Chapter 4 - THE LAPTOP

Valeria chose herself.

She always had.

So when Daniel told her to stay loyal to him, I gave her another option.

“Tell me where the laptop is,” I said, “or every peso you received from my accounts gets included in the fraud complaint.”

Her face went pale.

“Fraud complaint?”

Daniel stepped between us.

“She’s bluffing.”

Laura smiled without warmth.

“I’m not.”

Valeria looked from Daniel to Carmen.

Carmen hissed,

“Don’t you dare.”

That decided it.

Valeria pointed toward the kitchen.

“He put it in Mom’s car.”

Daniel lunged toward her.

“You idiot.”

One of the security officers stepped between them.

Carmen screamed,

“She has no right to search my property.”

Laura calmly raised the court order.

“Actually, we do.”

The laptop was inside the trunk beneath a blanket.

Daniel had tried to wipe it.

He wasn’t good enough.

A forensic technician recovered most of the data by evening.

I sat beside Laura while folder after folder appeared.

Invoices.

Transfers.

Passwords.

Copies of my contracts.

Photographs of my ID.

Then we found a folder labeled PRIVATE.

Inside were screenshots of messages between Daniel and a man named Rodrigo Velasco.

RODRIGO: She doesn’t check the household account.

DANIEL: She’s too busy being important.

RODRIGO: Need her authorization for the next transfer.

DANIEL: I have her token.

RODRIGO: And if she notices?

DANIEL: She won’t.

I felt sick.

Then another message appeared.

RODRIGO: What about the kid?

DANIEL: Mom handles her.

RODRIGO: Your wife trusts Carmen that much?

DANIEL: Mariana trusts anyone if she can pay them.

I stopped reading.

Laura didn’t.

She scrolled farther.

Then she went completely still.

“What?”

She turned the screen.

A contract.

DVA CONSULTING.

Daniel Velasco Álvarez.

Rodrigo Velasco.

The company had been created nine months earlier.

Its startup capital had come from my money.

My forged authorization.

My husband had stolen from me to build a company with another man.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

The business had debts.

Large debts.

And Daniel had apparently listed our apartment as collateral.

My apartment.

The one I bought before we married.

“He can’t do that,” I said.

“He legally can’t.”

“But he tried.”

“Yes.”

“Can we stop it?”

Laura nodded.

“We already are.”

Then she opened another file.

A voice recording.

Daniel’s voice filled the room.

“If Mariana leaves, we go after custody.”

Another man laughed.

“You want the kid?”

“No.”

Daniel laughed too.

“I want leverage.”

My body turned cold.

The recording continued.

“She won’t fight over money if she thinks she could lose Camila.”

I stood so quickly my chair fell backward.

Laura paused the audio.

“Mariana.”

“He used my daughter as leverage.”

“We’ll use this.”

“He knew.”

“Knew what?”

“He knew what his mother was doing.”

Laura frowned.

I replayed the recording.

Farther in, Rodrigo asked,

“Does Carmen mind babysitting?”

Daniel answered,

“She complains the kid eats too much and cries too much, but whatever. Mom knows I can’t afford daycare until the company starts paying.”

My hands curled into fists.

He knew Carmen resented Camila.

He left her there anyway.

I turned toward Laura.

“I want emergency custody.”

“We’re filing tonight.”

“No unsupervised visits.”

“I’ll request it.”

“And Carmen never goes near her again.”

Laura nodded.

Then the forensic technician raised his hand.

“Ms. Reyes?”

“Yes?”

“You need to see this.”

He opened a recently deleted video.

The date was from two weeks earlier.

The camera angle came from my living room.

Camila stood near the dining table crying.

Carmen grabbed her arm.

Then Daniel walked into frame.

And instead of stopping his mother—

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he pointed toward the balcony.

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