Chapter 17 - THE LAST CONTRACT
Andrew’s threat sounded desperate.
But Mariana searched anyway.
The old partnership archive contained hundreds of contracts.
Most were irrelevant.
Then Evelyn found a sealed addendum signed by both Charles and Rafael.
It concerned a waterfront property purchased jointly during their partnership.
The land had become enormously valuable.
More importantly, it now housed Escalante Capital’s largest East Coast logistics terminal.
The addendum gave Charles’s estate a conditional ownership interest.
If Rafael had concealed partnership profits, Charles’s heirs could claim half the property.
Andrew intended to argue exactly that.
Victor had prepared the case.
If Andrew could not keep his company, he would attack Rafael’s.
For two days, accountants reconstructed twenty-two years of transactions.
Mariana worked beside them.
She was still furious with her father.
But truth mattered more than fury.
The books revealed Rafael had not concealed profits.
Charles had.
The missing money had been transferred into three accounts.
One account funded Charles’s private residence.
One covered gambling losses.
The third was harder to trace.
Eventually, Mariana found it.
Payments had gone to Margaret.
Not after Charles died.
Before.
For years, Charles had secretly transferred partnership money into accounts controlled by his wife.
Margaret knew.
Maybe not everything.
But enough.
When confronted, Margaret stopped denying it.
“I wanted security.”
She whispered.
“Charles told me Rafael was preparing to destroy us.”
“So you helped him hide money?”
Mariana asked.
Margaret began crying.
“I had a child.”
“I was afraid.”
Mariana looked at Andrew.
He stood several feet away.
His entire childhood mythology had collapsed.
His father had not been a betrayed genius.
His mother had not been an innocent widow.
Mariana’s father had not stolen the family empire.
The empire had been rotting long before Mariana arrived.
Andrew sat down.
For the first time, he looked small.
“Did you ever love me?”
Mariana asked.
Andrew looked at her.
“Yes.”
The answer came quickly.
Then his eyes dropped.
“At first.”
Mariana waited.
Andrew swallowed.
“Then I started needing you.”
“And I hated needing anyone.”
That was the closest thing to truth he had given her.
Mariana nodded.
“And instead of becoming stronger, you tried to make me weaker.”
Andrew had no answer.
Outside, detectives waited to speak with him again.
Before he left, Andrew looked back.
“What happens to the mansion?”
Mariana glanced toward Margaret.
Then toward the old family photographs.
“It gets sold.”
Margaret gasped.
Andrew closed his eyes.
But Mariana had not finished.
“And the proceeds will cover employee pensions your father stole from.”
Margaret stared at her.
The palace they had used to measure everyone else’s worth was about to repay the people who had quietly paid for it decades earlier.
Then Brenda’s attorney called.
Brenda was ready to testify.
May you like
But she wanted something in return.
One private meeting with Mariana.
