Chapter 18 - The confession in the dark
Before Vargas could lunge toward the balcony, Lucía took two swift steps forward and slammed the heavy bronze bookend down across the desktop, smashing his smartphone into a spiderweb of shattered glass and sparks.
"Move an inch toward that railing," Lucía said, her eyes flashing with a terrifying authority, "and I will have the perimeter dogs on this balcony before you hit the ground."
Vargas backed away against the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, panting, his hands raised in surrender.
"Who paid you, Hector?" Lucía demanded, stepping between him and the exit. "Did Camila hire you, or were you reporting to the twin all along?"
The door behind Lucía burst open. Alejandro rushed in, weapon drawn, followed by two armed security guards who immediately pinned the elderly lawyer against the mahogany shelves.
"Search him," Alejandro ordered coldly.
The guard pulled a passport from Vargas's breast pocket and tossed it onto the desk. Alejandro flipped it open. It was a one-way ticket to Panama, scheduled for departure at five o'clock that very morning, accompanied by a cashier’s check for two million dollars drawn from an offshore shell corporation.
"Talk, Hector," Alejandro said, his voice deadly low. "You were my father’s friend. You sat at our dinner table every Christmas."
Vargas slumped against the guard’s grip, letting out a defeated, broken sigh. "Your father is dead, Alejandro. He died on that mountain twenty-two years ago. I swear on my life, Roberto didn't survive that crash."
"Then who is outside our gates?" Lucía pressed, stepping directly into the lawyer's line of sight.
"It’s Vicente," Vargas croaked, his eyes wet with shame. "He survived the river accident all those years ago. He fled to Europe, rebuilt a fortune in the shadows through illicit syndicates, and waited. When Roberto died, Vicente wanted to strike, but Camila was already born. He used Camila’s greed against her. He was the one who paid Dr. Ramos to switch Lucía at birth!"
Lucía felt the air rush out of her lungs. "He engineered my disappearance?"
"He wanted Roberto’s bloodline broken," Vargas wept. "He groomed Camila from afar, feeding her arrogance, making sure she drained the estate slowly while keeping Esperanza sick and isolated. But when Camila got herself arrested and Lucía was restored, Vicente's entire thirty-year scheme threatened to collapse."
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"So he decided to take it all himself," Alejandro said, his fists trembling with rage. "By stealing our father’s name."
"He has the original documents, Alejandro," Vargas whispered in terror. "He has the authentic dental charts. He stole Roberto’s medical file from the Swiss clinic before he burned the archive down twenty years ago. In twenty-four hours, the high court will declare him Roberto Morales. And there is nothing you can do to stop it."
