Chapter 3 - The Betrayer
Mateo reached inside his coat.
I stopped him with one hand.
Victor spoke again.
“If I wanted you dead, Daniel, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
I opened the door.
Victor Serrano looked older.
His hair had gone gray.
There were deep lines around his eyes.
But the man standing in front of me still carried himself exactly the way I remembered.
Patient.
Controlled.
Dangerous.
Two men stood behind him.
Victor lifted both hands.
“I came alone in spirit.”
“You disappeared with my money.”
“It wasn’t your money I was stealing.”
Mateo laughed without humor.
“That’s a creative way to describe theft.”
Victor looked at the box.
“You found Elena’s files.”
I grabbed him by the front of his coat.
“You spoke to my wife before she died.”
“Yes.”
“You knew she was investigating.”
“Yes.”
“You knew someone wanted her dead.”
His eyes shifted.
That was enough.
I shoved him against the wall.
“Who killed Elena?”
“I don’t know who gave the order.”
“Then give me the people who carried it out.”
“Daniel, if I had that answer, they would already be dead.”
For a second, the old version of me believed him.
That frightened me more than hating him.
Victor looked at Mateo.
“Give us five minutes.”
“No.”
I released Victor.
“He stays.”
Victor nodded.
“The three families stole what you left behind.”
“I know.”
“You know the surface.”
“Then tell me what’s underneath.”
Victor pointed toward Elena’s box.
“She found something nineteen years ago.”
“What?”
“A ledger connecting the families to your former shipping network.”
Mateo frowned.
“What was being shipped?”
Victor stared directly at me.
“Money.”
I said nothing.
He continued.
“They used your shell companies to wash illegal profits into legitimate construction projects, political donations, and investment funds.”
“And Elena discovered it.”
“She discovered more.”
Victor’s voice lowered.
“She discovered someone had been using your name.”
My jaw tightened.
“What do you mean?”
“Contracts were signed under authorization from The Ghost years after you disappeared.”
“By who?”
“I never found out.”
That answer sounded too convenient.
“Why did Renata have Elena’s key?”
Victor looked surprised.
“She had it?”
“Yes.”
His expression changed.
For the first time, Victor seemed genuinely afraid.
“Then someone gave it to her.”
“Who?”
He shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Mateo stepped closer.
“Try harder.”
Victor looked at me.
“Ask Professor Nathan Holloway.”
The name meant nothing to me.
“Who is he?”
“He teaches financial ethics at Renata’s university.”
I almost laughed.
“A financial ethics professor?”
“He was Elena’s younger brother.”
I stopped breathing.
Elena had told me her only brother died when she was a teenager.
Victor saw the disbelief on my face.
“She lied to protect him.”
“From me?”
“From everyone.”
I looked down at the flash drive.
“Where is Holloway?”
Victor did not answer.
“Where is he?”
“He disappeared yesterday morning.”
The same morning Renata was attacked.
Before I could respond, Mateo’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face immediately hardened.
“What?”
He listened.
Then looked at me.
“We have a problem.”
“What happened?”
“The three boys.”
“What about them?”
“They just posted bail.”
“Already?”
Mateo nodded.
“And Santiago Cordova uploaded a video ten minutes ago.”
He turned the phone toward me.
Santiago stood on the deck of a yacht.
Maurice and Emmett were laughing behind him.
Santiago raised a champagne glass toward the camera.
“To surviving unfortunate accidents.”
Then Maurice leaned into the frame.
“And to people who should learn to keep family secrets buried.”
The video ended.
Victor stared at me.
“They know about Elena.”
I closed the fireproof box.
“No.”
I handed it to Mateo.
“They know Renata knows about Elena.”
May you like
There was a difference.
And whoever had attacked my daughter was about to discover how expensive that difference would become.
