FOURTEEN
774 Words
🕊️ Chapter 14 – Faces Hidden in the Light
The office was silent when Xavier returned.
Each step he took echoed like clinking chains against the marble floor.
The papers Althea had left on the table remained there—damp with the silent stares of the board members and the whispers they were trying so hard to suppress.
“Sir… do you want me to adjourn the meeting?” asked Marco, his longtime friend and former colleague from the police force.
Xavier shook his head. “No. Let them talk. Let them see the truth.”
But deep inside, he knew it wasn’t that simple.
Because sometimes, the truth isn’t faced—it’s hidden in the light, until people are too blinded to see who the real culprit is.
---
Across the city, Althea sat quietly on the veranda of a small apartment she was temporarily renting.
She stared at the city lights of San Rafael—like stars now far beyond the reach of her dreams.
Yet beneath the ache in her chest, a strange strength was beginning to grow.
As she turned her wedding ring around her finger, a bitter smile curved her lips.
“I guess this was never love,” she whispered. “It was just a contract pretending to be one.”
But before her thoughts could go further, a knock sounded at the door.
A man in a black suit stood there, holding an envelope.
“Miss Reyes?” he asked. “Delivery for you. From Madrigal Holdings.”
When she opened the envelope, a letter greeted her:
“Return to the mansion. There are things you need to know. – X.M.”
Althea frowned. “Another game, Xavier?” she murmured.
But despite her words, a chill crept down her spine.
---
That evening, when she arrived at the mansion, the air was cold and unnervingly still.
The hallway lights were dimmed, and only the faint ticking of a clock echoed through the silence.
“Xavier?” she called out—but no one answered.
When she entered the study room, she found Marco leaning against the desk, holding a folder in his hand.
“He won’t be coming,” Marco said. “But maybe you should hear this—before he tells you himself.”
He opened the folder. Inside were photographs, reports, and old documents.
“Lea Sandoval,” he began, “wasn’t just Xavier’s former wife. She also manipulated the original case of a missing woman—your sister.”
Althea’s eyes widened. “What did you say?”
“It’s true,” Marco continued. “Before you ever became Mrs. Madrigal, you were already part of their story. Lea covered up the case to protect the Madrigal name—and Xavier agreed to the terms. In return, he married her.”
The folder slipped from Althea’s trembling hands, papers scattering across the floor.
In that instant, the memories rushed back—her childhood wish to find her lost sister, the night they received the call from the police, the words case closed, presumed dead.
“No…” she whispered, her voice shaking. “That can’t be true.”
But from the side of the room, a projector suddenly clicked on.
A beam of light filled the wall, revealing an old video—
A woman in a red dress, holding Xavier’s hand.
“Some secrets,” Lea’s voice echoed from the recording, “are too precious to die with the dead.”
The video stopped, but Althea stood frozen, her mind spinning.
The red dress…
That voice…
The mysterious woman who had haunted her dreams—
It was Lea Sandoval.
And the woman who disappeared long ago… might not have been dead after all.
---
The door creaked open behind her.
Xavier stepped in—his face tired, but resolute.
“Now you know,” he said quietly. “And I can’t hide anymore.”
Althea turned to him, tears brimming in her eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, her voice trembling. “You could’ve saved me from all this pain!”
“I tried,” Xavier replied, his voice low and broken. “But sometimes, Althea, telling the truth is more dangerous than lying. Because the truth… destroys everything.”
A tear rolled down her cheek. “Then let it destroy us all, Xavier. Because I’m done living in the dark.”
Outside, lightning flashed—
and in that split second of brightness, their faces were illuminated.
Both saw what they had long refused to face—
that sometimes, the truest light comes from the fire of truth itself.
- Writer
