“I like this one. His eyes are wide open, and he’s smiling.” Maximo Alvarez Estrada flipped through the proofs of family pictures as his lovely wife, Gabriela, rocked their five-week-old son, Gustavo. She looked up as she began to give Gus his bottle and agreed when he showed her the photo he preferred.
“I love it,” she murmured. Max smiled, pushed her bright hair out of her face and bent to kiss her forehead. Gus made a noise, and Max moved to kiss his son’s forehead as well.
He laughed. “Bebé celoso. He is already like his papá.” Sometimes, he still couldn’t believe this was his life. Never in a million years had he imagined his heart would belong to one fiery redhead and a tiny baby boy with a shock of dark hair. When they had found out they were expecting, they had moved to his family villa in southern Spain. His wife thrived here, and he had no desire to return to Madrid anytime soon.
Together, they redecorated the nursery that had huge windows overlooking the vineyard. Gabi selected the space-themed décor not yet knowing if they were having a boy or a girl. But even a month after Gus had been born, the nursery was still unused at night. His wife claimed that she was working her way to being separated from their baby, but for now, the nursery was for feeding, changing and naps.
“My love, I need to work. I need to look in on my new sherry investments. Gabi, look through these and determine which one is your favorite. I’ll ask my PA to place the order with the photographer.” He placed the proofs on the changing table and turned to leave.
“Gracias, mi amor. I’m sorry you are putting in long hours because of me.”
He stopped and spun back around. “No need to apologize. I would work all the hours in the world for you and Gus. Plus, I have mainly been working from home and get to see each of you throughout the day.”
“When I finish maternity leave, I promise to be right by your side as I was before,” she said with a wistful look.
He knew how she felt. “I miss you as well. We have Rosa full-time now, so when you are ready, she is here to help with Gus. No rush.” Max kissed them both again. He went to the door then as her focus was back on their baby.
She called after him, “I will come and find you after I put the baby down for a nap.”
They wanted large, framed photos throughout their home of their small family and in his office building. He didn’t care that most high-profile investors probably didn’t hang family photos on every wall. While he worked from his home office most days, he wanted to view his beloved family when he wasn’t home.
As Max walked downstairs to his home office, Carlos caught up with him, carrying the mail and a small frown. As head of security for the Alvarez Estrada family, mail delivery was not a typical job function for him.
“¿Qué es éso?” Max asked while Carlos followed him into the office.
“Señor Alvarez, there is a strange package. I didn’t open it. It’s addressed to your wife.”
Before Gus’s birth, Gabi handled her own office and mail, but a few weeks ago she had turned it all over to him and didn’t plan on working again for another two or three months. The security tech company she created, and he invested in, G-Max Systems, ran efficiently with him handling the day-to-day issues. She enjoyed working, and he didn’t think she would stop, no matter how many children they eventually had. All of their mail went through their security team first due to Max’s multi-million-euro businesses. This was the first time his wife had received anything suspicious in the eight months they had been married.
He took the plain, brown package and turned it over. No return label, but addressed to his wife. In her real name. That got his attention. Only a handful of people knew his wife’s real name and the life she had lived before they had gotten married. Carlos happened to be one of those people.
He sucked in a breath, looked at Carlos, and then used his letter opener on the package. One single sheet of paper fell into his hand.
I found you.
“Dios! What is this?” Max held back the tirade of curse words and showed Carlos the sheet of paper.
Carlos stared at him. “What do you need me to do?”
“Review everything, phones, internet, cameras, everything. Secure the villa.”
Carlos made a phone call on his mobile and barked instructions to the person on the other end of the line. “Done. The team will update me as they complete each check.”
Max thanked him and knew he had been right in hiring Carlos years ago.
“I want to know how someone found her before I go talk to my wife.”
“Talk to your wife about what? What’s wrong?”
He turned and stared at Gabi. She had promised to find him after putting the baby down and she had, right in the middle of a crisis. Her pale face grew whiter as she seemed to sense his rage. He took a deep breath to calm himself. His need to cosset her and Gus overruled everything. He wanted to deny that anything was wrong, but she wasn’t one to let things go easily.
“This.” He said, as he crossed the room and handed her the package. She looked up at him when she saw who it was addressed to. He heard her inhale sharply as she looked at the cryptic message.
“How?”
“We are still working on it. Carlos just brought the package to me moments ago.” Max pulled her to him and cradled her face in his hands. “It will be fine. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
She nodded. “I want to know how someone found me. I’ll go ask Rosa to watch over Gus in the nursery until we figure this out.”
