Chapter 11 - The Price of Believing
I did not take her phone.
I called Mendoza.
“If she wants to provide evidence, let’s do it properly,” he said. “No promises. No deals in a hotel lobby.”
Valerie listened with her lips pressed together.
“He’s going to ruin me.”
“You helped him try to ruin me,” I said.
“I know.”
“No. You know he might do it to you. That’s different.”
She looked down.
I almost left.
Then I thought about the guarantee.
About forty-three employees.
About my mother’s name on a folder in Anton’s drawer.
We went to Mendoza’s office the next morning.
Valerie brought her own attorney.
That mattered.
I didn’t want a desperate confession she could later claim I had forced from her.
The recording was a voice message Anton had sent her.
His voice filled the room.
“Clara signed enough paperwork while her mother was sick that she won’t remember every page. Stop panicking. The witness line is what matters.”
My hand tightened around the arm of the chair.
The message continued.
“She wants to act like a victim? Fine. Let her explain why her signature is on a guarantee. She’ll settle before she risks her job again.”
Mendoza stopped the playback.
No one moved.
Valerie wiped her cheek.
“He told me you knew.”
“About what?” I asked.
“The money. The guarantee. He said you were playing innocent because you wanted everything back.”
“Everything back?”
My voice sounded strange.
“He took it, Valerie.”
She nodded.
The word she couldn’t seem to say sat between us.
Stole.
Her attorney provided messages, invoices, and instructions Anton had sent about Vantage.
The records did not make Valerie innocent.
They made the scheme clearer.
She had approved false invoices.
She had received money.
She had spent it.
But she also had emails showing Anton directing the transfers and telling her what to write.
Then Owen called.
The lender’s digital records showed the guarantee had been uploaded from Anton’s office.
The signature page came from a different scan than the rest of the agreement.
A document examiner would need to review it.
But the pieces were beginning to fit.
For the first time, I could see a way out.
Then Mendoza received a message from company counsel.
He read it twice.
“What?” I asked.
He turned the screen toward me.
Anton had contacted the company’s largest client.
May you like
He was offering to move their contract to a new business.
One registered in his own name.
