Chapter 12
Beatriz requested to speak with me.
Rafael told me not to go.
Grace told me she would personally lock me in the pantry if I went alone.
So I went with Rafael.
And two recording devices.
The meeting took place in a lawyer’s office overlooking the marina.
Beatriz wore navy.
Not white this time.
White had failed.
Now she wanted serious.
Her lawyer, Álvaro, began with sympathy.
“This has become damaging for everyone.”
Rafael replied, “It became damaging when a child was abused.”
Beatriz closed her eyes like she was enduring something unfair.
“Ivan,” she said softly. “I made mistakes.”
I said nothing.
“I was lonely while you were gone.”
Still nothing.
“I felt like a nanny in my own marriage.”
My hands folded under the table.
“I loved Isabella,” she said.
That made me look at her.
She saw movement and mistook it for weakness.
“I did. But she rejected me. She worships Lucia. No matter what I did, I was always second to a dead woman.”
I leaned forward.
“You were not competing with Lucia. You were responsible for her child.”
Beatriz’s mouth tightened.
“She made that child impossible.”
There she was.
The truth under the apology.
Rafael wrote something down.
Beatriz noticed.
Her voice sharpened.
“You think I’m the monster? Lucia’s family never accepted me. Your staff watched me struggle. You left me alone with a child who hated me.”
“Did Isabella hate you before or after you made her drag garbage?”
She flinched.
Álvaro interrupted.
“We are prepared to discuss a settlement.”
“No,” I said.
He blinked.
“No?”
“No settlement.”
Beatriz stared.
“Ivan, be reasonable.”
“I am.”
“You’re destroying my life.”
I looked at her.
“You put blisters on my daughter’s hands.”
Her face twisted.
“You care more about those hands than your wife.”
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
I stood.
Beatriz’s eyes turned cold.
“If I go down, I won’t go alone.”
Rafael paused.
“Meaning?”
She looked at me.
“Ask your company who really leaked the trust files.”
May you like
Then she smiled.
“Your house has more traitors than you think.”
