PART 2
Adrián went over his wife’s warning 4 times before finally closing the folder.
He sat motionless, looking at Lucía’s photograph on his desk.
For 3 years, he had avoided everything she had left behind. Her documents brought back memories of the accident, the telephone calls that had come before dawn, and the unbearable questions his sons had asked about when their mother would return.
Now he was staring at a warning that had been waiting for him all along.
Elena urged him not to make assumptions.
“The fact that Lucía didn’t trust them doesn’t prove what happened on the road.”
Adrián raised his eyes.
“But it proves she knew something.”
“Yes. And that’s what we need to verify.”
For the first time since her arrival, Adrián allowed Elena to establish a limit he would not cross.
He instructed his staff to preserve the ventilation device and every collected sample. Then he contacted an independent attorney with no connections to his businesses, asking for Lucía’s documents to be duplicated and professionally examined.
He also barred both Víctor and Mena from approaching his children.
However, Víctor had already disappeared.
A security officer discovered his office standing open, with several drawers emptied.
“He left about 20 minutes ago.”
On the desk lay an old photograph showing Lucía with Lucas and Martín.
Someone had written a message on its reverse side.
“She discovered too much.”
Adrián tightened his grip on the photograph.
Just then, his telephone rang.
The caller was Mena.
“Salvador,” Adrián said, “I need you to come here.”
“I’m not coming.”
“Why?”
The doctor hesitated.
“Because you’re making a mistake.”
“My sons improved after spending just one night away from their bedrooms.”
Mena said nothing.
“We found something connected to the ventilation system.”
The doctor’s tone abruptly shifted.
“Stop investigating if you want the children to get through this.”
Adrián remained silent.
From the opposite side of the desk, Elena watched the uncertainty vanish from his expression.
The conversation ended.
Their attorney advised them to immediately deliver the recorded call, the recovered device, the environmental samples, and Lucía’s paperwork to the authorities.
That afternoon, Lucas and Martín underwent examinations at a Málaga hospital, where an entirely separate medical team evaluated their condition.
The doctors couldn’t guarantee a rapid recovery. However, they agreed that removing the twins from their former bedrooms had been the correct decision.
Over the next several days, both boys began eating more regularly.
Soon afterward, their sleep improved.
Martín asked to play with his wooden building blocks.
Lucas wanted to chase a ball across the garden.
Each improvement seemed minor.
To Adrián, however, every one felt extraordinary.
Elena cautioned him against treating their progress as something supernatural.
“They don’t need miracles. They need time, and they need everyone to stop hiding information.”
Meanwhile, the investigation into the missing money uncovered another layer of deception.
Before her death, Lucía had discovered that companies associated with Adrián were losing substantial sums through exaggerated invoices and suppliers that didn’t actually exist.
Investigators traced some payments to businesses indirectly associated with Víctor.
Mena’s name also appeared as an adviser to 2 of those companies.
The connection was impossible to dismiss as mere coincidence.
Neither was Mena’s determination to oversee every medical report involving the twins.
For nearly a year, the physician had described their symptoms as evidence of a complicated illness with no identifiable origin.
Whenever another specialist suggested examining environmental causes, Mena redirected attention toward additional medical tests, alternative diagnoses, or different treatments.
He didn’t have to persuade every doctor.
He simply had to ensure Adrián kept concentrating on his sons’ health instead of investigating what was happening inside his own house.
The remodeling project had made the scheme possible.
Víctor controlled the contractors, supervised access to the estate, and managed the employees involved.
Records identified a subcontractor as responsible for part of the ventilation installation. That company had ceased operations months earlier.
The recovered equipment was not part of any approved residential ventilation system.
Laboratory testing confirmed that it had repeatedly released harmful compounds in small quantities.
Investigators still couldn’t determine exactly how long it had been functioning.
Elena felt physically sick imagining Lucas and Martín breathing that air while they slept, night after night.
“Did they want to hurt them?” Adrián asked.
The lawyer shook his head.
“We still don’t know their exact objective.”
Adrián’s anger erupted.
“My sons have been growing weaker for almost 2 years.”
“Which is precisely why we must not claim something that hasn’t yet been proven.”
Elena observed him quietly.
This was a man who had spent much of his life relying on intimidation to resolve problems.
Now he was being forced to develop a skill entirely unfamiliar to him: waiting patiently until evidence established the truth.
Further technical records revealed that the device had been activated mainly during particular hours of the night.
Investigators also recovered communications between Víctor and Mena.
Although the messages never explicitly explained the operation, several statements were deeply disturbing.
“The children remain stable.”
“Don’t change anything yet.”
“As long as he stays focused on them, he won’t look at the accounts.”
Adrián struck his desk with his fist after reading that final message.
At last, the apparent motive was emerging.
His sons weren’t the intended financial victims.
They had been used to divert his attention.
While Adrián spent enormous amounts on specialists, traveled from hospital to hospital, and desperately pursued medical explanations, others were manipulating contracts and transferring money without facing his scrutiny.
“They used your children because they knew you would stop paying attention to everything else,” Elena said.
Adrián couldn’t deny it.
That was precisely what had occurred.
But the investigation was about to reveal something even more painful.
Several months before Lucía died, she had contacted a Málaga law firm and requested an independent financial audit.
Her emails alleged that Víctor had been falsifying contracts for years.
She also claimed that Mena had assisted him in justifying payments through a healthcare foundation associated with the family.
Lucía had made her intentions clear.
She planned to tell Adrián everything.
She died in a car accident just 11 days later.
There was still insufficient evidence to establish any connection between her death and the financial misconduct.
Adrián desperately wanted certainty.
Elena wouldn’t provide an answer unsupported by facts.
“Don’t turn a suspicion into a fact just because you need someone to blame.”
“My wife wrote down their names.”
“Then let it be investigated. But your sons need a father, not a man consumed by something he still doesn’t know.”
He held her gaze for several moments.
Then his head slowly dropped.
“You’re right.”
Several days later, authorities located Víctor in Madrid.
Mena appeared with legal representation.
The investigation continued through searches, expert assessments, and extensive examination of financial records.
There was no dramatic public showdown.
Instead, investigators spent weeks studying documents.
Contracts.
Emails.
Technical findings.
And questions that powerful people didn’t want to answer.
Several businesses became subjects of scrutiny as investigators attempted to establish where certain funds had originated.
Adrián also agreed to allow investigators to examine his own companies.
“If there’s something that needs to come out, let it come out.”
People familiar with his reputation were astonished.
Elena offered no praise.
“Your sons need a safe home, not one where everything gets hidden because it’s uncomfortable.”
Adrián studied her.
“You never speak to me the way everyone else does.”
“You already have far too many people doing that.”
For the first time, a smile appeared on his face.
Meanwhile, the twins continued recovering.
Their progress wasn’t immediate or consistent.
Some days brought encouraging improvements. On others, exhaustion returned.
But after 1 month, they could walk through the garden without asking someone to carry them.
After 2 months, they returned to their lessons.
And after 3 months, Lucas challenged Elena to a race toward the olive tree in the courtyard.
He reached it first and collapsed onto the grass, laughing.
Martín followed close behind.
“He cheated!”
“I did not cheat!” Lucas protested.
From the terrace, Elena watched them.
Adrián stood at her side.
“I haven’t seen them run like that in almost 2 years.”
His voice cracked.
Elena remained quiet.
Sometimes there was nothing useful to say.
Sometimes the greatest kindness was simply standing beside someone while they understood how close they had come to losing everything.
But the house still held painful reminders of what the boys had endured.
And one of them was waiting in their old bedroom.
