Chapter 7 - The Account They Thought Was Empty
I grabbed Renata from her crib.
Emilia arrived minutes later.
We checked every room.
Nobody was there.
But the front door was unlocked.
Rodrigo was gone.
The next morning, I changed every lock.
Then I moved important documents into Emilia's office.
We began reconstructing my father's records.
Every transfer.
Every company.
Every signature.
Every date.
The numbers told a story.
Rodrigo had moved money through four accounts.
Each transfer was small enough to avoid immediate attention.
Together, they totaled more than three million pesos.
But there was another account.
One I didn't recognize.
It belonged to a company called Salgado Holdings.
Gabriel looked at it.
Then smiled.
“That's your father's.”
“I thought he closed it.”
“He wanted people to think he did.”
“Why?”
“Because it held the evidence.”
We went to the bank.
The account had been dormant for eleven years.
But it still existed.
And it contained something shocking.
Not money.
Shares.
Shares worth far more than anything Rodrigo had tried to take.
The bank manager gave us a sealed envelope.
“Your father instructed us to release this only to Mariana Salgado after the birth of her first child.”
I stared at the envelope.
“Why after the birth?”
The manager shrugged.
“I don't know.”
I opened it.
Inside was a letter.
My father's handwriting.
My daughter,
If you're reading this, then Renata has been born.
That means the next stage has begun.
I stopped.
Emilia read over my shoulder.
There are people who believe they can take what belongs to our family by creating debt.
They will make you believe you're trapped.
You are not.
My eyes filled with tears.
Then I read the next paragraph.
The most dangerous person will not be the one who threatens you.
It will be the one who convinces you that you need him.
I closed my eyes.
Rodrigo.
The letter continued.
Do not fight them until you know what they want.
Let them reveal themselves.
I looked at Emilia.
“That sounds like you.”
She smiled.
“Your father and I would have gotten along.”
The final paragraph made my heart race.
There is one document they need. They believe it is in the house.
Let them search.
I stared at the page.
“What document?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Then the bank manager handed me another envelope.
“This was attached.”
Inside was a key.
A tiny brass key.
No label.
No explanation.
We returned home.
I searched my father's old furniture.
Nothing.
Then Renata began crying.
I went to her room.
The key was still in my hand.
I looked around.
Her crib.
Her dresser.
The wall.
Then I noticed something.
A small wooden panel behind the crib.
I moved it.
There was a lock.
My hand shook.
The key fit.
Inside was a compartment.
And inside that compartment was a file.
The title was simple.
RODRIGO CÁRDENAS.
I opened it.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Old messages.
Then one document.
A contract dated seven years before I met him.
Rodrigo had signed it.
I read the first page.
Then the second.
On the third page was a name.
A woman.
Someone Rodrigo had been involved with before our marriage.
But the document wasn't about an affair.
It was about money.
He had received a payment from her.
For information about my father's company.
I stared at the amount.
Then at the date.
The payment had been made six months before Rodrigo first approached me.
I felt dizzy.
He hadn't met me by accident.
He had been looking for me.
I turned the page.
There was another photograph.
Rodrigo standing beside Ofelia.
And another man.
The same man from the photograph in my father's office.
Underneath it was a handwritten note.
He was chosen because of her.
I didn't understand.
Then Emilia picked up the photograph.
Her face went pale.
“Mariana.”
“What?”
“I know that man.”
“Who is he?”
She looked at me.
“It's Varela's brother.”
The same man who had been listed in my father's investigation.
And then my phone received a message from Rodrigo.
I know you found the file.
May you like
A second message arrived.
Now you need to decide whether you want to know what really happened to your father.
