Chapter 7 - Four Hours to an Answer
Sofia asked Chen whether she could travel to the city. The detective said she couldn't prohibit an adult from going, but asked her not to approach the clinic or anyone connected to the case without coordination. Sofia agreed and stayed home. It felt like surrender. She reminded herself that a rushed encounter could expose people or drive Mateo further away if he was avoiding contact for reasons they didn't know.
Elena took out a suitcase anyway. "I want to be ready," she said.
"We don't even know it's him."
"Then the suitcase can wait by the door. It doesn't hurt anybody."
The investigation at the clinic was slow. Staff had confidentiality obligations and wouldn't release client information simply because someone claimed to be a missing man's sister. Through lawful channels investigators confirmed that a man using the name Adrian Vale had submitted documents alleging payroll falsification at hotels linked to Westgate. The clinic could not confirm his identity publicly. Chen told Sofia there was enough for a careful next step, not enough for an announcement.
Sofia went to work at the office complex and scrubbed a conference room table while thinking of her mother waiting beside the packed suitcase. She hated the way ordinary tasks continued to demand her body while her mind circled a possible reunion. Then she remembered Mateo always complaining that people talked about cleaners as if they were part of the furniture. She finished the room carefully and wrote a note about a leaking faucet for maintenance.
A week later Chen called. Mateo had been located. He was alive. He had agreed to speak with investigators and was willing to contact his family, but he wanted to do so in a place he chose, with an advocate present. He asked that no one come to his current address.
Sofia sat on the floor of the supply closet, pressing the phone to her ear. "Can I hear his voice?"
"He'll call when he's ready."
"Does he know Mom has been waiting?"
"Yes."
The knowledge was so large she couldn't stand. She wanted to laugh, scream, and demand an apology. She wanted to protect him from whatever had kept him away. She wanted him to have no excuse that could make three years of silence seem reasonable.
When she told Elena, her mother began to cry and reached for the suitcase. Then she put it down. "He gets to decide when to call," Elena said, forcing the words out. "But I get to decide what I say when he does."
Mateo called the next night from a number Sofia didn't recognize. His voice was lower than she remembered, but his habit of saying her name before a difficult sentence was the same.
"Sofi," he said. "I'm sorry."
"Don't start with that. Tell me if you're safe."
"I am now."
"Then tell me why you let us think you might be dead."
He was silent for a long time. Then he explained that after the freight-office meeting, he realized he had copied records containing sensitive personal details of workers who could be harmed if the information leaked. He sought help from an attorney and left the city while his role in the civil proceedings was assessed. He also feared that the company had access to his old communication channels. At first the silence was meant to last weeks. The longer it lasted, the harder it became to explain. He had been ashamed of leaving his mother without an answer.
"You could have called from anywhere," Sofia said.
"I know."
"You made us grieve you."
"I know. I can't undo it."
She closed her eyes. His explanation did not make the hurt vanish. But it was his voice, not a photograph, and he was alive to hear her anger.
He asked whether she would meet him with Elena in two weeks. Sofia said yes. Then he told her there was something else she needed to know about Marco.
May you like
"He wasn't hiding me," Mateo said. "He was trying to make me testify before I was ready. That's why I stopped trusting him."
Before the meeting Sofia practiced what she would say in front of the bathroom mirror. Every version began with a demand and ended with somebody crying. Then she put the paper away. Mateo was not evidence that had finally been located; he was a brother who could answer and disagree. Their mother would ask her own questions. Sofia could prepare to listen without surrendering the hurt.
