Chapter 4 - The Shadows of the Empire
The news of Abigail’s miraculous recovery from the brink of septic shock sent shockwaves through the Granados estate. What should have been a moment of shared celebration instead accelerated the hidden plots lurking within the mansion's marble halls.
In the private study, Sofia Granados slammed a file folder down on Julian Vance’s desk.
“She’s an unlicensed witch!” Sofia hissed, her eyes venomous. “If word gets out that Leonardo turned over his heiresses to a peasant with a jar of mud, the Granados stock will plunge twenty percent by closing tomorrow! The board is already calling me, asking if my brother has lost his mind from grief.”
Julian casually flipped through the dossier his private investigators had compiled on Brenda Anzures.
“Her background is clean, Sofia. Suspiciously clean,” Julian noted, tapping a photograph of Brenda walking through a market in Oaxaca. “No criminal record, no debt, no affiliations with medical scams. She was a traditional midwife and healer in her village until three years ago, when her entire family was wiped out during a flash mudslide.”
Sofia paused, her sharp brows knitting together. “A survivor complex. She’s projecting her lost family onto those girls.”
“Perhaps,” Julian said smoothly. “Or perhaps she recognizes that the three Granados girls are worth four hundred million dollars in trust funds. If those children recover, or even if they survive long enough for Leonardo to rewrite his will to include a massive charitable endowment managed by this woman, our share of the estate evaporates.”
Sofia leaned over the desk, her voice dropping into a cold whisper. “Then we make sure she fails. Dr. Montes is ready to sign a formal medical affidavit stating that Brenda’s unauthorized treatments are causing long-term neurological damage. We file for temporary emergency guardianship of the children tomorrow morning based on medical neglect.”
“And what about Leonardo?” Julian asked.
“My brother is broken,” Sofia sneered. “He will do whatever a judge tells him to do if he thinks it will keep his precious daughters breathing. Once we have guardianship, we move the girls to a private facility in Switzerland. And the girl from Oaxaca... disappears back to her mountains.”
Unbeknownst to them, Brenda was standing in the shadows of the second-floor mezzanine, holding a tray of warm bone broth. Her acute hearing, honed by years in the silent mountain forests, caught the muffled cadence of their conversation through the ancient wooden air vents.
She didn't flinch. She had seen wolves in the mountains; she knew that when a creature was hungry, it made noise before it struck.
She carried the broth down to the nursery. Diana and Abigail were awake, sitting up in bed for the first time in two months, coloring on paper pads Brenda had brought them. Adriana was watching them with a faint smile, her cheeks pale but no longer translucent.
Leonardo was sitting on a small wooden stool, holding a green crayon, painstakingly helping Diana draw a mountain range. The ruthless concrete tycoon looked absurd sitting on the tiny chair, but his face held an expression of peaceful devotion that had been absent for years.
Brenda set the tray down softly. “You draw like a builder, Señor Granados. Everything has straight lines.”
Leonardo chuckled—a rare, low sound that felt unfamiliar in his own throat. “Concrete demands straight lines, Brenda. If you build with curves without calculated support, the structure collapses.”
Brenda sat beside Diana, taking a crayon and gently curving the sharp peak Leonardo had drawn into a rolling, soft hill.
“Life doesn't use straight lines, Leonardo,” Brenda said, looking up at him with a meaningful gaze. “And those who try to force life into straight lines usually end up crushing what they are trying to protect.”
Leonardo caught the quiet urgency in her tone. He looked at his daughters, who were giggling as Brenda added little birds to the drawing, then back at Brenda’s serious eyes.
May you like
“What is it?” he asked quietly, moving away from the bed.
“The wind is changing in this house,” Brenda said softly, ensuring the girls couldn't hear. “There are people here who are building a cage for you, Leonardo. And they are using your daughters’ illness to forge the iron.”
