Chapter 1 - the invitation
17 days earlier
The envelope arrived without a return address.
It was thick, cream-colored, and sealed with dark green wax. At the center of the seal was the same symbol Camila had spent ten years trying to forget.
A tower surrounded by olive branches.
The Valdés family crest.
Camila found the envelope beneath her apartment door shortly after sunrise. Daniel was already in the kitchen preparing breakfast while Sofia sat in her high chair, carefully arranging pieces of banana around her plate.
“Someone came upstairs during the night,” Camila said.
Daniel lowered the knife in his hand.
“Did you hear anything?”
“No.”
He wiped his hands and examined the envelope without touching the seal.
The building had a locked entrance, a security desk, and cameras on every floor. No stranger should have been able to reach their apartment unnoticed.
Sofia pointed toward the envelope.
“Pretty.”
Camila forced a smile.
“It is pretty.”
It was also a warning.
She opened it carefully.
Inside was an invitation to Octavio Valdés’s 75th birthday celebration at the family estate. Beneath the formal printed message was a handwritten note.
Camila,
Your grandfather has asked for you every day since his operation. He believes time is running out. Bring Daniel and Sofia. We want the family together again.
Teresa.
Daniel read the note over Camila’s shoulder.
“Do you believe her?”
“No.”
“Are you going?”
Camila looked toward Sofia.
The little girl was now holding a piece of banana above her head as though she had discovered treasure.
Camila had left the Valdés estate when she was 19. She had returned only once, five years later, to attend her mother’s funeral.
Even then, she had been permitted inside for less than an hour.
Her grandfather had refused to speak to her. Teresa had accused her of destroying the family’s reputation. Mariela, Camila’s cousin, had stood beside them with the satisfied expression of someone watching an unwanted guest being removed.
Daniel picked up the invitation.
“There’s something else.”
He turned it over.
A number had been written in small blue ink near the lower corner.
4:15.
Camila felt a chill.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel photographed the invitation.
During his years as a digital security investigator, he had learned never to dismiss a detail because it looked unimportant. Numbers, scratches, missing timestamps, and unusual wording often revealed more than the main message.
Camila folded the note.
“I’m not taking Sofia into that house.”
“That may be exactly what someone expects you to say.”
She looked at him.
Daniel placed the invitation on the counter.
“Your grandmother did not slide this under our door herself. Someone bypassed the building entrance, avoided the cameras, and came directly here. That means this is not only a family invitation.”
“It’s pressure.”
“Or bait.”
Sofia reached for Camila.
“Mama.”
Camila lifted her from the high chair and kissed her hair.
Ten years earlier, she would have ignored the invitation. She would have thrown it away and spent the day convincing herself she no longer cared what happened inside the Valdés estate.
But she was not 19 anymore.
And the estate no longer contained only painful memories.
After her mother’s death, Camila had discovered references to a private trust that would change when the first child of the next generation turned 2. No lawyer had been willing to explain what that meant.
Sofia had celebrated her second birthday 6 days earlier.
Camila looked at the handwritten number again.
4:15.
“Call the estate,” she told Daniel.
“And say what?”
“Tell them we’re coming.”
Daniel studied her expression.
“You’re sure?”
“No,” Camila replied. “But I’m tired of letting that family decide which truths I’m allowed to know.”
His phone rang before he could answer.
The call came from an unknown number.
Daniel placed it on speaker.
For three seconds, there was only silence.
Then a distorted voice whispered a single sentence.
May you like
“Do not let the child touch the red truck.”
The call ended.
