Chapter 3 - HE KNEW
I turned slowly.
“What business account?” I asked.
Diego’s face changed.
Just a flicker. A tiny mistake. But I saw it.
Rosa jumped in before he could answer. “He means your business in general. Married people discuss money.”
“No,” I said. “He said account.”
Diego stepped closer. “Elena, you’re exhausted. You’re twisting words.”
“Then untwist them.”
He said nothing.
I opened the door.
Diego’s voice dropped. “If you leave this house tonight, everybody is going to know what you did to me.”
I looked at the red stains on his shirt, then at the bruise already rising on my cheek.
“Good,” I said. “Let everybody know all of it.”
I left.
She photographed my wrist where Diego’s fingers had left purple marks.
Then we logged into the company’s banking portal.
The transfer had been blocked.
But the request had included an attached authorization form.
Nadia opened it.
My stomach dropped.
There was my company logo. My tax identification number. My business address. My signature.
Except I had never signed it.
The form authorized Diego to initiate transfers up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars.
“Who has access to your corporate documents?” Nadia asked.
“My accountant. Me. My office manager.”
“And Diego?”
“No.”
She zoomed in on the signature.
“This was copied from something else.”
I knew immediately where it came from.
Three weeks before the wedding, Diego had insisted on helping with our marriage-license paperwork. I had signed several forms at the kitchen counter while he stood beside me.
Nadia looked at the date on the authorization.
It had been submitted at 9:14 that morning.
While I was at work.
While Diego was home with Rosa and Mateo.
Then Nadia opened the destination-account details.
The forty-eight thousand dollars was headed to a company I had never heard of.
May you like
Vargas Family Holdings LLC.
The company had been created eleven days before our wedding.
