Chapter 3: The Voice From the Past
The phone kept ringing.
One sound after another.
Sharp.
Unforgiving.
Like the past itself was demanding to be heard.
Nobody moved.
Mateo stood frozen in the center of the room, holding the old phone with both hands. The screen glowed against his small fingers, showing a name that should have been impossible.
My name.
“Why is your name on that phone?”” Rodrigo asked.
His voice was quiet.
Too quiet.
I knew that tone.
It was the tone he used when he was trying desperately not to lose control.
I looked at Mateo.
The boy looked just as confused as everyone else.
“I don’t know,” he whispered.
Rodrigo walked closer.
“Answer it.””
Mateo hesitated.
“Should I?””
Nobody knew what to say.
The logical part of me wanted to stop him.
I wanted to grab the phone.
I wanted to protect what was left of my family.
But another part of me knew that the truth had already found us.
There was no hiding place anymore.
“Answer it,” Rodrigo repeated.
Mateo pressed the button.
For several seconds, there was only silence.
Then a woman’s voice came through the speaker.
“Hello?””
My entire body froze.
I knew that voice.
Even after twenty years.
Even after years of telling myself I had forgotten.
I knew it.
Rodrigo looked at me immediately.
He saw the recognition on my face.
“Isabela?””
I couldn’t speak.
The voice continued.
“Mateo? Is that you?””
The boy brought the phone closer.
“Yes.””
His voice trembled.
“Mom?””
A silence followed.
Not a normal silence.
A silence filled with pain.
Then the woman spoke again.
“Where are you?””
Mateo looked at Rodrigo.
Then at me.
“I found him.””
The woman on the phone went quiet.
“Found who?””
Mateo swallowed.
“Father.””
I felt my heart stop.
On the other end, there was a sudden breath.
A sharp, broken breath.
Like someone had been struck.
“Mateo…”
The voice became weaker.
“You shouldn’t have gone there.””
Rodrigo stepped forward.
His face had lost all color.
“Camila?””
The moment he said her name, the phone went silent.
Nobody moved.
Nobody even blinked.
Then the woman whispered:
“Rodrigo?””
Hearing his name from her mouth after two decades changed him.
I watched my husband become someone else.
Not the powerful man everyone feared.
Not the successful businessman whose photograph appeared in magazines.
Just a man hearing the voice of the woman he believed had abandoned him.
“Camila,” he said.
His voice cracked.
“I thought you were gone.””
A long silence.
Then she answered:
“I was.””
The words were simple.
But they carried years of suffering.
Rodrigo closed his eyes.
“Where have you been?””
“Rodrigo, I don’t have much time.””
My stomach tightened.
“Why?””
“Because there are things Mateo needs to know.””
The boy looked frightened.
“Mom?””
Her voice softened immediately.
“Sweetheart, listen to me. Are you safe?””
“Yes.””
“Are you with him?””
Mateo looked at Rodrigo.
“Yes.””
Another silence.
Then Camila said something that made Rodrigo’s expression change.
“Then he finally knows.””
Rodrigo looked at me.
“What does that mean?””
But Camila continued.
“Mateo, I wanted to tell you myself. I tried many times.””
The boy’s eyes filled with tears.
“You said I wasn’t supposed to come.””
“I was afraid.””
“Of Dad?””
“No.””
Her answer was immediate.
“I was afraid of the people who kept us apart.””
Everyone looked at me.
Then at Rodrigo.
The words hung in the air.
People.
Not one person.
People.
Rodrigo gripped the edge of the table.
“Who?””
Camila did not answer immediately.
That frightened me more than anything.
Because hesitation meant there was something worse.
“Rodrigo, you need to leave that house.””
My blood ran cold.
“What?””
“You heard me.””
“Why?””
“Because if they know Mateo reached you, they will try to take him away.””
Rodrigo’s eyes hardened.
“Who are they?””
But the call suddenly became distorted.
Static filled the room.
“Camila?””
The sound broke.
“Camila!””
The phone went silent.
The call ended.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Rodrigo slowly turned toward me.
“They.””
One word.
One question.
“What did she mean by they?””
I looked away.
Because I knew exactly who he was thinking about.
His family.
Especially his father.
The Valdez family had always protected their reputation above everything else.
Scandals disappeared.
Problems disappeared.
People disappeared.
Rodrigo had always believed those were just rumors.
Now he was beginning to understand.
“You knew more than you told me,” he said.
I closed my eyes.
“Yes.””
His face tightened.
“How much?””
I didn’t answer.
“How much, Isabela?””
I looked at Mateo.
The boy deserved the truth.
So I finally said it.
“Your father came to see me after Camila became pregnant.””
Rodrigo went completely still.
“When?””
“Before we married.””
His expression changed.
“He knew?””
I nodded.
“He knew about Mateo.””
The words landed like a stone.
Rodrigo stepped back.
“No.””
“I’m sorry.””
“No.””
He shook his head.
“My father knew I had a son?””
“Yes.””
“And he did nothing?””
I couldn’t answer.
Because the answer was obvious.
Rodrigo walked away.
His hands moved through his hair.
For the first time in my life, I saw him truly broken.
“My whole life…”
His voice disappeared.
Mateo watched him carefully.
Then he said something quietly.
“My mother never hated you.””
Rodrigo looked at him.
“What?””
“She told me not to hate you.””
The boy wiped his eyes.
“She said you didn’t know.””
Rodrigo stared.
“How could she forgive me?””
Mateo looked confused.
“She said because you were also hurt.””
That sentence destroyed him.
Rodrigo turned away.
I watched him struggle to hold back tears.
A few minutes passed before he spoke again.
“Mateo.””
The boy looked up.
“I need to ask you something.””
“Okay.””
“Why did you come tonight?””
Mateo reached into his bag again.
This time, he pulled out a small notebook.
“My mother gave me this before she disappeared.””
Rodrigo frowned.
“Disappeared?””
Mateo nodded.
“She told me if something happened to her, I had to find you.””
He handed the notebook over.
Rodrigo opened it.
The pages were filled with handwriting.
Camila’s handwriting.
I could tell immediately.
He read the first page.
Then the second.
Then suddenly stopped.
“What?””
I asked.
Rodrigo looked at me.
His face was full of disbelief.
“She wrote about the night she left.””
My chest tightened.
“What did she say?””
He looked down at the page.
“She said she never chose to leave.””
The room became silent again.
“She said someone forced her.””
My hands went cold.
Rodrigo kept reading.
“She wrote a name.””
He stopped.
His eyes moved slowly toward me.
“Whose name?””
He didn’t answer immediately.
That was worse.
Because I already knew.
“Rodrigo?””
He closed the notebook.
Then he looked at Mateo.
Then at me.
Finally, he said:
“She said the person who destroyed her life was not my father.””
I felt my heart stop.
“Then who?””
Rodrigo’s eyes locked onto mine.
The pain there was unbearable.
“The person who took her away…”
He swallowed.
“…was someone she trusted.””
I couldn’t move.
Because suddenly, I understood.
Camila had not only left behind a son.
She had left behind a warning.
And that warning was about someone inside this family.
Someone who had been standing beside us all along.
Before Rodrigo could say anything else, the front doors of the mansion slammed open.
Everyone turned.
A man’s voice echoed through the hall.
“Rodrigo.””
The three of us froze.
Because we all recognized it.
Even after twenty years.
Even after everything.
The voice belonged to the one person who should never have been here.
Rodrigo’s father.
And he was not alone.
Beside him stood a woman holding an old photograph.
A photograph of Camila.
The woman looked directly at me.
May you like
Then she said:
“Isabela, you have a lot to explain.””
