The safehouse felt colder than it should.
Valentina sat on the window ledge, fresh bandages wrapped around her arm. The city blinked below her, a maze of shadows and broken promises. Mateo paced behind her, silent. Tense. Like a storm was brewing between them.
"You think I was reckless," she said, voice calm. Too calm.
"I know you were," he snapped. "This isn't some telenovela revenge fantasy, Valentina. These men aren't just killers—they're kings in a world where justice is a myth."
She turned, sharp as a blade. "Then it's time we dethrone them."
Mateo sighed, rubbing his face. "You've changed."
"No," she said. "I've remembered who I am."
Elsewhere, the walls of Herrera's empire were already creaking.
Inside a lavish cigar lounge cloaked in velvet and smoke, Herrera sat with his top lieutenants—Miguel, Paloma, and a new face: Agent Esteban Ruiz.
Esteban wore a suit like a second skin, clean-shaven, with the smile of a snake.
"She's resurfaced," Miguel growled. "The girl."
Ruiz raised an eyebrow. "You mean Cruz's daughter?"
Herrera nodded. "And she's got help. Mateo Vargas."
Ruiz whistled low. "So the street ghost still lives."
Paloma, sharp in leather and gold, leaned forward. "Let's not make this bigger than it is. She's one girl."
"One girl," Herrera echoed, "with nothing to lose. That makes her lethal."
Ruiz cleared his throat. "Or... we use her. Feed her a little truth. Something to break her."
Herrera smirked. "You mean a trap."
Ruiz lit a cigarette, blowing smoke rings. "I mean a performance. Let's remind her the past has layers."
Back at the safehouse, Valentina's laptop chimed. A message popped onto the screen—encrypted, unsigned.
I know what happened the night your parents died. It wasn't what you think. Meet me. Alone. Plaza de Sol. Midnight.
Mateo read it over her shoulder. "No."
Valentina stood. "Yes."
"It's bait."
"So was the bullet that missed Miguel's head," she said, grabbing her jacket. "And look where it got us."
The Plaza de Sol was a graveyard of memories after dark.
Shops shuttered. Streetlamps flickering. A fountain long run dry. Valentina stood alone, one hand on her hip, the other on her pistol. Midnight came. Then five minutes. Then ten.
Then a shape appeared through the fog.
Ruiz.
He looked like someone out of a government photo, all calm power and hollow eyes. "Valentina Cruz," he said like her name was a trigger.
"Who sent you?" she asked.
"No one. I volunteered."
Her jaw clenched. "Talk."
Ruiz slipped a folder from his coat and tossed it at her feet. "You think Herrera killed your parents. But your father? He wasn't just a cop. He was working for both sides."
She froze. "Lies."
Ruiz stepped closer. "Your father was a double agent. The deal went bad. Herrera didn't light that match. Mateo did."
Silence.
The kind that crushes lungs and freezes thought.
"You're lying," she whispered.
"Ask him," Ruiz said with a smirk. "Ask him why he disappeared that night. Ask him where he got the scar behind his ear. Ask him why he kept you alive."
Then he walked off, whistling.
Valentina stood there, folder in hand, the past unraveling like a noose.
Mateo was waiting when she returned.
"You're bleeding again," he said quietly.
She stared at him. "Where were you the night my house burned?"
He froze.
"You promised to protect us," she said, voice cracking. "Why didn't you?"
Silence.
Then Mateo whispered, "Because your father gave the order."
The world tilted.
Valentina took a step back. The folder slipped from her fingers.
"He knew what he'd done," Mateo said. "He begged me to save you. Said you were the only good thing he hadn't corrupted."
Her mouth opened. Closed. Everything felt like lies.
"You should've told me," she said. "You owe me that."
"I owed your father. You? I was trying to protect."
Her eyes burned with something colder than rage.
"Then stop protecting me. Start telling me the truth."
Outside, in the alley across the street, a shadow watched from the dark.
Paloma.
She lit a cigarette, watching the safehouse window with a smirk.
"Let her drown in the truth," she murmured into her comm. "We'll finish her once she breaks."