I rushed to the window.
A black SUV had stopped at the end of the street.
Then another car pulled up behind it.
Two men stepped out.
One of them looked directly toward our house.
My mother whispered:
“They’re here.”
I grabbed the key.
“We leave now.”
We rushed through the back door.
My mother took Emiliano.
I grabbed the laptop and the evidence card.
But before I stepped outside, I looked back at Rebecca one last time.
“I promise,” I whispered.
“I’ll find out what happened to you.”
Then something happened.
The black device in my pocket vibrated.
I pulled it out.
One final recording had appeared.
It had not been there before.
The file name was simple.
ALMA — LISTEN ALONE.
I pressed play.
Rebecca’s voice came through.
But this time she wasn’t crying.
She sounded calm.
Almost relieved.
“Alma, if you’re hearing this, then you found the key.”
A pause.
“There’s something I couldn’t tell you while I was alive.”
I stopped walking.
Rebecca continued.
“Omar isn’t the person who killed me.”
My heart stopped.
“He helped them.”
Another pause.
“But he didn’t give the order.”
I looked toward the dark street.
Rebecca whispered:
“The person who ordered my death is someone you’ve known your entire life.”
I felt my stomach twist.
Then she said the name.
“Mom.”
The recording ended.
I stared at my mother.
She was standing beside Emiliano, waiting for me.
Her face was pale.
I could barely speak.
“Mom…”
She looked at me.
“What?”
I held up the device.
“What did you do to Rebecca?”
My mother’s face changed.
Not with surprise.
Not with fear.
With recognition.
And then, for the first time that night, my mother said something that made Emiliano start crying.
“I didn’t kill my daughter.”
She looked toward the house.
“But I know who did.”
Behind us, the front door suddenly slammed open.
Someone had entered the house.
And from inside came a man’s voice.
“Alma!”
I turned.
The voice belonged to Omar.
But he wasn’t alone.
Standing beside him was Daniel Mercer.
And between them was a woman I had never expected to see alive again.
Rebecca’s best friend, Elena.
The woman who had told everyone Rebecca was already dead before the hospital had officially announced it.
PART 5
For one terrible second, I thought I was looking at a ghost.
Elena stood in the doorway with rain-dark hair, a pale face, and the same green scarf she had worn at Rebecca’s hospital bedside.
But Elena was supposed to be dead.
At least, that was what everyone had told me.
Three months earlier, Rebecca had called me crying after Elena supposedly died in a car accident outside Tucson.
Rebecca had been devastated.
She told me Elena had been the closest friend she had ever had.
And now Elena was standing inside my mother’s house.
Alive.
Watching me.
I instinctively pulled Emiliano behind me.
My mother stepped forward.
“Elena?”
Elena’s lips trembled.
“I’m sorry.”
Omar stood beside her.
Daniel Mercer stood behind them.
And suddenly I understood something.
The people surrounding me were not strangers.
They were people my family had trusted.
People who had been inside our homes.
People who had eaten at our table.
People who knew exactly where we kept our spare keys.
Omar looked at me.
“Alma, listen to me.”
I laughed once.
It wasn’t a happy laugh.
It was the sound that comes out when fear becomes too heavy to hold.
“You’ve been telling me to listen all night.”
He took a step forward.
I stepped back.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“You think I’m responsible for Rebecca’s death.”
“I don’t think anymore.”
I held up the recording device.
“I know you were involved.”
His eyes dropped.
Then he looked at my mother.
“Tell her.”
My mother stood completely still.
“What?”
“Tell her the truth.”
My mother looked at me.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t know.”
I shook my head.
“Didn’t know what?”
“That Rebecca was investigating Omar.”
I stared at her.
“Then why did Rebecca say your name?”
My mother looked at the floor.
“Because she discovered something about me.”
“What?”
She swallowed.
“I had been receiving money.”
The room seemed to shrink around us.
“From whom?”
She didn’t answer.
Daniel did.
“From me.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“Because your mother owed me.”
“Owed you what?”
“Her silence.”
My mother whispered:
“Twenty years ago, your father discovered what Daniel was doing.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“He discovered too much.”
My mother continued.
