typed.
No signature.
No fingerprints.
Only one sentence.
If you want your daughter alive, stop looking for the archive.
Silence filled the room.
Alexander read it again.
Then again.
His face remained expressionless.
Only his eyes changed.
Elena whispered,
"They took her..."
Alexander slowly shook his head.
"No."
"Not yet."
She looked confused.
"What do you mean?"
He pointed toward the final line.
"They're bluffing."
Elena frowned.
"How can you know that?"
Alexander folded the letter carefully.
"Because if Carmen already had Sofia..."
"...she wouldn't need to threaten me."
At that exact moment...
Across the city...
Sofia sat alone inside the back seat of a black luxury sedan.
She wasn't tied up.
She wasn't unconscious.
She had gotten into the car willingly.
Across from her sat Javier.
Neither of them had spoken for almost twenty minutes.
Finally...
Javier broke the silence.
"I didn't ask you here for my mother."
Sofia looked at him without emotion.
"Then why am I here?"
He swallowed hard.
Then quietly said,
"Because there are things about my family..."
"...that even I didn't know until yesterday."
Sofia stared at him.
"What things?"
Javier slowly reached into his jacket.
He removed an old photograph.
Faded.
Yellowed with age.
He handed it to her.
Sofia looked down.
The picture showed Carmen.
Much younger.
Standing beside another young bride.
One Sofia had never seen before.
Written on the back were five chilling words:
Subject 01 — Transfer Completed Successfully.
Sofia slowly looked back up.
Her face turned pale.
Javier's voice barely rose above a whisper.
"My mother..."
"...has been doing this for over thirty years."
And somewhere across the city...
Carmen looked out from the top floor of her tower.
Watching the skyline.
Watching the pieces move.
May you like
Still believing...
She was the one controlling the board.
