Chapter 21 - The Cold Truth
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The voice on the phone sent an icy chill straight through my veins. Outside, thunder clapped across the valley, shaking the glass panes of my bedroom window.
"Who are you?" I demanded, my grip tightening on the phone until my knuckles turned white. I stepped toward the hallway, casting a protective glance down toward Nicolás’s bedroom door.
"The man holding the deed to your life, Elena," the gravelly voice rasped softly over the satellite crackle. "You sat in your living room for two years thinking you won a war. But you only fought the soldiers, my dear. You never looked at the general."
"Alejandro is in a maximum-security prison. My foundation is clean," I said, forcing my voice to sound like the unshakable woman I had become. "If this is an extortion attempt, you're wasting your time."
A low, amused chuckle echoed through the receiver. "Look at the pocket watch in the box, Elena. Look at the inscription inside the back casing."
I stood frozen at the top of the stairs, my heart hammering like a trapped bird. "Why 11:42?"
"That wasn't the time the watch stopped," the man replied smoothly. "That was the time your mother died in the hospital thirty years ago. And your father wasn't at her bedside. He was in Geneva, signing over your future to me."
"You're lying," I whispered, though my voice betrayed my terror.
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"Plug the silver drive into an offline computer," the stranger commanded, his tone shifting from playful to dead serious. "See the signatures for yourself. And when you realize your entire life has been built on a lie, call your father. Ask him about Project Viper."
The line went dead with a sharp, hollow click. I stood in the dark hallway, the phone pressed against my ear, listening to the rhythmic tapping of the autumn rain.
