Chapter 3 - The Money Beneath the Marriage
I stared at Mateo's message until the words blurred.
For three years, I had slept beside that man.
I had trusted him with passwords, documents, family secrets, and the fragile parts of myself I never showed anyone else.
Now he was warning me to stop investigating the company he had asked me to audit.
Andrés took the phone from my hand.
“Don't answer.”
“I wasn't going to.”
“You were thinking about it.”
I looked at him.
“I was thinking about asking him why.”
Jimena shook her head.
“People who know they're innocent usually want answers. People who know they're exposed usually want silence.”
The sentence stayed with me.
That evening, we reviewed every transfer I had found.
Twenty-eight million pesos.
Three companies.
One recurring pattern.
Every payment passed through an account controlled by a nonprofit connected to the Ledesma family.
But the final destination was different.
A private trust.
And the beneficiary of that trust was not Teresa.
Not Mateo.
It was someone named Gabriel Ledesma.
I had never heard the name.
“Who is Gabriel?” I asked.
Andrés looked at Jimena.
She slowly closed the folder.
“Mateo's older brother.”
My chest tightened.
“Mateo never told me he had a brother.”
“He doesn't have one.”
I stared at them.
Jimena continued.
“Gabriel died twenty-one years ago.”
Silence filled the room.
“Then why is money going to him?”
“We don't know.”
Andrés leaned closer.
“But we found something else.”
He placed a photograph on the table.
It showed a much younger Teresa standing beside two boys.
One was Mateo.
The other was Gabriel.
On the back was a date.
And underneath the date was one sentence.
HE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE.
I stared at the photograph.
“Why would Teresa keep this?”
Andrés answered quietly.
“Because she may not have written it.”
The hospital lights flickered.
I looked toward the door.
For a moment, I thought I saw a shadow beneath it.
Then it disappeared.
Rebeca entered carrying medication.
She locked the door behind her.
“Someone has been asking about you.”
“Who?”
“A man.”
“What did he look like?”
She hesitated.
“Tall. Gray hair. Expensive suit.”
Andrés stood.
“Did he give a name?”
Rebeca nodded.
“He said he was your husband's uncle.”
I looked at Andrés.
“Mateo doesn't have an uncle.”
Rebeca's face went pale.
Then she whispered the name the man had given her.
“Gabriel.”
May you like
Andrés slowly reached for the photograph.
At that exact moment, someone knocked three times on the hospital door...
