Chapter 10 - THE EXECUTIVE FLOOR
My company’s security team met police at the building.
I watched the camera feed from the hotel.
A woman in a dark coat entered my office using an employee badge.
She wore a hat low over her face.
But I knew the way she walked.
Carmen.
She opened the cabinet with the key Daniel had given her.
Then she pulled out a red folder.
My stomach dropped.
“What’s in that?” Lena asked over video call.
“Client contracts. Bonus records. Restricted campaign data.”
“Can she monetize it?”
“Yes.”
Daniel whispered, “Oh, God.”
Security reached my office before Carmen got out.
She ran.
Not fast, but desperate.
She dropped the folder in the hallway and disappeared into the stairwell.
Police found her car in the garage.
Empty.
For the first time, Daniel looked less like a guilty husband and more like a frightened son.
“She’s never done anything like this.”
Valeria stared at him.
“Yes, she has.”
He turned.
“What?”
Valeria’s voice shook.
“She took Dad’s money after he died.”
Daniel froze.
“Our father left money?”
“College funds. For both of us.”
“You said there was nothing.”
“Mom said that.”
Valeria opened another file from the flash drive.
Old bank statements.
Transfers.
Carmen had moved nearly $90,000 from a trust account after their father’s death.
Daniel sat down hard.
“That was mine?”
“Half.”
He covered his face.
I felt no satisfaction.
Only exhaustion.
Lena said, “This matters. It shows a pattern.”
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Carmen’s voice came through, calm and low.
“You really want to destroy this family over one cold night?”
I looked at Camila sleeping beside me.
“No,” I said. “You already destroyed it.”
She laughed softly.
“You still think Daniel is the weakest link.”
The call ended.
A second later, an email arrived.
One attachment.
A photograph.
May you like
Daniel kissing another woman in a restaurant.
The timestamp was three months old.
