The Truth Revealed on the Road
They left the next morning before sunrise.
During the drive, Mercedes gently asked Valeria about her family.
“I was raised by my grandmother,” Valeria explained. “My mother died when I was very young.”
“What was her name?”
“Clara.”
Alejandro immediately slammed the brakes.
Silence filled the car.
“I was three years old when my mother disappeared,” he whispered.
“And I was three when mine supposedly died,” Valeria replied slowly.
Mercedes turned toward her carefully.
“Do you have a picture of her?”
Valeria pulled an old photograph from her bag.
The moment Mercedes saw it, tears filled her eyes.
“It’s Clara.”
The realization crashed over them all at once.
Valeria and Alejandro weren’t strangers.
They were brother and sister.
