Chapter 11 - DIEGO’S CONFESSION
We met at Rachel’s office.
No private meeting.
No closed room.
No chance for Diego to rewrite what he said later.
His attorney came too.
Diego looked terrible.
Unshaven.
Gray around the eyes.
For the first time since I’d known him, he looked smaller than his mother.
Rachel started the recorder.
“Mr. Morales, you asked to provide information voluntarily.”
“Yes.”
“What information?”
He looked at me.
“I didn’t plan all of this.”
I said nothing.
Rachel did.
“Who did?”
“My mother.”
His attorney shifted.
“Be careful.”
Diego laughed bitterly.
“That’s all I’ve been for ten years. Careful.”
He described how Teresa had begun buying distressed properties years earlier.
Gabriel helped.
Then Gabriel discovered money missing.
They fought.
“He said he was going to report her.”
“What happened?” Rachel asked.
“Nothing. He died two days later.”
“Are you saying Teresa caused the accident?”
“No.”
Diego looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
That mattered.
He wasn’t claiming murder.
He was admitting fear.
“After Gabriel died, Mom told me he had been stealing from the business.”
“Did you believe her?”
“At first.”
“And later?”
“I found records.”
“What records?”
“Transfers showing she had used Gabriel’s identity.”
My jaw tightened.
“You knew.”
Diego looked at me.
“Yes.”
“And still helped her do it to me.”
His eyes filled.
“I thought I could control it.”
“You forged my name.”
“I told myself the deal would make enough money that you’d never find out.”
“That is not an excuse.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
He looked down.
“You told your mother you’d divorce me after the property closed.”
“Yes.”
“You planned to take Sofía.”
“Yes.”
My voice shook.
“Why?”
“Because Mom said if you had Sofía, you’d use her against us.”
I laughed.
“So you were protecting yourself from something I hadn’t even done.”
“I was wrong.”
“No. You were selfish.”
He didn’t argue.
That almost made it worse.
Rachel asked, “What did Teresa threaten you with?”
Diego rubbed his face.
“She said if I turned against her, she’d tell police Gabriel had called me the night he died.”
My stomach tightened.
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Diego’s eyes went red.
“He said, ‘She stole from us. Don’t let her do it to you.’”
Silence.
“And what did you do?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“I did exactly what he warned me not to do.”
Then Rachel asked the question that changed the room.
“Mr. Morales, did Teresa know Mrs. Morales planned to leave before the birthday incident?”
Diego hesitated.
“No.”
“Then why did she tell Sofía three weeks earlier that her mother would soon be gone?”
His face went blank.
“What?”
He genuinely didn’t know.
Rachel repeated it.
Diego stared at the table.
Then whispered:
“She wasn’t talking about divorce.”
My skin prickled.
“What was she talking about?”
May you like
He looked up.
“Mom had been trying to get you fired.”
