Chapter 9 - Jorge’s Confession
Jorge called Daniel that night.
Camila was in the guest room, helping Sofia settle after a difficult dressing change. Sofia had cried until she fell asleep clutching the pink rabbit, whispering “no hot” over and over. The words had nearly undone Camila.
Daniel stepped outside to take the call.
“Jorge,” he said.
For a moment, there was only breathing on the line.
Then Jorge said, “I need to tell you something before Mariela does.”
Daniel’s hand tightened around the phone.
“What?”
“I’m filing for temporary custody of Iker.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
That was not what he expected.
“Is he safe?”
“Yes. He’s with me at my mother’s house. He didn’t see all of what happened, but he heard Sofia screaming. He hasn’t been okay since.”
Daniel leaned against the patio wall.
“I’m sorry.”
Jorge’s laugh was short and bitter. “You’re sorry? Daniel, I lived in that house of mirrors too. I saw things and told myself they were family habits.”
Daniel said nothing.
Jorge continued, “Mariela has always been jealous of anything that takes attention from her. Before Iker, it was your promotion, your wedding, Camila’s pregnancy. After Iker was born, she decided he was the center of the family. Your mother helped.”
Daniel looked through the window at Camila sitting beside Sofia’s sleeping form.
“She was always competitive,” he said quietly.
“That’s the word everyone used so they wouldn’t have to say cruel.”
The sentence struck Daniel hard.
Jorge exhaled. “There’s more. The day before the incident, Mariela argued with your father about the trust.”
Daniel stood straight.
“What argument?”
“I heard part of it. She was angry that the legal test issue had never been resolved. She said Iker was being robbed. Your father told her not to bring it up again because Daniel would never tolerate it. She said Camila had trained you well.”
Daniel felt his pulse in his throat.
“And my mother?”
“She told Mariela to calm down because everything would be handled after your father updated the documents.”
“What documents?”
“I don’t know. But Mariela was furious. She said, ‘If they keep bringing that little girl here, don’t expect me to pretend she belongs.’”
Daniel closed his eyes.
The words fit too easily.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Jorge was silent for a long moment.
“Because I was ashamed that my wife sounded like that. Because I didn’t want to fight your family. Because when you benefit from silence, you call it peace.”
Daniel swallowed.
He had no right to condemn that sentence too harshly.
He had lived it.
“Will you tell Patricia?” Daniel asked.
“Yes. I already left her a message.”
“Thank you.”
“No,” Jorge said. “Don’t thank me yet. There’s something else.”
Daniel waited.
“Mariela has a second phone.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “For what?”
“I don’t know everything. But she used it for messages she didn’t want me to see. Mostly with your mother. Sometimes your father’s assistant. I found it once months ago. She said it was for managing surprise gifts and family things. I believed her because believing her was easier.”
“Do you have it?”
“No. She does. Or your mother does. But I remember seeing a chat title.”
“What title?”
Jorge hesitated.
Then he said, “Sofia problem.”
Daniel went cold.
Inside the house, Sofia stirred and Camila bent over her immediately.
Sofia problem.
Not niece.
Not granddaughter.
Problem.
Daniel’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“Tell Patricia everything.”
“I will.”
After the call ended, Daniel remained outside for several minutes. The night air was warm, but he felt chilled. Every new piece of information widened the shape of the betrayal.
Mariela had not exploded out of nowhere.
She had escalated from permission.
Permission built by old suspicion, money, favoritism, and an entire family willing to label a toddler as a threat.
When Daniel returned inside, Camila looked up.
“What happened?”
He told her.
Not all at once. Slowly. Carefully. He watched her face as each detail landed.
The trust argument.
The second phone.
The chat title.
Sofia problem.
Camila did not cry.
That frightened Daniel more.
She sat very still, one hand resting on Sofia’s back.
“Sofia problem,” she repeated.
Daniel knelt in front of her. “I’m sorry.”
Camila looked at him sharply.
“Stop saying that when there is work to do.”
He nodded immediately.
“You’re right.”
“What does Patricia need?”
“Jorge will give a statement. We need to identify the second phone if it still exists.”
Camila stared at the sleeping child between them.
“Your family had a committee for hating my daughter.”
Daniel flinched.
But he did not deny it.
The next morning, Patricia filed an additional statement based on Jorge’s call. By noon, the police requested Mariela’s devices. By late afternoon, Mariela’s lawyer argued that no second phone existed.
By evening, Beatriz made a mistake.
She sent Camila a message from an unknown number.
You are enjoying this, aren’t you? You finally found a way to take Daniel from us. But you forget that I know the truth about your daughter.
Camila stared at the screen.
Daniel took one look and called Patricia.
Patricia’s first question was, “Did you reply?”
“No,” Camila said.
“Good. Screenshot. Send it to me. Do not block the number yet.”
Daniel’s face was white with anger. “Can we trace it?”
“Potentially. But more importantly, she violated the order if we can connect the number to her.”
Twenty minutes later, another message arrived.
Blood does not lie. Courts can be fooled, but God cannot.
Camila’s hands began to shake.
Daniel reached for the phone.
She pulled it back.
“No,” she said. “I want to see what she thinks she still has.”
A third message appeared.
Ask Daniel what his father knows.
Camila looked at Daniel.
Daniel looked back, confused and alarmed.
Then the phone rang.
Unknown number.
Patricia, still on speaker, said, “Let it go to voicemail.”
They waited.
A voicemail notification appeared.
Camila played it.
Beatriz’s voice filled the kitchen, low and shaking with rage.
“You think a piece of paper makes her ours? I knew from the beginning. I knew. And when Daniel learns everything Ernesto protected him from, he will hate you more than he hates us.”
The message ended.
For a few seconds, no one spoke.
Lucía crossed herself quietly, then looked annoyed that she had done it.
Daniel’s face had gone blank.
Camila whispered, “What does that mean?”
Daniel did not answer.
Because one part of him knew.
There had always been a locked drawer in his father’s study.
There had always been an old story his parents refused to tell fully.
There had always been a year before Daniel’s birth that no one discussed, a fight with his grandfather, a woman’s name his mother once spat after too much wine.
Patricia’s voice broke through the silence.
“Daniel. Do not go to your parents’ house.”
He looked at the phone.
“Patricia—”
“No. Whatever she is baiting you with, do not violate safety or give them an opportunity to claim harassment. If there is another secret, we uncover it legally.”
Camila watched Daniel carefully.
He looked like a man standing at the edge of a second cliff.
First, his family had attacked his daughter.
Now they were suggesting his own identity was part of the weapon.
“Daniel,” Camila said softly.
He looked at her.
“Don’t chase their poison alone.”
The words reached him.
He sat down slowly.
Patricia said, “Send me the voicemail. I’ll file it.”
Daniel nodded, though she could not see him.
That night, Camila lay awake beside Sofia, listening to Daniel speak quietly with Patricia in the kitchen. Every so often, she heard his voice crack, then steady again.
The next morning, the unknown number was confirmed through phone records Patricia obtained from a preliminary request connected to the order.
It belonged to a prepaid device purchased with Beatriz’s credit card.
May you like
The second phone existed.
And by using it to threaten Camila, Beatriz had handed them the thread that would unravel far more than she intended.
