Chapter 10 - MARIANA@DVA

The fake email account had existed for eleven months.

[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).

It had my name.

My company title.

Even my photograph.

Daniel had written emails pretending to be me.

Some were harmless.

Others weren’t.

I supposedly approved transfers.

Promised investments.

Recommended DVA to business contacts.

Confirmed meetings I never attended.

Rodrigo had every reason to claim he believed I was involved.

“You impersonated me,” I said.

Daniel stared at the floor.

“Yes.”

“Do you understand you could have destroyed my career?”

“Yes.”

“Stop saying yes like that fixes anything.”

“I don’t know what else to say.”

“Nothing.”

Laura obtained access credentials from him.

Within hours, cybersecurity experts preserved the entire account.

IP logs.

Device records.

Login history.

Daniel had made one fatal mistake.

Almost every message had been sent from his personal laptop or phone.

That evidence saved me.

Within forty-eight hours, my business partners publicly separated me from DVA.

Two clients resumed their campaigns.

One did not.

I lost them permanently.

That hurt.

But I still had my company.

Daniel’s collapsed.

Rodrigo’s attorney sent a demand letter.

My attorney responded with evidence of fraud and impersonation.

Suddenly, Rodrigo no longer wanted me to pay.

He wanted Daniel prosecuted.

The family began turning on itself.

Carmen blamed Daniel.

Daniel blamed Carmen.

Valeria blamed both.

Carmen called me fourteen times in one afternoon.

On the fifteenth, I answered.

“What?”

“You need to help him.”

I almost laughed.

“Excuse me?”

“He is Camila’s father.”

“He stole from me.”

“He made mistakes.”

“He committed crimes.”

“He is your husband.”

“Not for much longer.”

Carmen started crying.

“You don’t understand what prison would do to him.”

I looked toward Camila, who was painting at the kitchen table.

“You didn’t understand what a locked balcony did to a three-year-old.”

Silence.

Then Carmen’s crying stopped.

Her voice became cold.

“So this is revenge.”

“No.”

“It is.”

“No, Carmen. Revenge would be locking you outside while I ate lobster.”

She inhaled sharply.

“I’m simply refusing to protect people from the consequences they created.”

“You’re cruel.”

I smiled sadly.

“I learned from watching you.”

I ended the call.

That weekend, Daniel had another supervised visit.

This time Camila talked to him.

Not much.

But enough.

When she returned to me, she held a small envelope.

“Daddy said give Mommy.”

Inside was a handwritten letter.

I almost threw it away.

Laura told me to read everything.

So I did.

Mariana,

There is one more thing I never told you.

Something my mother knows.

Something about the night Camila was born.

I stopped reading.

My hands began to shake.

The next sentence was worse.

You think Carmen started resenting Camila recently.

She didn’t.

It started the day Camila was born.

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