Chapter 6 - SOFIA’S GREENHOUSE FILE Victoria agreed to provide DNA only after Arturo threatened to remove her from every Santillán company.
The result did not match the skin cells on Julián’s bottle.
She had not painted the poison onto the nipple.
But her fingerprints appeared on the silver music box.
Victoria admitted entering the archive with Mercer.
“I believed Sofia’s file contained evidence that could protect Julián.”
“Why hide your face?” León asked.
“Because I knew Arturo would forbid me from opening sealed family records.”
“You planted my mother’s knife.”
“No.”
“Then why did you go upstairs?”
“I heard someone.”
Victoria said she followed footsteps toward León’s room but fled when the hallway light turned on. She left the music box on the staircase.
Someone else carried it into his room and placed the knife beneath the mattress.
Her explanation sounded convenient.
Yet the camera showed the hooded figure entering once and leaving twice—first as one person, then several minutes later after the frame briefly went dark.
Two intruders may have used the same clothing.
The archive search uncovered a hidden compartment behind Sofia’s medical cabinet.
Inside was a waterproof folder she had prepared before her death.
The first page was addressed to León.
If they say I was unstable, follow the plants.
León read the line with shaking hands.
Sofia had documented suspicious shipments arriving at the estate greenhouse. Each package carried a gold ribbon and red wax seal. The plants contained compounds capable of affecting heart rhythm, blood pressure, or consciousness.
The orders appeared to originate from the Legacy Trust.
Sofia believed someone was using the estate’s botanical program to obtain toxins without creating pharmaceutical records.
She suspected funds were being removed from family companies and hidden through medical charities.
Victoria’s name appeared throughout the ledger.
So did Graham’s.
And Mercer’s.
But Sofia underlined another person repeatedly:
Arturo Santillán.
Arturo stared at his own name.
Sofia believed her brother had authorized the botanical purchases.
“I didn’t.”
León’s grief turned into anger.
“She asked you for help.”
“She accused me without proof.”
“She was being poisoned.”
“I thought she wanted control of the estate.”
“You cared more about the estate than whether she was dying.”
Arturo could not deny it.
Sofia’s final entry described discovering a trust account called Golden Continuity. Money entered whenever a Santillán heir suffered a documented medical crisis.
The account functioned like insurance.
Payouts increased if an heir became incapacitated or died.
The beneficiary remained hidden behind a sealed corporate trustee.
Graham said he had never heard of it.
Victoria claimed the account predated her employment.
Mercer said Sofia questioned him about unexplained symptoms but never mentioned the money.
León opened the final envelope.
Inside was a key to the greenhouse’s underground storage room.
The room had been sealed since the fire.
Arturo ordered it opened.
Beneath the burned floor, investigators found shelves of preserved plant samples, payment ledgers, and a photograph of the person who collected the final foxglove shipment before Sofia died.
The face had been partially destroyed by heat.
But the Santillán signet ring remained visible on the person’s hand.
Arturo wore the same ring.
He looked down at it.
Then León noticed something.
May you like
The photograph’s hand had six fingers.
👉 Someone had been impersonating Arturo while using a physical feature the real Arturo could never possess.
