Chapter 5 - THE PRICE OF A GOOD WIFE
“I didn’t know about Stella,” his mother said.
“That wasn’t my question.”
She sat down slowly.
For the first time, she looked old.
“He said the house was wasted on you alone.”
My throat tightened.
“He said you would move somewhere smaller after the separation.”
“After he told me?”
She said nothing.
Nina placed the document on the table.
“Elena won’t sign this.”
His mother looked at me.
“He’s my son.”
“And I was the woman paying his bills.”
“You think money makes you innocent?”
“No. I think the truth does.”
She stood.
At the door, she turned back.
“If you loved him, you wouldn’t let strangers destroy him.”
I opened the door wider.
“If he loved me, you wouldn’t be holding that paper.”
After she left, I cried in the bathroom with the faucet running.
Nina didn’t tell me to stop.
She waited outside.
When I came out, she handed me a towel.
“Love makes people sign terrible things,” she said. “Shame makes them hide it. We’re not doing either anymore.”
We submitted the property documents to Suarez and arranged a formal review of the title and any attempted transactions.
Then I went back through Marco’s messages.
Buried between photographs of office dinners was a voice note from eight months earlier.
“Babe, a company reimbursement might come through our account. Just leave it there. Accounting made a mistake.”
I checked the date.
The payment had arrived two days later.
Then moved out while I was at work.
I had assumed Marco corrected it.
Now I looked at the amount.
Nine thousand eight hundred dollars.
The first payment in the chain.
I forwarded the recording to Nina.
At 11:43 that night, an unknown number called.
I almost ignored it.
Then a man spoke.
“Mrs. Valderama?”
“Who is this?”
“My name is Daniel Cruz. I worked in accounts payable under your husband.”
I sat up.
“How did you get my number?”
“From an emergency contact form. I’m sorry.”
“What do you want?”
“I saw what they’re saying about you.”
Outside, a vehicle rolled slowly past my gate.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“You didn’t build that system.”
“Who did?”
“I can show you. But I need you to understand something.”
The vehicle stopped.
May you like
Its lights went dark.
“Your husband wasn’t the one who started it.”