Before she could leave, Carlos spoke into his security comms. “Gracias.” He turned and looked at them both. “The family photo leaked. It’s all over the internet.”
After a week of extra security around the villa and Max’s people performing damage control over the photo leak, Gabi was finally content to be still. She looked down at her son. He was beautiful. She would give her life for her precious baby. Her heart ached just thinking of something hurting him. She couldn’t go through the agony that her mother had.
Losing her infant brother, Esteban, was the worst pain her mother had ever endured. Gabi hadn’t been born yet, but her mother and father had shown her pictures and had talked about him often. At five months old, Esteban had been put down for a nap in his crib and never woke up.
Her parents had a loving marriage, and she tried to emulate them. Even with her past catching up to her now, she knew she and Max had a great start for lifelong happiness. They dedicated time to each other, waking early to swim laps in their pool and exercising together. Since they’d become a family of three, he mainly worked from home to ensure busy days didn’t overtake their devotion to each other.
She bent down and adjusted the baby blankets, unsure how they had covered her son since she preferred them off. Her mother always feared too many blankets had smothered Esteban. Something hard hit her fingers as she pulled back the thin blanket. A silver rattle lay next to her son. She knew it was silver although she’d never seen it in person and had only seen photographs. She picked up the rattle and turned it over.
There, on one smooth, flat side, were the initials of her dead brother. The rattle that her mother hadn’t seen since the day she had found baby Esteban not breathing in his crib. The implications were frightening.
She placed her other hand over her mouth to halt the scream that threatened to come out. After a shaky moment, she said a prayer for her brothers. It was the same prayer her mother had taught her. Gabi prayed for the baby brother lost all those years ago and she also prayed for her brother Ramón, who was alive and taunting her.
“Mi amor?”
Gabi jumped as she turned to see Max staring at her, his dark eyebrows raised and a frown on his beautiful, tan face.
“What is that you have in your hand?”
She almost jumped again as he took her hand and turned it over. “It was my brother’s. Esteban’s,” she said dazedly.
“I didn’t know you had anything from your brother.”
“I just found it.”
“You seem upset.”
“It brought up some memories.” Technically, it was the truth, but she hesitated to tell him the entire truth until she knew what was going on. The rattle she held in her hand proved she and her husband couldn’t keep their son safe. She would tell him when she knew more. If sixteen years spent near Ramón had taught her anything, she knew the rattle was only the beginning. She had to assume at this point that he had sent the package a week ago as well.
“I’m sorry. Come, let’s go make some new memories. Since Gus is napping, we can take a siesta of our own. Lunch is on the balcony in our room.”
“Sí, let me ask Rosa to watch over the baby.” She also planned to scan the security cameras quickly to ensure that her brother wasn’t in her house or near her child.
Gabi tucked the rattle into her pocket. She couldn’t bear the thought of something Ramón had touched near her son.
Ramón hung up the phone. It was done. Juan was a spineless fool, and it had been too easy to blackmail his sister’s new guard. Juan had done his bidding in less than a week since he had contacted him. Now all he had to do was sit back and wait.
Wait for his long-lost sister to contact him. Staring down at the pictures on his screen, he fisted his right hand. After the photographer leaked the photos of Gabi’s family, Ramón had searched and found buried pictures of his sister with her rich husband.
The husband, at first, was a problem. Tightening down their villa like a modern-day knight protecting his castle. If it hadn’t been so annoying, he would have laughed.
Ramón had a knack for finding weaknesses. Growing up with his baby sister had taught him one thing. She defended the weak. Every kitten, puppy, every living thing she loved, he had tortured until she cried and ran to their parents. He was always careful. As all the animals died from one thing or another, they eventually stopped buying pets for their precious daughter. He was never caught in the act, and he secretly liked how afraid his parents were of him. His mother crossing herself and praying all the time. Nothing had worked. Not the expensive boarding school, and definitely not her prayers.
Smiling, he stroked the picture on his screen. The picture was of Gabi in a long, red ball gown, alone at some charity ball, her husband outside the frame. In the photo, she wore the priceless earrings that had belonged to their mother. When Gabi had disappeared all those years ago, she had left with all their mother’s jewelry. Although the jewelry technically belonged to his sister, Ramón wanted it. He was in between cons at the moment and needed a diversion. Bringing his sister under his control would be fun, and the money he would make off it would set him up for years.
His burner phone vibrated in his suit jacket pocket. He pulled out the phone, not even bothering to look at the caller’s number. He sneered, “Hola, mi hermana.”