Chapter 10 - the fire that failed
Diego reached the mansion in eleven minutes.
Smoke rose from the east wing, but the fire-suppression system had contained most of the flames. Firefighters moved through the hall carrying equipment.
Marisol ran from the car before it fully stopped.
“Valentina!”
The housekeeper appeared at the front entrance with the child wrapped in a blanket.
Marisol dropped to her knees and held her.
Valentina was frightened but unharmed.
“I smelled something bad,” she whispered.
The housekeeper explained that a smoke alarm had sounded in Elena’s suite. She carried Valentina out moments before the curtains caught fire.
Diego knelt beside them.
“Are you hurt?”
Valentina shook her head.
“My handbag is still inside.”
“We’ll get you another one.”
“No. Grandma’s button.”
Diego looked at Marisol.
The golden button had been returned to Valentina’s handbag after the bank visit.
A firefighter emerged carrying the cloud-shaped bag inside a protective container. The fabric was damaged, but the button remained intact.
Ricardo had been right.
The alloy had survived.
Security footage showed a maintenance worker entering the east wing ten minutes before the fire. He wore a cap and kept his face lowered.
The employee badge belonged to a man who had been dismissed two years earlier.
The same man had once worked for de la Vega Medical Holdings.
Police found an incendiary device hidden behind the curtains.
Paulina arrived while they were documenting it.
She looked genuinely shocked when she saw the smoke.
“You brought investigators to the bank while someone burned my house,” Diego said.
“Our house,” she replied automatically.
“Not anymore.”
Paulina glanced at Valentina.
“I had nothing to do with this.”
“The fire began while you were delaying us.”
“Then someone used me as a distraction.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect you to recognize that destroying the button would hurt me. Everyone would blame my family.”
Marisol stood, still holding Valentina.
“Perhaps you thought the fire would destroy us too.”
Paulina’s eyes flashed.
“How dare you?”
Diego stepped between them.
“Security will escort you from the property.”
Paulina stared at him.
“You are removing me from the mansion?”
“Yes.”
“My belongings are here.”
“They will be delivered.”
“My father’s company financed the renovation.”
“He can send an invoice.”
Paulina lowered her voice.
“You will regret humiliating me.”
“I regret trusting you.”
For a moment, anger broke through her composure.
“You think Marisol is innocent because she carries a child with your blood. She lied to you for years.”
“She was threatened.”
“You have only her word.”
“I have my mother’s letters.”
“Your mother manipulated everyone. She used secrets to keep this family under her control.”
Diego’s expression sharpened.
“Do not speak about her.”
“Why? Because she raised you? She wasn’t even your mother.”
The words stopped everyone.
Only a handful of people knew what Ricardo had revealed.
Diego looked at Paulina.
“How do you know that?”
Paulina realized her mistake.
“I heard it at the bank.”
“No one said it in front of you.”
“The officers told me.”
“They did not know.”
She stepped back.
Diego’s voice became quiet.
“You knew about Lucía.”
Paulina said nothing.
“You knew my DNA would expose her.”
Still nothing.
“That is why the sample was switched.”
Paulina turned toward the waiting car.
Two officers blocked her path.
Gabriel arrived holding an emergency warrant.
“Paulina de la Vega, you are required to surrender your phone and remain available for questioning regarding evidence tampering, attempted fraud, and conspiracy to endanger a minor.”
Paulina looked at Diego.
“You are making a mistake.”
“No,” he said. “I made the mistake six years ago.”
Her phone was taken.
The first forensic scan uncovered an encrypted messaging application.
Most conversations had been deleted.
One had been sent ten minutes before the fire.
Begin cleaning the east wing.
The recipient was listed only as N.
Diego thought of Nicolás.
He looked at Ricardo.
“Could my brother be involved?”
Ricardo’s face tightened.
“I don’t know.”
A firefighter approached carrying a metal object recovered from behind the burned curtains.
It was another golden button.
May you like
Button 2.
Someone had placed it at the center of the fire.
