Chapter 15 - THE PHONE UNDER THE BED
Police collected the phone immediately.
It contained more than videos.
There were photographs of Mariana’s documents.
Recordings of private conversations.
Images of her passport.
Bank correspondence.
Trust mail.
Even photographs of handwritten notes from meetings she had attended.
Andrew had been monitoring her for nearly a year.
Some recordings were harmless.
Others were not.
In one, Andrew discussed Mariana’s trust structure with Victor.
In another, he complained that Mariana refused to sign documents without reading them.
Then investigators found the most disturbing recording.
Andrew and Brenda were speaking inside the mansion study.
Brenda asked.
“What happens if she finds out?”
Andrew answered.
“She won’t.”
“And if she does?”
A pause followed.
Then Andrew said.
“She loves me.”
“She’ll believe whatever version hurts less.”
Mariana listened once.
Never again.
For four years, she had wondered whether she had failed her marriage.
Now she understood.
She had been trying to repair something Andrew had been quietly dismantling.
The phone also contained evidence Andrew knew Brenda was stealing files.
He believed she was doing it for him.
He did not know she kept copies for herself.
The conspiracy widened.
Police obtained a warrant for Andrew’s office.
Financial investigators seized laptops and drives.
News networks surrounded the building.
Andrew’s board demanded his resignation.
He refused.
Then a worse blow came.
One of the seized files showed Andrew had planned to transfer the company’s most profitable logistics division into a new corporation immediately after Mariana signed the spousal agreement.
That new corporation would have been owned by Andrew.
Victor.
And a silent third partner.
The third partner’s name was hidden behind an offshore company.
At first, no one could identify it.
Then Evelyn traced a payment.
The beneficiary was connected to Brenda.
But Brenda was not the owner.
Margaret was not the owner.
Neither was Charles’s estate.
The actual beneficiary was a company belonging to Peter Lang.
Andrew’s personal attorney.
The man defending him in court.
The man advising him during every emergency.
Peter had been preparing to take part of the empire for himself.
When Andrew learned the truth, he exploded.
He called Peter seventeen times.
No answer.
Then his office assistant walked in.
“Sir.”
“You need to see the news.”
Peter Lang had just appeared at the federal courthouse.
Not as Andrew’s attorney.
May you like
As a cooperating witness.
And he was carrying three boxes of evidence.
