Chapter 14 - THE RECORDING SHE FORGOT ABOUT
Beatriz realized too late that I had placed my phone on the table.
She stared at it.
“Are you recording me?”
“Yes.”
Her face hardened.
“You came here pretending to talk.”
“No.”
I stood.
“I came here hoping you’d finally tell the truth.”
She reached for the phone.
I picked it up first.
“You can’t use that.”
“That will be for the lawyers to determine.”
Her voice rose.
“You think you’re perfect?”
“No.”
“I raised Isabella while you traveled.”
“Rosa helped raise Isabella.”
“I was her mother.”
“You were supposed to protect her.”
Beatriz laughed bitterly.
“She never wanted me.”
“She didn’t have to want a replacement mother.”
“She disrespected me.”
“She was eight.”
“She ignored me.”
“She was eight.”
“She challenged me.”
“She was eight.”
The repetition finally stopped her.
I looked at the woman I had married three years earlier.
I remembered how kind she had seemed with Isabella.
How patient.
How careful.
Now I wondered how much of that kindness had been designed for me to see.
Beatriz lowered her voice.
“You’re going to destroy me over chores.”
“No.”
I slipped my phone into my pocket.
“You did that yourself.”
Her expression changed.
I walked toward the door.
Then she said my name.
I stopped.
“You need to know something about Lucas.”
I turned.
“He has copies.”
“Of what?”
“Company records.”
“What records?”
“Your Dubai project.”
My eyes narrowed.
“He said if anything went wrong, he could make it look like you moved money through offshore contracts.”
I stared at her.
“Did you give him access?”
She looked away.
That was the answer.
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“How much access?”
“I said I don’t know.”
I walked back toward the table.
“You handed confidential corporate information to a man you were secretly moving money with?”
“He promised me security.”
“You already had security.”
“No.”
Her eyes filled.
“You had security.”
I felt nothing.
Not sympathy.
Not satisfaction.
Only clarity.
Beatriz had been willing to risk my company.
My reputation.
My daughter’s future.
All because she wanted leverage.
Then she whispered.
“There’s one file Lucas can’t know you have.”
“What file?”
May you like
She swallowed.
“The Madrid folder.”
