PART 5
Camila began crying.
I didn’t comfort her.
“I need you to listen carefully,” I said. “Did you know Vela Azul was billing my company?”
Another pause.
“I knew Mauricio was paying my cousin’s agency for promotion.”
“Promotion of what?”
“My brand.”
“Using my company’s money?”
“I didn’t know where the money came from.”
I believed she might actually be telling the truth about that part.
But ignorance didn’t make her innocent.
It only changed the size of her betrayal.
Then she said something I wasn’t expecting.
“Renata is the one you need to worry about.”
My jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because Mauricio wanted money.”
“And Renata?”
“She wanted your position.”
Laura looked up sharply.
Camila continued.
“I heard them arguing two weeks ago. Mauricio said they should stop after the loan. Renata told him they were already too far in.”
“What did she mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Camila remembered something.
“There’s a folder.”
“What folder?”
“In the desk upstairs at the house. Mauricio told me never to touch it.”
“What does it say?”
“Reorganization.”
Laura stood.
My company was scheduled to hold a management meeting that afternoon.
A meeting Mauricio had insisted was routine.
Suddenly, it wasn’t routine anymore.
Laura opened her email.
Five minutes later, she found the answer.
Attached to a calendar invitation was a draft corporate restructuring plan.
I read it twice before understanding what they had attempted to do.
They planned to claim that several of my recent business trips had made me “functionally unavailable” for day-to-day management.
Mauricio would assume broader executive control.
Renata would become head of operations.
A new vendor-management structure would give them authority over contracts below a certain threshold without my approval.
Vela Azul’s invoices had conveniently been divided into amounts below that threshold.
They weren’t planning one giant theft.
They were building a system that would allow dozens of smaller ones.
The house was only the largest piece.
And Renata wasn’t helping Mauricio because she loved him.
She was helping him because she thought eventually she would be running my company beside him.
That was the betrayal that finally broke something inside me.
Not my heart.
Something harder.
The part of me that had spent years confusing generosity with responsibility.
I closed the laptop.
“What do we do?”
Elena smiled without warmth.
“We let them attend their meeting.”
At 12:40 that afternoon, I walked into our office in Del Valle.
Mauricio was standing near the conference room laughing with two department managers.
When he saw me, all the color disappeared from his face.
“You’re back.”
“My flight was canceled.”
“You should have called.”
“I wanted to surprise you.”
For half a second, he looked almost frightened.
Then he recovered.
He kissed my cheek.
I let him.
“You look exhausted,” he said.
“Long night.”
Renata walked out of the conference room carrying a folder.
She froze.
Then smiled.
“Sis. What are you doing here?”
I looked directly at her.
“I work here.”
She laughed too loudly.
“Obviously.”
Mauricio glanced at Renata.
That tiny glance told me everything.
They were trying to decide how much I knew.
I walked into the conference room.
Elena was already inside.
So was Laura.
And beside them sat an independent forensic accountant Elena had contacted that morning.
Mauricio stopped at the doorway.
“What is this?”
“A management meeting,” I said.
Renata didn’t enter.
I looked at her.
“Come in.”
Nobody moved for several seconds.
Then Mauricio shut the door.
I placed the fake power of attorney on the conference table.
Mauricio looked at it.
Renata stared at me.
I watched her face.
That was how I knew.
Mauricio still thought he could talk his way out.
Renata knew immediately that they were finished.
Mauricio leaned back.
“I can explain that.”
“Please do.”
“It was preliminary.”
“A preliminary forgery?”
His jaw tightened.
“You’re being dramatic.”
Laura placed the Vela Azul payment history beside it.
“Four point eight million pesos.”
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