Chapter 15 - THE HOUSE ABOVE THE RAVINE
The house stood above the same ravine where Dante nearly died.
Hidden by pine forest.
No road signs.
No public record.
Rosa’s tracker stopped inside.
Dante’s team approached silently.
He insisted on going.
Henrique taped his injured leg.
“You keep doing this and I will personally put you back in the chair.”
Dante looked at him.
“You’ll need a bigger chair.”
Henrique shook his head.
Isabela stayed behind with Sofia.
At first.
Then Sofia said something.
“The old man.”
Isabela looked at her.
“What old man?”
“The one from the picture.”
“Alejandro?”
Sofia nodded.
“He was at the mansion.”
Dante froze.
“When?”
“The day before Mister Dante fell down the mountain.”
Everyone went silent.
“You saw my father?”
“He talked to Grandma Rosa.”
Dante’s skin went cold.
Alejandro had been inside his mansion before the accident.
“Where?”
“In the greenhouse.”
“Did you hear them?”
“A little.”
“What did they say?”
Sofia frowned.
“Grandma Rosa said, ‘You should have stayed dead.’”
Dante remembered the same words on the library tape to Elias.
Maybe Rosa said them often.
“What did he say?”
Sofia looked at Dante.
“He said, ‘If you hurt my son, I will burn everything we built.’”
Dante closed his eyes.
His father had returned to protect him.
Then Dante’s accident happened.
The timeline changed.
Alejandro had not vanished after seventeen years.
He resurfaced immediately before the crash.
Dante entered the mountain house.
Inside, the lights were on.
A fire burned.
Food on the table.
Someone lived there.
Bruno found blood near the stairs.
Fresh.
They followed it.
Upstairs.
A bedroom door stood open.
Rosa sat beside the bed.
Gun in her lap.
An old man lay beneath blankets.
Alejandro Montenegro.
Alive.
Dante stopped.
Seventeen years collapsed.
Alejandro opened his eyes.
Looked at Dante.
And whispered.
“You got old.”
Dante laughed once.
Then hated himself for almost crying.
Rosa watched them.
“I didn’t shoot him.”
Dante looked at the blood.
“What happened?”
Alejandro answered.
“Cancer.”
The word changed the room.
Dante approached.
“You were alive.”
“Yes.”
“You let me bury you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Alejandro looked at Rosa.
“Because she was right about one thing.”
“What?”
“I was poison.”
Dante stared.
Alejandro coughed.
“Everything I touched became a war.”
“Then why come back?”
“Because Rosa started again.”
Rosa looked away.
Alejandro continued.
“I learned she was using Voss.”
“You knew about my accident?”
“I tried to stop it.”
Dante’s voice hardened.
“You failed.”
“Yes.”
No excuse.
No defense.
That somehow made it worse.
Dante looked at Rosa.
“Did you order the brake sabotage?”
She remained silent.
Alejandro answered.
“Yes.”
Dante felt the last uncertainty vanish.
“Why?”
Rosa looked at him.
“To slow you down.”
“You killed my driver.”
“That wasn’t intended.”
Dante laughed bitterly.
“You destroyed my leg.”
“You were supposed to survive.”
“Comforting.”
“I needed you declared temporarily incapable.”
“So you could control the trust.”
“So I could prevent Alejandro from dissolving it.”
Dante stared.
“You did all of this for money?”
“No.”
Rosa’s answer came sharply.
“For the family.”
Alejandro laughed weakly.
“That sentence has killed more Montenegros than bullets.”
Rosa’s hand tightened around the gun.
Dante watched.
Then Alejandro looked at him.
“There’s something you don’t know.”
Dante almost laughed.
“Apparently that describes my entire life.”
Alejandro reached beneath the blanket.
Pulled out a sealed folder.
He handed it to Dante.
“Your accident was not Rosa’s original plan.”
Dante opened it.
Inside were photographs.
Camila.
Victor.
Henrique.
And one final photograph.
Isabela.
Taken two years before she entered Dante’s house.
Dante looked at his father.
“What is this?”
Alejandro’s voice weakened.
“Rosa didn’t choose you first.”
Dante stared.
May you like
“She chose Sofia.”
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