CHAPTER 5 – THE FIRST ATTACK
Inspector Ortega moved us immediately.
Not tomorrow.
Not after breakfast.
Immediately.
“This location is compromised.”
Isabella woke while Elena packed.
“What's happening?”
“We're changing hotels.”
“Because of Beatriz?”
I hated that she already understood danger better than most children.
“Yes.”
She quietly put on her shoes.
No complaint.
No questions.
That obedience broke my heart all over again.
We left through the underground garage.
Two security vehicles accompanied us.
Halfway toward Málaga, the SUV behind us suddenly swerved.
Headlights filled my mirror.
A black sedan accelerated beside our car.
Then slammed into us.
Metal screamed.
Isabella screamed too.
I grabbed her.
“Down!”
The sedan hit us again.
Our driver fought the wheel.
Security moved between us.
The black car disappeared at the next exit.
Nobody was seriously hurt.
But the message was clear.
This wasn't just money.
Someone wanted me frightened.
Or dead.
Police found the sedan abandoned forty minutes later.
Stolen plates.
Wiped interior.
Professional enough to erase obvious evidence.
But not perfect.
Traffic cameras captured the driver entering another vehicle.
That vehicle belonged to a company.
Cruz Holdings.
Inspector Ortega stared at the report.
“Well.”
I looked at him.
“Now do you believe Mateo?”
“I believed him before.”
“What happens now?”
“Now we build a case they can't escape.”
The next morning, police searched the villa.
Beatriz was gone.
Her clothes were gone.
Passport gone.
Laptop gone.
But she had left something behind.
A glass of wine.
Half finished.
And beside it, a handwritten note.
Daniel,
You never understood me.
You thought money could replace presence.
You thought Isabella needed gifts.
You thought I should spend my life waiting for you to come home.
You made your choices.
Now I'm making mine.
Don't look for me.
I crumpled the note.
Ortega stopped me.
“Evidence.”
I handed it over.
Then an officer called from upstairs.
They had found something hidden inside Beatriz's dressing room.
A second phone.
Unlike Mateo's, this one wasn't locked.
Messages filled the screen.
Alejandro.
Thousands of them.
Some romantic.
Some financial.
Some terrifying.
Three months earlier:
ALEJANDRO: Once he's in Dubai, we begin.
BEATRIZ: And the girl?
ALEJANDRO: Make her manageable.
My hands tightened.
Another.
BEATRIZ: Mateo is watching.
ALEJANDRO: Then remove Mateo.
Another.
BEATRIZ: Daniel comes back August 22.
ALEJANDRO: Everything must be ready before then.
And finally:
BEATRIZ: What if he refuses to sign?
ALEJANDRO: He won't have a choice.
BEATRIZ: You promised nobody gets hurt.
ALEJANDRO: I promised you his empire.
I stared at those words.
His empire.
My company.
My father's company.
The business I had spent twenty years building.
Then Ortega found an attachment.
A document.
Power of attorney.
My name.
My signature.
Except I had never signed it.
The document transferred enormous authority over my business holdings to Beatriz in the event I became medically incapacitated.
Elena examined it.
“Forgery.”
I looked at Ortega.
“Medication.”
He nodded.
Mateo's warning suddenly made sense.
They hadn't planned to kill me.
Not necessarily.
They planned to make me incapable of controlling my company.
Drug me.
Declare me incompetent.
Use forged documents.
Take control.
And while I was gone, Isabella was being conditioned into silence.
Then one officer entered.
“Inspector?”
“Yes?”
“We found something else.”
He placed a small plastic bag on the table.
Inside were several white tablets.
Ortega looked at me.
“Do you recognize these?”
“No.”
“We'll test them.”
Isabella appeared in the doorway.
She saw the bag.
And screamed.
Everyone turned.
She pointed toward the pills.
“Those!”
I ran to her.
“What?”
Her face had gone white.
“Beatriz put those in your coffee.”
My entire body went cold.
“When?”
“Before you went to Dubai.”
“How many times?”
“I don't know.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I tried.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“But she said they were vitamins.”
She wiped her face.
“And then one morning…”
“What?”
“You fell down.”
I remembered.
Two weeks before Dubai.
I had collapsed in my office.
Doctors called it exhaustion.
Dehydration.
Stress.
May you like
Isabella looked at me.
“Beatriz smiled when you fell.”
