Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN THE GARAGE
Camila was lying twenty feet from the burning garage.
At first glance, she appeared dead.
Her white dress was stained dark across the shoulder.
The suitcase lay open beside her.
Dante arrived with Bruno while Henrique ran ahead.
Henrique knelt.
“She’s breathing.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“How badly hurt?”
“Head wound.”
Camila opened her eyes.
She saw Dante.
Then looked terrified.
“He tried to kill me.”
Dante remained still.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Interesting.”
She stared at him.
“What?”
“Sofia said you hid her.”
Camila’s expression cracked.
“She was going to get hurt.”
“So you locked her inside a wall?”
“I hid her.”
“From whom?”
Camila began crying.
“From the person who started the fire.”
Dante looked toward the flames.
“Convenient.”
She reached for his hand.
He moved away.
“Don’t.”
“Dante, please.”
“Tell me about Plan B.”
Her face went blank.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Dante almost laughed.
Sofia had no reason to invent those words.
Camila knew that.
He knew she knew.
Bruno searched the suitcase.
Clothes.
Passport.
Cash.
A second passport under another name.
And a flash drive.
Dante held it up.
“What is this?”
Camila looked away.
“Nothing.”
“Bruno.”
He handed the drive to one of Dante’s security technicians.
“Offline computer only.”
Camila suddenly became frantic.
“No.”
That was the most convincing thing she had done all evening.
Dante leaned closer.
“What’s on it?”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
“If that drive is opened, people will die.”
Dante stared.
“People are already dying.”
Henrique finished wrapping the wound.
“She needs medical observation.”
“She stays here.”
Camila looked at Dante.
“You think I did this?”
“I think you know why it happened.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I was trying to protect you.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“From what?”
Camila whispered.
“Your family.”
That answer landed harder than Dante expected.
The Montenegro organization had enemies.
Competitors.
Government investigators.
Foreign criminal groups.
But the family itself had always been the one structure Dante believed he controlled.
Camila looked toward the burning garage.
“Your accident wasn’t ordered by an enemy.”
Dante said nothing.
“It came from inside the Montenegro bloodline.”
Bruno stiffened.
“Names.”
“I don’t have one.”
Dante’s patience thinned.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I was contacted three months ago.”
“By whom?”
“A voice changer.”
“What did they want?”
“Information.”
“What information?”
“Your schedule.”
Bruno’s hand moved toward his weapon.
Camila looked at him.
“I didn’t give them the mountain route.”
Dante stared at her.
“But you gave them something.”
She began crying harder.
“They threatened my brother.”
Dante felt nothing.
Not yet.
That scared him.
“What did you give them?”
“Your rehabilitation schedule.”
The confession hung between them.
Henrique stepped back.
Dante said quietly.
“You told them when Rafael would have access to me.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew he was sabotaging my recovery?”
“Not at first.”
“When did you know?”
“Two weeks ago.”
Dante’s voice dropped.
“And you said nothing.”
Camila shut her eyes.
“I was gathering proof.”
“You were packing a suitcase.”
“Because they told me to leave tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because Rafael had been exposed.”
Dante looked at the flash drive.
“What’s on that?”
“Recordings.”
“Of who?”
“I don’t know.”
Dante stared at her.
“That answer is becoming repetitive.”
Camila looked frightened again.
“I mean it.”
The technician returned.
“We opened it.”
Dante looked at him.
“And?”
“Audio files.”
“How many?”
“Twenty-three.”
“Play the newest.”
A recording began.
Distorted voices.
Camila’s voice came first.
“He’s improving faster than expected.”
Then another voice.
Artificially altered.
“Then the brace must be adjusted again.”
Camila:
“You’ll permanently damage him.”
The altered voice:
“That is the point.”
The recording ended.
Dante looked at Camila.
She whispered.
“I started recording them after I realized what they were doing.”
“Why not come to me?”
“Because they knew things no outsider should know.”
“What things?”
Camila hesitated.
Then said four words.
“The lake house basement.”
Dante stopped breathing.
Bruno looked confused.
Henrique did too.
Only Dante understood.
The lake house had burned down seventeen years earlier.
Dante’s father had died inside.
Officially.
Nobody outside the Montenegro family knew there had been a basement.
Dante stared at Camila.
“What did they say about it?”
“That your father didn’t die in the fire.”
Dante’s face changed.
Camila continued.
“They said he was killed before the flames started.”
Dante looked toward the technician.
“Play the oldest file.”
Another recording began.
Camila:
“What happens after Dante can’t walk?”
The altered voice answered.
“He won’t need his legs for long.”
Camila:
“What does that mean?”
The voice:
“Once the transfer is signed, he becomes unnecessary.”
The recording ended.
Bruno looked at Dante.
“What transfer?”
Dante knew.
His father’s holding company.
Montenegro Legacy Trust.
It controlled legitimate businesses, property, offshore assets, and voting power inside the family corporations.
The trust could only be transferred under specific circumstances.
Death.
Permanent incapacity.
Or voluntary relinquishment.
Dante stared toward the burning garage.
The accident.
The sabotage.
The brace.
None of it was meant merely to hurt him.
Someone wanted him legally declared incapable.
Then they wanted his signature.
Or his death.
A guard ran toward them.
“Boss.”
“What now?”
“We found the ignition device.”
“Where?”
“Inside the garage.”
The guard held up a small melted component sealed in a bag.
Bruno examined it.
“Remote trigger?”
“Yes.”
“Range?”
“Short.”
Dante looked around.
“How short?”
The guard swallowed.
“Whoever detonated it had to be inside the estate.”
Dante slowly turned toward the mansion.
Hundreds of windows glowed in the darkness.
Somewhere behind one of them was the person orchestrating everything.
Then Sofia appeared at the rear doorway with Isabela.
She was carrying her wooden toy.
Dante rolled toward her.
“Sofia.”
She looked at the burning garage.
Then at the small device in the guard’s bag.
Her face changed.
“I saw one.”
Dante froze.
“Where?”
Sofia pointed toward the mansion.
“In Grandma Rosa’s room.”
Dante felt the blood drain from his face.
Because Rosa Montenegro was his father’s older sister.
May you like
And the woman who had raised Dante after the lake house fire.
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