Chapter 8 - Thirty Seconds
“Bomb!” Adrian shouted.
Captain Navarro grabbed the device from beneath the bed.
The timer showed twenty-six seconds.
Claire pulled Rosa’s wheelchair toward the door. Ernesto held Gabriel’s arm.
Navarro examined the wires.
“Everyone out!”
They ran into the hallway.
Nurses began evacuating nearby rooms.
Adrian’s wound burned as he helped push another patient’s bed toward the stairwell.
Twenty seconds.
Navarro carried the device into an empty utility room and placed it inside a steel laundry cart.
Fifteen seconds.
He closed the heavy door.
The explosion shook the corridor.
Ceiling dust fell.
Windows cracked.
But the steel walls contained most of the blast.
No one was killed.
Navarro emerged coughing, blood running from a cut above his eyebrow.
Adrian grabbed him.
“You could have died.”
“So could everyone on this floor.”
Investigators later discovered the bomb was small and designed more to terrorize than destroy the building. Mateo had wanted them frightened, scattered, and uncertain.
He failed.
By sunrise, every member of the family had been moved to a secure government facility.
Adrian stood before his parents and brothers.
“No more secrets,” he said.
Rosa lowered her eyes.
“There is one,” she whispered.
Ernesto looked at her sharply.
“What secret?”
Rosa folded her hands.
“The day Adrian left, Mateo came home before sunset. His shirt was wet from the rain. He told us Adrian had boarded the bus and said he never wanted to see us again.”
Adrian sat beside her.
“You wrote the letters.”
“Yes. But there was another letter.”
“What letter?”
“One from you.”
Adrian frowned. “I never sent one.”
“Mateo brought it three months after you left. It was written in your handwriting.”
“What did it say?”
Rosa began to cry.
“That you had a new life. That we should stop trying to find you. That you wished you had never been born into our family.”
Adrian felt sick.
“I did not write that.”
“I know now.”
“Do you still have it?”
Rosa nodded.
“It is hidden beneath the altar in the house.”
The family home remained under police watch.
Navarro arranged for officers to retrieve the letter.
A handwriting expert compared it to old school documents.
The writing was an imitation.
A skilled one, but not perfect.
Gabriel stared at the letter.
“He practiced,” he said.
“What?” Claire asked.
“Mateo used to copy our signatures for school forms. He said it was a game.”
Ernesto covered his face.
For decades, Mateo had learned how easily trust could be forged.
The investigation expanded.
Bank records revealed that Mateo had purchased six properties, three luxury vehicles, and an apartment in Manila using money Adrian believed was supporting their parents.
He had also borrowed against the family farm.
If the fraudulent deed was not overturned, the land would soon be seized by a private lender.
Samuel filed an emergency court petition.
Claire worked beside him, organizing sixteen years of transfer receipts and matching them with Mateo’s shell companies.
Adrian watched her build the case with the same focus she brought to managing their household and investments.
“You should have been a lawyer,” he told her.
“I prefer winning without arguing in court.”
“You argue with me.”
“That is unpaid public service.”
Despite the danger, Adrian laughed.
The sound surprised him.
Three days after the hospital explosion, police found Chief Villareal.
Alive.
He had been abandoned in a drainage tunnel near Mateo’s resort, beaten and left without food.
At first, he refused to cooperate.
Then Navarro showed him the bloodstained jacket found at the resort and explained that Mateo appeared to be framing him for corruption while preparing to blame him for Gabriel’s disappearance.
Villareal finally spoke.
He admitted taking bribes.
He admitted helping Mateo threaten farmers and falsify reports.
He also revealed the truth about the night Gabriel disappeared.
“Mateo wanted me to frighten him,” Villareal said during a recorded interview. “Not kill him.”
“What happened?” Navarro asked.
“Gabriel escaped from the cabin. Mateo chased him. We searched until morning but never found him.”
“Why tell the family he ran away?”
“Mateo said it would prevent questions.”
“And Ruben Salazar?”
“He transported Gabriel. Later, Mateo arranged evidence that sent Ruben to prison.”
Adrian listened from behind a one-way window.
Mateo had not killed Gabriel.
But he had destroyed seven years of his life and used fear to keep him from returning.
Villareal gave them another piece of information.
“Mateo keeps records in the cave above the Reyes farm,” he said. “Original titles, cash, recordings. Insurance against everyone he bribed.”
Navarro planned the raid for the following morning.
Adrian demanded to go.
Navarro refused.
“You are wounded and emotionally involved.”
“That cave belongs to my family.”
“It is also a possible trap.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“I know the second entrance.”
Navarro looked at him.
“There is a narrow tunnel behind the waterfall,” Gabriel said. “Mateo does not know I remember it.”
The police agreed to use Gabriel only as a guide from a safe distance.
Before dawn, they traveled toward the farm.
Rain clouds covered the mountains.
Officers surrounded the upper trail.
Adrian remained in a command vehicle with Claire and his parents.
Gabriel stood beside Navarro, pointing toward the hidden path.
The raid began at 5:12 a.m.
For twenty minutes, nothing happened.
Then gunfire echoed across the valley.
Rosa grabbed Adrian’s hand.
The radio crackled.
“Suspect moving toward the waterfall.”
Another voice shouted, “Officer down!”
Adrian opened the vehicle door.
Claire caught his sleeve.
“You cannot go.”
“My brother is up there.”
“So are trained officers.”
Then Gabriel’s voice came over the radio.
“Mateo has Navarro.”
Adrian froze.
A new voice followed.
Mateo.
“Send Adrian alone.”
The radio went silent.
Navarro was now a hostage.
Mateo had chosen the cave because he knew Adrian would come.
Claire looked into Adrian’s eyes.
“He wants you angry.”
“He has Navarro.”
“He wants you to forget every lesson you learned.”
Adrian removed the bandage sling from his arm.
“Then I’ll remember one.”
“What?”
“Mateo always believes he is the smartest person in the room.”
May you like
Adrian looked at Gabriel.
“Show me the second entrance.”
