Chapter 1 - The Name on the Screen
For several seconds, nobody in my father’s study moved.
Camila Serrano’s name remained on the tablet like a lit match dropped into gasoline.
Alejandro stared at it.
Beatriz stared at me.
My father stared at neither of them.
He was watching the clock on the wall.
That was what Arturo Mendoza did when something serious happened.
He became quieter.
More precise.
More dangerous.
Alejandro finally stood.
“That can’t be right.”
I kept my eyes on the tablet.
“The security system says she accessed the folder at 2:13 this morning.”
“She doesn’t work for Grupo Vanguardia.”
“Exactly.”
Beatriz’s fingers tightened around the strap of her handbag.
“Perhaps someone used her name.”
My father looked at her.
“Internal accounts cannot be created with a name alone.”
Beatriz swallowed.
Arturo continued.
“The user needs an employee identification number, biometric confirmation, and remote security authorization.”
Alejandro’s face went pale.
“So someone inside your company helped her.”
“That would be the obvious conclusion.”
I scrolled farther down.
There was more.
The access had lasted four minutes and thirty-seven seconds.
Camila had opened only one file.
The De la Vega financing proposal.
Then she had downloaded only one page.
The authorization page containing my name.
Nothing else.
Not the debt analysis.
Not the collateral schedule.
Not the risk assessment.
Just the page proving I controlled the vote that could destroy or rescue Alejandro’s company.
That made the reason obvious.
Camila had not been looking for financial information.
She had been looking for me.
Alejandro stepped closer.
“Why would she need that page?”
I looked at him.
“You tell me.”
His expression hardened.
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve been sleeping with her for eleven months.”
Beatriz flinched.
Alejandro looked toward my father.
“This is private.”
Arturo’s voice remained calm.
“You came into my house to discuss financing after cheating on my daughter.”
Alejandro said nothing.
“I’m afraid you surrendered your right to privacy when your mistress entered my company’s confidential systems.”
Beatriz rose.
“This accusation is becoming ridiculous.”
Dad looked at her.
“Sit down.”
Beatriz froze.
I had seen powerful men obey my father when he used that tone.
Apparently, Beatriz de la Vega was no different.
She slowly returned to the sofa.
My father’s assistant, Elena Ruiz, entered again.
Her expression told me the situation had worsened.
“Elena?”
“We traced the login.”
“Where?”
She hesitated.
“Grupo Vanguardia headquarters.”
That surprised even my father.
Alejandro turned sharply.
“Camila was physically inside the building?”
“No.”
Elena placed another report on the table.
“The access came from Executive Conference Room Fourteen.”
Dad’s jaw tightened.
That room required executive-level authorization.
Only directors, committee members, senior legal officers, and selected assistants could enter after midnight.
Someone had not merely given Camila a password.
Someone had opened the building for her.
I looked at the list of employees who had accessed the fourteenth floor overnight.
There were six names.
Five meant nothing to Alejandro.
The sixth did.
He reached for the report before I could stop him.
His eyes found the name.
Then his hand went still.
I knew the name too.
Everybody in Mexico’s development industry knew it.
Ricardo Salazar.
Executive Vice President of Strategic Projects at Grupo Vanguardia.
And until eighteen months earlier, one of my father’s most trusted friends.
Alejandro whispered, “Salazar?”
Dad’s face revealed nothing.
But I remembered the arguments.
The closed office doors.
The board meetings that suddenly disappeared from my calendar.
Ricardo had once wanted my position.
Chair of the Strategic Investment Committee.
He had publicly congratulated me when Dad gave it to me.
Privately, he had called the decision sentimental.
I looked at my father.
“You suspected him?”
“I suspected ambition.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
Dad stepped toward the window.
“I did not know he was willing to betray the company.”
Alejandro took out his phone.
I watched him.
“Who are you calling?”
“Camila.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“She could explain this.”
“She could also destroy evidence the second she realizes we know.”
His thumb stopped over the screen.
I held out my hand.
“Give me your phone.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You don’t control me anymore.”
“No.”
I smiled without warmth.
“But apparently Camila does.”
That landed.
He put the phone down.
Elena’s phone vibrated.
She read the message.
Her face changed.
“What?”
She looked at my father.
“Security found Ricardo Salazar’s office empty.”
Dad’s expression hardened.
“And?”
“His company laptop is gone.”
A cold feeling crawled across my skin.
Elena continued.
“He boarded a flight to Miami at 6:40 this morning.”
Alejandro cursed under his breath.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I almost ignored it.
Something made me answer.
“Hello?”
For two seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Camila’s voice came through.
“You should have stayed anonymous, Valeria.”
My blood turned cold.
“Camila.”
Alejandro’s head snapped toward me.
I put the call on speaker.
Camila laughed softly.
“You finally told your husband who Daddy is.”
“Ex-husband.”
“Not for long.”
I looked at Alejandro.
He looked confused.
“What does that mean?”
Camila ignored him.
“Check the news in ten minutes.”
The call ended.
I immediately called her back.
Disconnected.
My father walked toward the television.
“Elena.”
She already had the remote.
The business channel appeared.
Nothing.
Thirty seconds passed.
Then the breaking-news banner changed.
DESARROLLOS DE LA VEGA IN SECRET FINANCING TALKS WITH GRUPO VANGUARDIA.
A second headline appeared underneath.
MENDOZA HEIRESS ALLEGEDLY PRESSURED TO RESCUE EX-HUSBAND’S COMPANY.
I stopped breathing.
Then came the photograph.
Me.
Alejandro.
Our wedding day.
And beneath it was a sentence that made the entire room go silent.
SOURCES CLAIM VALERIA MENDOZA GARCÍA CONCEALED HER ROLE AT VANGUARDIA WHILE MARRIED INTO THE DE LA VEGA FAMILY.
The story was not merely attacking the financing proposal.
It was attacking me.
And someone had released it less than eight hours after Camila downloaded my authorization page.
Alejandro looked at the television.
Then at me.
“She’s trying to make it look like you manipulated the deal.”
“No.”
My father’s voice was colder than I had ever heard it.
“She’s trying to make Valeria too compromised to vote.”
I understood immediately.
If the board believed my personal relationship created a conflict of interest, I could be forced to recuse myself.
And if I lost my vote, Ricardo Salazar could control the committee.
I looked at the blue folder sitting between Alejandro and me.
Suddenly, the financing proposal was no longer about whether I wanted to save my ex-husband.
May you like
Someone else wanted control of the answer.
And they were willing to destroy me to get it.
