Chapter 3 - THREE MONTHS OF LIES
I took Isabella into my study and locked the door behind us.
Not to keep her inside.
To keep Beatriz out.
I called my security director, Mateo Ruiz.
“What happened?”
“Your home accounts have been accessed repeatedly during your trip.”
“So?”
“Not normal spending.”
I glanced at Isabella.
“How much?”
Mateo hesitated.
“Almost six hundred thousand euros.”
I stopped breathing.
“From what?”
“Personal investment accounts.”
“Who authorized it?”
“Your digital signature.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know.”
I lowered my voice.
“Can you trace the transfers?”
“We already started.”
“Do it quietly.”
“Gabriel…”
“What?”
“There’s more.”
I waited.
“The cameras.”
My stomach tightened.
“What about them?”
“Someone disabled several interior feeds.”
“When?”
“Two days after you left for Dubai.”
I looked through the glass doors of my study.
Beatriz stood at the far end of the hallway, staring at us.
“Can you recover them?”
“Maybe.”
“Do it.”
I ended the call.
Isabella sat curled in a leather chair.
I took out her notebook.
“Can I read this?”
She hesitated.
Then nodded.
The first page contained a date.
Three days after I left for Dubai.
Beatriz said Dad doesn’t want me calling because he is too busy.
Next entry.
I asked if I could FaceTime Dad. She said I’m selfish.
Another.
She made me scrub the guest bathroom because I spilled orange juice.
Another.
She took Grandma’s bracelet. She said children don’t deserve expensive things.
My jaw tightened.
Then I reached a page that made my hands shake.
She locked me in my room tonight because I asked where Dad was.
Below it was a small drawing.
A little girl behind a door.
A woman outside.
And beside the woman, another man.
I pointed at the drawing.
“Who is this?”
Isabella looked down.
“I don’t know his name.”
“What man?”
“The one who comes here at night.”
Cold moved through me.
“How often?”
“A lot.”
“What does he look like?”
“Tall.”
“Hair?”
“Dark.”
“Age?”
“I don’t know.”
She thought.
“He has a tattoo on his wrist.”
“What kind?”
“A snake.”
I froze.
I knew a man with a snake tattoo.
Alejandro Vega.
A financial consultant.
More importantly, Beatriz’s former boyfriend.
The man she claimed she had not spoken to in twelve years.
“Did he ever speak to you?”
Isabella nodded.
“What did he say?”
“He told me I should be nicer to Beatriz.”
“Anything else?”
She rubbed her hands together.
“He said soon everything would change.”
I crouched.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Then she remembered something.
“He told her they only needed your signature one more time.”
My pulse jumped.
Before I could ask more, someone knocked.
“Gabriel?”
Beatriz.
“Open the door.”
I stayed silent.
“Gabriel, we need to talk.”
“Later.”
“No.”
Her voice changed.
“This cannot wait.”
I opened the door halfway.
“What?”
She held out her phone.
On the screen was an email.
A legal document.
My name appeared at the bottom.
A transfer of controlling shares in one of my holding companies.
To Beatriz.
Dated eleven days earlier.
Signed by me.
She looked into my eyes.
“You signed this.”
“No, I didn’t.”
Her smile returned.
“According to the document, you did.”
I took the phone.
Then she leaned closer.
“And if you accuse me of fraud, Gabriel, you better be prepared for what comes next.”
“What comes next?”
She glanced at Isabella.
“Because I’ve been keeping records too.”
She walked away.
May you like
And for the first time that day, I wondered whether Beatriz had been preparing not just to steal from me.
But to destroy me.