“Your father wanted to go to the authorities.”
“What happened to him?”
Nobody answered.
I felt my knees weaken.
“My father didn’t die in an accident, did he?”
My mother closed her eyes.
“No.”
The word broke something inside me.
“What happened?”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Your father stole from us.”
I shouted:
“That’s a lie!”
“He took money.”
“You killed him!”
Daniel’s face remained calm.
“Your father made choices.”
My mother suddenly screamed:
“Enough!”
Everyone froze.
She pointed at Daniel.
“You told me he would only disappear!”
Daniel stared at her.
“You agreed.”
“I agreed because you threatened my children.”
My blood turned cold.
I looked at my mother.
“You knew?”
She began crying.
“I was twenty-eight.”
Her voice shook.
“Your father had discovered the accounts. Daniel threatened you and Rebecca. He said if we went to the police, neither of you would survive.”
I couldn’t speak.
My entire childhood suddenly felt like a lie.
Every birthday.
Every Christmas.
Every story about my father’s accident.
Every time my mother told us he had been driving too fast.
It had all been a cover.
“What did you do to him?”
My mother looked at Daniel.
“I don’t know where they took him.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“You knew enough.”
“No,” she whispered. “I never knew enough.”
Then Elena stepped forward.
“I did.”
Everyone turned.
Elena looked at me.
“Your father survived.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“He survived.”
My mother covered her mouth.
Elena continued.
“They took him across the border. He was kept in a warehouse for months.”
“Why?”
“Because he had copies of the financial records.”
I could barely breathe.
“Where is he now?”
Elena looked down.
“He died eight years ago.”
Silence.
My eyes filled with tears.
“How?”
“Cancer.”
I closed my eyes.
Eight years.
All those years believing he had died in an accident.
He had actually lived long enough to know his family believed he was dead.
I looked at my mother.
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
She couldn’t answer.
Because there was no answer that could repair twenty years.
Then Emiliano spoke.
“My mom knew.”
Everyone turned toward him.
He was holding his cloth dinosaur.
“My mom knew Grandpa was alive.”
I looked at him.
“How?”
“Mommy found his letters.”
My mother shook her head.
“No…”
Emiliano nodded.
“She kept them in the red box.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“The red box?”
Elena immediately looked at Daniel.
He had just revealed that he knew exactly what they were talking about.
I noticed.
So did everyone else.
I turned toward him.
“You’ve been looking for it.”
Daniel said nothing.
“You didn’t come here for Emiliano.”
No answer.
“You came for the red box.”
Still nothing.
I smiled bitterly.
“And Rebecca hid it.”
Daniel finally spoke.
“Where is it?”
I said nothing.
He stepped toward me.
“Alma, you don’t understand what that box contains.”
“I understand enough.”
“It can destroy people.”
“Good.”
He shook his head.
“You think this is about revenge.”
“No.”
I looked toward Rebecca’s casket.
“This is about truth.”
Daniel suddenly reached inside his coat.
My mother screamed.
But before he could pull anything out, Elena moved between us.
“Don’t!”
Daniel froze.
Elena looked at me.
“There’s no need for this.”
She reached into her bag and pulled out a small black object.
A gun.
Everyone froze.
She pointed it at Daniel.
He stared at her.
“You?”
Elena’s voice shook.
“I helped you once.”
She raised the weapon slightly.
“I won’t help you again.”
Omar backed away.
“Elena, what are you doing?”
She looked at him.
“Ending this.”
Then she turned to me.
“Rebecca contacted me six weeks before she died.”
I stared at her.
“She told me she had discovered everything.”
“What everything?”
“The financial network. The old records. Your father’s disappearance.”
“Then why did you pretend to be dead?”
“Because Daniel found out I was helping her.”
She lowered the gun.
“I needed him to believe I was gone.”
My eyes narrowed.
“Then why did you tell everyone Rebecca was already dead?”
Elena’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because Omar called me that night.”
“What did he say?”
“He said Rebecca had fallen.”
My heart pounded.
“I went to the house.”
“What did you see?”
Elena looked at Omar.
“He was standing at the bottom of the stairs.”
Omar’s face went pale.
