Chapter 17.

The number 3.

When Esther was able to see with her own eyes how that old vehicle had turned out, she felt totally frustrated; For a moment an enormous pain came over her heart, as if she were short of air in her lungs and she could not breathe well, which caused her to faint, so her escorts immediately took her to the shed, where she was treated with character urgently and coincidentally, by the same doctor who had removed his son's organs.

When she finally stabilized, the doctor said that it was just a decompensation due to high levels of stress, that she should rest a little more... she didn't say anything, she just left that warehouse, lit a cigarette and with every puff she took she felt like I was listening to the sea.

Something strange was happening in her body, because when she closed her eyes she only saw images of the waves of the sea, and in one of those she fell asleep in the car while they were driving back; and in the dream, she was like on a kind of strange beach where she could see her son Thiago in the water who greeted her from afar, but he did not get close to the shore, and before waking up she heard her son's voice saying clearly : number three... After that he woke up and saw that they were already arriving at the capital, so she called Víctor and asked him if he knew about Thiago, since she had not seen him for three days and Víctor told her that he did not know nothing about him, who would surely appear soon.

Esther hung up the call with Victor, but for some strange reason she kept seeing the number three everywhere; and after eight hours, her people told her that Thiago was not in any of the family properties. For Víctor, the situation was already strange, something was not going well and Esther was going into panic mode. 

Then Victor ordered that the deliveries of all shipments be stopped until his son appeared; and immediately, those in charge of handling the Casanova deliveries began to search everywhere for the young man, of whom they had sent them photos; and it was from that moment, when they began to report, first the people who made air deliveries, who said that it was not there.

 Likewise, those who transported everything by train said the same thing; so then Victor and Esther went to the dock to check if Thiago was among the living crew members; and in fact, he was not in the place of the living; so for some reason, Esther asked the crew manager if they had checked the cargo side of the bodies, but the man told her no, because being his son he shouldn't be there... 

Victor simply said: don't question my methods and just do what she tells you, like that, they started searching, but in section A and B they didn't find any that looked alike, so already very stressed, Victor told her: open the damn section C... 

And  once they entered, Víctor and Esther could smell the smell of death that covered everything; It was at that moment, when Esther noticed that the people who were there were wearing a mask on their heads with a number and it was then that she asked: ¿what does the number on their head mean?, and one of the marines who was helping in the search answered: it is the order number in which they were treated, and almost without hope when they were reaching the end, she saw someone who was carrying number three, and therefore, she did not allow anyone to touch the body because she herself she wanted to take off his mask and see why that number was chasing her everywhere.

 As she did so she screamed and fell to his knees and said: ¿How did you get here? Victor couldn't say a word, he was pale, his son was among the merchandise... 

They immediately ordered the body to be removed and took it to one of their private villas where they waited for a specialist doctor to arrive to examine the body.

 Esther's screams and cries were completely understandable and every time she saw him she had a panic attack and fainted.

Victor had notified his brother August about the murder of his son and the pain that the man was trying to cover was understandable, but unlike what the media and tabloid press would say about some possible betrayal between the Casanova and Bardot families, it was on the contrary, they were more united than ever and investigating who could have perpetrated all those crimes against so many men... You could see from afar that in their case, it was revenge, but among so many enemies that both families evidently had, they could not locate with certainty exact starting point.

It was not until Esther regained consciousness that she remembered Raquel and it was there that she said: Raquel may just be someone else's pawn, find that girl and kill her in the worst way, I want her to suffer the same pain that my son suffered and that feel without anesthesia how they take your life... When Victor heard that, he ordered an investigation into Raquel's background, but she was a clever young woman, she had disappeared; and in the cabin where she had last been seen, no one remembered her, as if she had never been there, practically all they knew about Raquel was that she existed and this only stressed Esther more and greatly affected Victor, who did not know. how to deal with his son's grief, he never imagined that he would have to bury his own son, he always thought that it would be his son who would bury him...

One of the guards who had been with Esther that day remembered that the car where Thiago had fled was not driven by a woman, but rather by a man. 

They immediately searched all the surveillance cameras in the area for the image of that man, but what they found impressed them, because it was a man who worked for Víctor and it was then that Víctor personally went to the warehouse where he found Stephen, the face of the car where Thiago was fleeing, and immediately when he saw him, he recognized him and without saying anything without a single word he punched him in the face until he fell to the ground, then he climbed on top of him and continued hitting the man while firmly grabbing his neck and lifting him up and then crashing him against the floor, the people around him did not dare to say nothing, because intervening could be practically fatal, until Victor told him: damn rat, ¿who hired you to murder my son? The dizzy and dazed man told him: I don't know what the boss is talking about, but Victor slammed him to the floor and told him: four days ago you brought a boy to the shed and he had the number three marked and you even dared to take him to the warehouse, ¿what you don't know is that that boy from number three was my son?; Immediately, several remembered that that day Stephen had indeed arrived with a boy with the number three and everyone affirmed that he had done so, while the man said that he had not come to work that day and that his wife could back him up, but the cameras surveillance said the opposite, so Víctor drew his gun and shot him in the head, completely discharging his gun until he saw that there was no head left, but only a pool of blood and brains, then he ordered that those remains be taken to the desert and they let the zamuros eat it and that's how it was done.

Esther was not entirely happy, she felt that her son needed justice, but the evidence indicated that it was that man who had led her son to death, while Raquel had disappeared just as she asked, perhaps that girl had left the country was what Esther thought and Víctor told her that if she had left the country she did it to follow your orders, you practically forced these young people to carry death as a backpack with your damn traditions, you know he doesn't I wanted that commitment and you forced it, and ¿What did you get? 

That our enemies took our son and mocked us for getting it and leaving the body in our faces, I never want to talk about this again more, ¿did you understand my love?, so Esther left Victor's sight who became drunk until he lost consciousness and fell asleep.