Chapter 10 - The Second Account
Lucia’s papers gave them what the recording could not.
Fifteen years earlier, Northside Clinic had offered a treatment without proper approval. Several patients suffered serious complications. Rather than fully disclose what had happened, the clinic arranged private payments to the affected families.
Esther chaired the clinic’s board. Alejandro’s father had approved money from the family foundation to fund the settlements. Lucia managed the payroll records that tracked the payments.
Then she found that some families had never been paid.
Marisol matched Lucia’s codes to the old bank records. The missing funds had moved into a second account controlled by Gabriel.
“Where did the money go after that?” Alejandro asked.
Marisol followed another set of transfers. Her face changed.
“Into the trust for your future children.”
Valeria joined the meeting by video from her hospital room. “Esther used money owed to those families to build our baby’s trust?”
“That’s what the records show,” Tessa said.
Gabriel walked into the police station that evening with his attorney. He admitted helping move the money and signing Esther’s false statement about Valeria.
He also spoke about Lucia’s last night.
After the argument, Lucia had driven away with the ledger. Esther demanded that Gabriel follow her in the company car.
“It was raining hard,” Gabriel told detectives. “We caught up near the bend.”
“Did your car strike hers?”
“I felt something. I couldn’t see where our cars were.”
“Did you stop?”
Gabriel lowered his eyes. “Esther told me to keep driving.”
The old crash investigation was reopened.
When Alejandro told Valeria, she sat quietly for a long time.
“She knew my mother died that night,” Valeria said. “And she used it to scare me into signing away our daughter.”
Alejandro had no words that could make it smaller.
His phone rang. It was Esther.
“I need to speak to you alone,” she said.
May you like
Alejandro looked at Valeria.
“No,” he told his mother. “You don’t.”
