She asked to see her daughter before she died… and what the girl whispered to her changed her fate forever.

Esteban’s sister.

The woman who took in Salome after the arrest.

The same one who wept in the judgment like any other widow.

The same one who insisted that Ramira had always been “nerve” and “able to do anything when she was angry.”

Ramira reached out to the girl’s face.

“Honey… listen to me. Have you seen that man before?

Salome nodded.

“Yes. Twice. Once he came when you weren’t there, and Dad let him into the studio. I brought him water. He was wearing a large gold watch with a snake head,” he said, touching his wrist. And it smelled loud, like cigarettes and colony. Dad got scared when he arrived. I knew it because I always screamed even more afterwards.

Colonel Mendez, from the door, stopped breathing normally.

He didn’t move.

He didn’t say anything.

But something in the way the girl spoke—without drama, without seeking attention, with the harsh clarity of the one who clings to an image for years—made the old discomfort in her chest transform into something else.

Alarm.

Ramira leaned further.