CHAPTER 8 The Trade
The chapel stood half a mile behind the estate, hidden among trees and abandoned servant cottages.
It had not been used since Sebastián’s father’s funeral.
The note demanded Mateo before sunset.
No police.
No tracking devices.
No Natalia.
Valeria read it three times.
Then she handed it to the detective.
“It’s a trap.”
“Yes,” he said.
“Then we use it.”
Sebastián rejected the idea immediately.
“You are not going anywhere.”
“They asked for Mateo.”
“They asked for a two-month-old baby in exchange for our son.”
“I know.”
“No, Valeria. You’re talking like this is a decision we can make.”
Natalia stood near the nursery door, holding Mateo.
Her face was pale but controlled.
“It is a decision.”
Sebastián looked at her.
“We are not handing over a child.”
“And we are not leaving Nicolás with whoever took him.”
Valeria turned toward Natalia.
“You don’t have to give them Mateo.”
Natalia’s eyes hardened.
“Would you say that if it meant losing your son?”
Valeria absorbed the question.
It was cruel.
It was also fair.
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
That honesty made the room quieter.
Rebeca sat under guard in the corner.
She had refused to explain the message.
Valeria approached her.
“Who wants Mateo?”
Rebeca looked at the child.
“His mother.”
“Who is she?”
“A woman named Sofía Cárdenas.”
“Why did you take her baby?”
“I didn’t.”
“Then why was he in your system?”
Rebeca hesitated.
“Because Sofía was paid to carry him.”
Natalia frowned.
“A surrogate?”
Rebeca looked toward Octavio, who had been brought to the estate in handcuffs.
Octavio said nothing.
Valeria followed her gaze.
“Whose embryo?”
Still no answer.
Sebastián understood first.
He looked at Octavio.
“Mateo is yours.”
Octavio’s face tightened.
Rebeca closed her eyes.
The detective ordered an immediate DNA comparison.
Octavio laughed once.
“You think this is about fatherhood?”
“What is it about?” Sebastián demanded.
“Ownership.”
Valeria felt the word move through her like ice.
Octavio leaned back against the wall.
“The Alcázar trust transfers controlling shares to the first verified male descendant of your father’s bloodline. Sebastián was expected to produce an heir. When his fertility results became uncertain, alternatives were prepared.”
Sebastián stared at him.
“You created children as backup heirs.”
Octavio looked almost offended.
“Your mother did.”
Rebeca spoke quietly.
“You agreed.”
“I agreed to donate genetic material for medical research.”
“You signed every page.”
“You hid the purpose.”
“You never objected to benefiting from this family.”
Octavio’s expression became vicious.
“And neither did you.”
Valeria looked at Mateo.
He was not only a stolen child.
He had been created as a legal weapon.
The detective returned with preliminary information about Sofía Cárdenas.
She had been a nurse at the Alcázar fertility clinic.
She disappeared six weeks after giving birth.
Her car was found near the border.
Police assumed she had fled.
Natalia looked at the ransom note.
“She is alive.”
Rebeca nodded reluctantly.
“She believes Mateo was taken from her.”
“He was.”
“She was never supposed to raise him.”
“You don’t get to decide that,” Valeria said.
Rebeca’s voice sharpened.
“She accepted money.”
“So did my mother. Did that make stealing my daughter legal?”
“No.”
The answer surprised everyone.
Rebeca looked at Valeria.
“No. It made it easy.”
By late afternoon, police had placed cameras around the chapel and officers in the trees.
Natalia refused to surrender Mateo.
Valeria did not ask her to.
Instead, the detective prepared a medical training doll wrapped in blankets.
Valeria would carry it inside.
Sebastián insisted on going with her.
The note said no one else.
They compromised.
He would remain fifty yards away.
At sunset, Valeria walked toward the chapel.
Every step pulled at the fresh incision in her abdomen.
She wore a dark coat over her hospital gown.
The bundle in her arms felt almost weightless.
Too light to be a child.
She entered the chapel.
Candles burned along the altar.
A portable incubator stood near the front.
Nicolás was inside.
Alive.
Valeria stopped breathing.
A woman stepped from behind a pillar.
Sofía Cárdenas looked exhausted. Her hair hung loose around her face, and she held a pistol with both hands.
“Put Mateo down.”
Valeria looked toward Nicolás.
“Bring me my son.”
“Put him down first.”
Valeria lowered the bundle carefully.
Sofía moved closer.
The moment she saw the doll’s plastic hand, her face changed.
“You lied.”
She raised the gun.
Valeria did not move.
“So did Rebeca.”
“I am not Rebeca.”
“You came from her family.”
“I came to take my child home.”
“And I came to take mine.”
Sofía’s hands trembled.
Valeria looked at her.
Not at the weapon.
At the woman.
“They stole a daughter from me fifteen years ago.”
Sofía’s expression shifted.
“They told me she died. They told Natalia her son died. They told you Mateo was never yours. Every one of us was separated because they convinced us we were alone.”
Sofía’s eyes filled with tears.
“They said Mateo was born with heart failure.”
“He is alive.”
“I heard him crying after they told me he died.”
Valeria stepped closer.
“We can expose them together.”
Sofía shook her head.
“No courts. No lawyers. No Alcázars.”
“You kidnapped my newborn.”
“I saved him from becoming another one of their heirs.”
“You took him from my arms.”
“And now you know what that feels like.”
The cruelty of the sentence hit both women.
Sofía lowered the gun slightly.
Outside, a branch snapped.
She turned.
Police lights flooded the chapel windows.
Sofía fired toward the ceiling.
Officers rushed in.
Sebastián ran toward the incubator.
Sofía grabbed Valeria and pressed the gun against her neck.
“Tell them to stop.”
Valeria looked at Nicolás.
Sebastián was only feet away.
Then Octavio entered through a side door.
No handcuffs.
No officer beside him.
He held Mateo in his arms.
Natalia screamed from outside.
Octavio smiled at Sofía.
“You wanted your son.”
He held the baby out.
Sofía released Valeria and reached for Mateo.
May you like
Octavio stepped back.
“First, shoot Rebeca’s new daughter-in-law.”
