Chapter 3 - Andrew Comes to the Tower
By 9:14 a.m., Andrew had called Mariana thirty-seven times.
She answered none of them.
At 9:42, he arrived at Escalante Tower.
Margaret came with him.
So did Brenda.
That was Brenda’s first mistake of the morning.
The second was wearing the emerald necklace.
The same necklace she had accused Mariana of stealing.
She had forgotten she was still wearing it.
Security noticed immediately.
Andrew marched toward the private elevators.
“Tell Mariana I’m here.”
The receptionist looked up.
“Do you have an appointment?”
Andrew laughed.
“I’m her husband.”
The receptionist remained calm.
“Do you have an appointment?”
Margaret slammed her purse onto the desk.
“Do you know who my son is?”
“Yes, Mrs. Whitmore.”
Margaret paused.
That answer wasn’t what she expected.
“Then let us upstairs.”
“I can’t.”
Andrew leaned over the desk.
“Call Mariana.”
The receptionist pressed one button.
“Ms. Escalante’s office?”
Andrew stiffened at the name.
“Mr. Whitmore is in the lobby.”
A pause.
The receptionist listened.
Then looked at Andrew.
“She’ll see you.”
Andrew exhaled.
Margaret smiled triumphantly.
“I told you.”
The receptionist continued.
“Only Mr. Whitmore.”
Margaret’s smile disappeared.
“I’m his mother.”
“Yes.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
Margaret’s face reddened.
Brenda stepped forward.
“I’m involved too.”
The receptionist looked at the emerald necklace.
“I imagine you are.”
Brenda touched the necklace instinctively.
Ten minutes later, Andrew stepped into Mariana’s office.
He stopped at the doorway.
Mariana sat behind a massive desk.
Alejandro Escalante stood beside her.
Three attorneys occupied the chairs opposite them.
Andrew recognized one.
Rebecca Shaw.
His former attorney.
“Mariana.”
She looked up.
“Mr. Whitmore.”
Andrew flinched.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Call me that.”
“What should I call you?”
“Your husband.”
Mariana stared at him.
“You stopped being my husband when you hit me for your mistress.”
Andrew looked toward the attorneys.
“This is private.”
“No.”
Mariana leaned back.
“This is business.”
Andrew stepped closer.
“What did you do?”
“I stopped helping you.”
“You froze my accounts.”
“I froze accounts belonging to entities under my control.”
“You took my cars.”
“My companies reclaimed their property.”
“You’re evicting my mother.”
“I’m recovering my house.”
Andrew stared at her.
“Your house?”
“Yes.”
“My father bought that property thirty years ago.”
“And lost it six years ago.”
Andrew blinked.
“What?”
Mariana slid a document across the desk.
“Read.”
He didn’t touch it.
“What is that?”
“The foreclosure transfer.”
Andrew looked down.
His father’s signature was there.
Then Andrew’s.
His hands began trembling.
“We refinanced.”
“Yes.”
“Through Bellmont Capital.”
Mariana nodded.
“Which is owned by Escalante Financial.”
Andrew slowly looked up.
“You?”
“Yes.”
His face changed.
“You bought my house?”
“I saved your house.”
Andrew said nothing.
Mariana pushed another document toward him.
“Then I saved your company.”
Another.
“Then your payroll.”
Another.
“Then your development project.”
Another.
“Then your private debt.”
Document after document covered the desk.
Andrew stared at them.
Each one represented a crisis he remembered surviving.
He had always thought he was brilliant.
He had always believed investors trusted him.
Now he saw the same corporate structure behind every rescue.
Escalante.
Escalante.
Escalante.
Andrew looked at Mariana.
“Why?”
“Because I loved you.”
The simplicity of the answer hurt more than anger would have.
Andrew swallowed.
“Then why hide it?”
“Because when we met, you treated me differently before you knew who my family was.”
“I didn’t know anything about your family.”
“Exactly.”
She stood.
“I wanted one person to love Mariana.”
Her voice remained calm.
“Not Mariana Escalante.”
Andrew looked away.
Mariana continued.
“And for a while, I thought I had found him.”
Andrew stepped closer.
“You did.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You hit me.”
Andrew’s face tightened.
“I was angry.”
“Twice.”
“Brenda said—”
“Brenda lied.”
“We didn’t know that.”
“You didn’t ask.”
Andrew had no answer.
Mariana walked around the desk.
“You ordered your wife onto her knees in front of two hundred people.”
“Mariana—”
“You told me to crawl.”
Andrew lowered his voice.
“I made a mistake.”
Mariana stopped directly in front of him.
“No.”
She looked into his eyes.
“You revealed yourself.”
Andrew’s face went pale.
Then the office door opened.
A security officer entered.
He whispered something to Mariana’s attorney.
The attorney’s expression changed.
“What?”
Mariana asked.
The attorney turned his tablet around.
Security footage from the lobby appeared.
Brenda was visible.
So was the emerald necklace.
The attorney zoomed in.
Mariana stared at it.
Andrew stared too.
His face slowly changed.
“That’s the necklace.”
Mariana looked at him.
“Yes.”
Andrew’s eyes widened.
“But Brenda said you stole it.”
May you like
Mariana said nothing.
For the first time, Andrew began to understand that losing his money might not be the worst thing waiting for him.
