Chapter 12 - THE WOMAN SHE WAS GOING TO BE
The passport photograph wasn’t mine.
It was Stella’s.
My name sat beneath her face.
The document was evidence of another layer of fraud, not proof that she had successfully traveled with it.
That distinction mattered to Suarez.
To me, the face was enough.
“She was going to become me.”
“Or use your identity for another transaction,” he said. “We’re establishing the intended use.”
Inside the same packet were copies of my credentials, altered bank forms, and the forged property authorization.
There was also a clinic letter.
The one Marco had seen.
The one Stella had used to convince him she was carrying his child.
Investigators had confirmed that the clinic had never issued it.
Her claimed pregnancy was another tool.
I stared at the photographs spread across the table.
My whole life reduced to documents somebody else could rearrange.
Nina touched my shoulder.
“Now we can show how they did it.”
Later that day, Stella requested a formal cooperation interview.
She wanted legal advice.
She wanted protection.
And, predictably, she wanted to explain why everyone else was worse.
I wasn’t in the interview room.
I didn’t need to be.
My questions went through the investigators.
Her answers came back in pieces that could be checked.
Victor organized the movement of money.
Marco authorized fraudulent invoices and recruited contacts from work.
Stella approached workers through social groups and referrals.
She had lied to Marco about the pregnancy.
But he had known about the stolen money.
He had also known they were using my credentials.
There was no innocent version of him waiting beneath the paperwork.
That evening, Nina brought me a message from Marco’s attorney.
He wanted me to know that he had never intended for me to be hurt.
I read it once.
Then I set it down.
“What do you want to say?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing is an answer.”
For months, I had wanted an explanation.
Now I understood how often an explanation was just a person asking you to make their choices easier to live with.
Suarez called before dinner.
Stella had identified the next planned transfer.
Money was due to leave an intermediary account the following morning.
Victor still controlled the instruction.
The records pointed to more than what had already vanished.
May you like
There was money left to save.
And fewer than twelve hours before it could move again.
