Chapter 3 - Eleven Months of Lies
Alejandro read the message twice.
Then he stopped trying to defend himself.
“I was angry.”
I almost smiled.
“That phrase has rescued a lot of cowards.”
“It was a private conversation.”
“With your mistress.”
“Yes.”
“About your wife.”
He looked at me.
“I know how it sounds.”
“No.”
I stood.
“You know how it looks now that you need something from me.”
“That isn’t fair.”
“Stop saying that.”
My voice cracked across the room.
For once, Alejandro listened.
“For eleven months, you lied to me.”
I stepped toward him.
“You came home from hotels and climbed into our bed.”
“You let me sit across from Camila at dinners.”
“You watched your mother criticize me while the woman you were sleeping with wore jewelry you bought with money from our joint household.”
His face tightened.
“I never used your money.”
“That is the part you want to defend?”
He said nothing.
I turned away.
Anger had finally arrived.
Not the cold anger from the restaurant.
This was different.
This hurt.
The article on the television.
The stolen file.
Ricardo.
The financing.
All of it was enormous.
But one ugly email had managed to cut through everything.
VALERIA DOESN’T UNDERSTAND BUSINESS.
For three years, Alejandro had believed I was intellectually beneath him.
I had thought my anonymity protected our marriage.
Instead, it had given him permission to underestimate me.
Dad approached quietly.
“You don’t have to handle this today.”
“Yes, I do.”
I wiped my eyes before the tears could fall.
“If I leave now, they win.”
Alejandro’s face changed.
“Valeria.”
“Not you.”
I looked at the television.
“Whoever planned this.”
Gabriel returned with another file.
“We found financial transfers.”
Dad took it.
“Between Ricardo and Camila?”
“Not directly.”
He placed the papers on the desk.
A consulting company called Serrano Strategic Communications had received seven payments over the previous fourteen months.
The client was an investment vehicle registered in Delaware.
The investment vehicle was controlled by another company.
That company was owned by a trust.
The trust’s beneficiary was Ricardo Salazar’s brother-in-law.
My father’s expression turned grim.
“How much?”
“Nearly eight hundred thousand dollars.”
Alejandro stared.
“For what?”
Gabriel looked at him.
“That’s what we’re trying to determine.”
I already had an idea.
“Influence.”
Everyone looked at me.
“Camila was paid to get close to someone.”
Alejandro’s face hardened.
“You think she was paid to sleep with me?”
“I think she was paid to influence you.”
“That’s insane.”
“Is it?”
I pointed at the television.
“She met you through Ricardo.”
“She encouraged you to complain about your company.”
“She learned your financing problems.”
“She had access to emails you sent her.”
“She knew enough about our marriage to attack me publicly.”
“And last night she entered Vanguardia headquarters with Ricardo.”
I paused.
“Which part sounds accidental?”
Alejandro sank onto the sofa.
Beatriz looked almost frightened.
“She manipulated him.”
I looked at her.
“He still made choices.”
“He was targeted.”
“So was I.”
Her voice softened.
“You don’t understand what mothers feel when their sons are in danger.”
I laughed.
“You spent three years making sure I understood exactly how little you thought of me.”
“That has nothing to do with this.”
“It has everything to do with this.”
I stepped closer.
“You protected Camila because you preferred her.”
Beatriz’s eyes widened.
“I did not.”
“You knew enough to suspect the affair.”
“You said nothing.”
“You welcomed her into your home.”
“You invited her to charity dinners.”
“You told me she dressed with sophistication.”
I watched shame appear in her expression.
“And now that the woman you preferred may have helped sabotage your family’s company, you want me to separate the two.”
Beatriz looked down.
For once, she had no answer.
My father’s phone rang.
He answered immediately.
“Yes?”
His eyes narrowed.
“When?”
He listened.
“Send it.”
Then he disconnected.
“What happened?” I asked.
“The board has called an emergency meeting.”
I checked the clock.
“Today?”
“Eleven thirty.”
“Who requested it?”
“Ricardo.”
“That’s impossible.”
“He submitted the request before boarding his flight.”
Of course he had.
The board rules allowed an executive vice president to request a review of any transaction involving a potential conflict of interest.
“He wants me removed from the De la Vega vote.”
“Yes.”
Alejandro stood.
“Then I’ll withdraw the financing request.”
Beatriz turned.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“If withdrawing protects Valeria’s position, we withdraw.”
For a second, I did not recognize him.
His mother certainly did not.
She grabbed his arm.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Our project is not worth destroying her career.”
Beatriz stared at him.
“Our project is your family’s future.”
“It was my affair that put her in this position.”
“No.”
Her voice sharpened.
“That woman manipulated you.”
“I still cheated.”
Silence.
Alejandro pulled his arm away.
“I still lied.”
I studied him.
That was the first time since the divorce that he had accepted responsibility without adding an excuse.
It did not repair anything.
But I noticed.
My father noticed too.
Then Elena’s laptop chimed.
She opened a new email.
Her eyes widened.
“Valeria.”
“What?”
“You need to see this.”
She turned the screen.
An anonymous email had been sent to every Grupo Vanguardia board member.
Subject line.
PROOF OF UNDISCLOSED CONFLICT.
Attached was a photograph.
Alejandro and me.
Not from our wedding.
Not from our marriage.
From three nights earlier.
The evening before the divorce became final.
We were standing outside the courthouse parking structure after signing our last papers.
Alejandro’s hand was on my shoulder.
The photograph made it look intimate.
Almost affectionate.
But I remembered the moment.
I had stumbled on the curb.
He had caught me.
Nothing more.
Someone had been watching.
The email included a sentence beneath the photograph.
MS. MENDOZA CONTINUES A SECRET PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE DE LA VEGA HEIR WHILE CONTROLLING HIS FAMILY’S FINANCING REQUEST.
Dad looked at me.
“They’ve been following you.”
The room suddenly felt smaller.
Gabriel immediately spoke into his radio.
“Lock the property.”
Alejandro moved toward the window.
I grabbed his sleeve.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
A security officer rushed into the room.
“Sir.”
Dad turned.
“What?”
“We found a vehicle parked across the street.”
“Press?”
“No.”
The officer’s expression tightened.
“It left when we approached.”
“What vehicle?”
“Gray Audi.”
My stomach dropped.
I knew that car.
I had seen it twice outside my apartment.
Once the night I moved in.
Once after Alejandro came to my door.
I had assumed it belonged to a neighbor.
Now I understood.
Someone had not started watching me after the restaurant.
They had been watching before the divorce.
May you like
And suddenly, I had a much more disturbing question.
If Camila had been hired to get close to Alejandro because of the De la Vega project, why had someone also been monitoring me before anyone supposedly knew who my father was?
