Chapter 4 - Emilia's Warning
The witness was named Gabriel Serrano.
I hadn't heard his name in eleven years.
Gabriel had been my father's business partner.
He disappeared from our lives shortly after my father's death.
My mother used to say he had betrayed Dad.
But my father never accused him.
Not once.
“Who called you?” I asked.
“Gabriel.”
“Where is he?”
“Mexico City.”
“Why now?”
“He says he has something your father left for you.”
I looked at Renata.
“She just arrived.”
“I know.”
“And already people are digging through my father's records.”
Emilia closed the folder.
“That's why we need to move carefully.”
She sat beside me.
“Mariana, I need you to understand something.”
“What?”
“Your father's trust wasn't only about money.”
“What else was it?”
“Control.”
I frowned.
“Control over what?”
“Who could access his assets.”
I remembered the strange transfers.
The forged documents.
The hidden phone.
Then I remembered something else.
The trust had always been complicated.
My father once told me:
“Money can disappear. Ownership is harder to steal.”
I had never understood.
Now I did.
Rodrigo wasn't trying to steal money.
He was trying to control the structure that owned it.
The next morning, I was discharged.
I returned home with Renata.
The house felt different.
Too quiet.
Too large.
My first instinct was to check the office.
The filing cabinet was open.
The hidden phone was gone.
The documents were gone.
But one thing remained.
A single sheet of paper.
I picked it up.
At the bottom was a handwritten note.
You should have left the past alone.
Emilia took a photograph.
“Don't touch anything else.”
“I didn't.”
We searched the house.
Nothing.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Hello?”
A man's voice spoke.
“Mariana.”
“Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
I sat down.
“Why are you calling?”
“Your father knew this would happen.”
My heart raced.
“What?”
“He knew someone would eventually try to use your marriage against you.”
“Did he know about Rodrigo?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
I stopped breathing.
“How?”
“He investigated him.”
“Before we married?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't he tell me?”
“Because he didn't have proof.”
“Do you?”
“I have something better.”
“What?”
“His final letter.”
My hands trembled.
“Where are you?”
“Not yet.”
“Gabriel.”
“You're being watched.”
I looked around the room.
“By whom?”
“I don't know.”
He lowered his voice.
“But I know this.”
“What?”
“Your father never intended Rodrigo to control anything.”
The call ended.
Emilia stared at me.
“Who was that?”
“Gabriel.”
“What did he say?”
I told her.
She was silent.
Then she walked to the window.
“Mariana.”
“What?”
“Look outside.”
I did.
A black SUV was parked across the street.
Someone sat inside.
“Has it been there before?”
“I don't know.”
Emilia picked up her phone.
“Don't go near it.”
That afternoon, a courier arrived.
He handed me an envelope.
No return address.
Inside was a photograph.
My father stood beside Gabriel.
Behind them was a building I recognized.
My father's old accounting office.
On the back, someone had written:
Look beneath the floor.
I stared at Emilia.
“You've got to be kidding.”
She didn't smile.
“Does that office still exist?”
“Yes.”
“Then we're going.”
We drove there that evening.
The building was abandoned.
Dust covered the windows.
Inside, the old furniture remained.
My father's desk.
His bookshelf.
His filing cabinet.
Everything untouched.
I walked into his office.
For the first time in eleven years, I smelled the old wood.
I cried.
Emilia touched my shoulder.
“Take your time.”
I didn't.
I went straight to the floor.
“Where?”
I remembered my father once telling me that the strongest safe was the one nobody knew existed.
There was a loose wooden panel beneath his desk.
I lifted it.
Underneath was a metal box.
My hands shook.
I opened it.
Inside was a small USB drive.
A sealed envelope.
And a handwritten note.
For Mariana. Only after they try to take what belongs to you.
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph of Rodrigo.
Not from our wedding.
Not from our first year.
It was older.
Much older.
Rodrigo stood beside another man.
I didn't recognize the man.
But I recognized the building behind them.
RC Desarrollos del Pacífico.
The company receiving my money.
My father had known about it.
Emilia took the photograph.
“There's more.”
She pointed to the back.
A date.
Seven years before my wedding.
I stared at Rodrigo's younger face.
He had known my family before he met me.
But there was something else.
Written beneath his name were four words:
Do not trust him.
I reached for the USB.
Before I could open it, my phone rang.
Rodrigo.
I answered.
“What do you want?”
His voice was calm.
“Come home.”
“Why?”
“Because someone broke into your father's old office.”
I froze.
“How do you know?”
Silence.
Then he said:
“I think you already know.”
The call ended.
Emilia looked at me.
“He knows where you are.”
Then the building lights suddenly came on.
We turned.
At the end of the hallway stood a man.
May you like
He held a key.
And he said my name...
