Chapter 3 - The Drawer He Should Never Have Opened
I called Sofía immediately.
“Daniel opened my jewelry box.”
“Do not go back alone.”
“My financial backup is inside it.”
“Then definitely do not go back alone.”
We contacted building security.
The property manager knew me because every maintenance bill had always been in my name.
He agreed to escort us upstairs.
When I entered the apartment that afternoon, the smell of seafood was gone.
So was the food.
The dining room had been cleaned.
Carmen sat on the sofa with her arms crossed.
Daniel stood by the window.
Valeria was nowhere in sight.
“You brought a lawyer into our home?” Carmen asked.
“My home.”
Her face hardened.
Daniel stepped toward me.
“Can we stop this performance?”
Sofía moved slightly between us.
“Mr. Ortega, please maintain your distance.”
He laughed.
“This is my wife.”
“Not an ownership document.”
I almost smiled.
Daniel didn't.
I walked toward the bedroom.
My jewelry box was open.
The flash drive was missing.
“Where is it?”
Daniel leaned against the door.
“What?”
“You know exactly what.”
He shrugged.
“Maybe you misplaced it.”
I turned toward him.
“You sent me a picture of this box.”
“So?”
“So now we document that you had access.”
His expression changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
Fear.
Sofía saw it too.
We took photographs of everything.
The opened drawers.
The missing drive.
The empty place where my laptop backup had been stored.
Then building security informed us that Daniel had carried a black messenger bag downstairs that morning.
Daniel claimed it contained gym clothes.
I said nothing.
Sofía did.
“We will request preservation of the security footage.”
Carmen stood.
“This is ridiculous.”
“No,” I said.
“What was ridiculous was making a three-year-old sit on a balcony with stale bread while six adults ate lobster.”
Carmen rolled her eyes.
“You're still talking about that?”
Everything inside me went still.
“Yes.”
“Children need discipline.”
“Was she denied dinner often?”
Daniel interrupted.
“Don't answer that, Mom.”
The room went silent.
Carmen looked at him.
I looked at Sofía.
She had heard it too.
Daniel had just told his mother not to answer a question about my daughter being denied food.
Not because the accusation was absurd.
Because he was afraid of the answer.
I retrieved clothes for Camila and myself.
As we prepared to leave, Roberto appeared from the hallway.
My father-in-law had barely spoken since I arrived.
He looked older than he had two days earlier.
“Mariana.”
I stopped.
He glanced at Carmen.
Then Daniel.
Then at me.
“There is something you don't know.”
Carmen stood so quickly her wine glass nearly fell.
“Roberto.”
He ignored her.
“The money you gave us every month.”
His voice shook.
“It wasn't all being spent on Camila.”
I waited.
May you like
Roberto swallowed.
“Almost none of it was.”
