“We know you're in there.”
Nobody moved.
Then he said something that made the officers exchange terrified looks.
“We know exactly what you've been feeding them.”
The butcher Ovidiu, who had followed the police to the building, covered his mouth.
Suddenly, he understood why Lidia had always looked over her shoulder.
She hadn't been hiding a secret from the village.
She had been hiding these people from someone who was still searching for them.
The officers positioned themselves near the door.
One whispered:
“Call for backup.”
But before they could do anything, the footsteps outside suddenly disappeared.
Silence returned.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
Nothing.
Finally, an officer opened the door.
There was nobody outside.
Only a small envelope lying on the ground.
Inside was a single photograph.
It showed Lidia standing outside the butcher shop.
The photograph had been taken that morning.
On the back, someone had written:
“You should have stopped buying the meat.”
Lidia stared at it.
For the first time, the officers realized that the sixty kilos of beef had never been the real mystery.
The real mystery was how someone had known about every single trip she had made.
And more importantly…
Who had been watching her all this time?
The investigation that followed would uncover a network far more complicated than anyone in the village could have imagined.
And Lidia's secret would eventually save lives—but it would also force her to confront the person she had spent years believing was dead.
The woman who everyone thought was simply buying meat for a strange family dinner had been carrying a secret far heavier than sixty kilos of beef.
And she had been carrying it alone.
