Luis frowned. “Where is he?”
The village chief looked at each of them carefully.
Then he spoke the words that froze them where they stood.
“Don Mateo passed away… two months ago.”
The world seemed to stop.
Javier blinked rapidly. “No… that’s not possible. No one told us—”
“No one to tell,” Don Ramiro interrupted. “You didn’t call. You didn’t come. You didn’t ask.”
Andrés stepped back, shaking his head. “He was strong… he was fine…”
“He fell,” Don Ramiro said quietly. “Outside his home.”
Luis’s face turned pale.
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