Chapter 2 - The Cameras Went Dark Because Someone Inside My Security Team Was Helping Patricia, and I Realized My Perfect Engagement Had Been Planned as a Financial TakeoverThe surveillance system stayed offline for eleven minutes.
Eleven minutes.
Enough time for Patricia to move through the mansion without being seen.
Enough time to destroy evidence.
Enough time to hurt someone.
I hated those eleven minutes.
They felt like a hole in reality.
Gabriel worked silently at the terminal.
“Can you recover the feed?”
“Some of it.”
“How?”
“The backup server.”
“Use it.”
He did.
Footage returned.
Patricia was in the hallway.
She was speaking to someone.
A man wearing a maintenance uniform.
I didn't recognize him.
Gabriel did.
“Thomas.”
“Who?”
“Temporary systems technician.”
“How long has he worked here?”
“Two months.”
“Who hired him?”
Gabriel looked at me.
“Patricia.”
That was enough.
I ordered a background check.
Thomas had no real employment history.
No college.
No previous address.
His references were fake.
Someone had planted him.
Patricia had planned the surveillance breach before I even staged the business trip.
Which meant she knew I might be suspicious.
She had anticipated me.
That frightened me.
I returned to my daughters' room.
Rosa was sitting between them.
They were asleep.
I stood in the doorway.
Rosa looked up.
“Sir?”
I stepped inside.
“Are they okay?”
“Yes.”
“Did Patricia hurt them?”
Rosa hesitated.
That pause answered everything.
“How long has it been happening?”
“A few weeks.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because she said you'd fire me if I did.”
I closed my eyes.
“I wouldn't.”
“I know that now.”
“Rosa.”
She looked at me.
“I'm sorry.”
She looked confused.
“For what?”
“For doubting you.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I never lied to you.”
“I know.”
She looked toward the girls.
“I've tried to protect them.”
“You did.”
She whispered:
“I failed.”
“No.”
I sat beside her.
“You didn't.”
We watched the twins sleep.
They had lost their mother when they were infants.
Rosa had been the one constant presence in their lives.
I had been there too.
But not enough.
My work had always consumed me.
I had convinced myself that giving them security was the same as giving them a father.
It wasn't.
Rosa knew.
My daughters knew.
Patricia knew.
That's why she'd been able to manipulate me.
She knew exactly where I was weakest.
My children.
My trust.
My loneliness.
The next morning, I canceled the engagement.
Not publicly.
Not yet.
I told Patricia the wedding remained scheduled.
She smiled.
“You seem distracted.”
“Work.”
“You should take better care of yourself.”
I looked at her.
“You should too.”
She laughed.
She didn't know what I knew.
That was how I wanted it.
Then she hugged me.
Her perfume made me nauseous.
She whispered:
“I've missed you.”
I stepped back.
“Have you?”
Her expression flickered.
Then she smiled again.
That afternoon, Gabriel brought me bank records.
“Patricia opened an account.”
“Under what name?”
A shell company.
A company linked to Victor.
I stared.
“How much?”
“Seven-point-three million.”
“From where?”
“My companies.”
I looked at the transfers.
She had been stealing for months.
Small amounts.
Then larger ones.
Always below the threshold that would trigger automatic fraud alerts.
She was methodical.
Not emotional.
Not impulsive.
Professional.
I asked Gabriel:
“How did she learn our financial systems?”
He hesitated.
“Someone gave her access.”
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
“Find out.”
That evening, my daughters came to me.
Daniela looked nervous.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Are you marrying Patricia?”
I swallowed.
“Why?”
“Because she says you'll be.”
Martina hugged my leg.
“Please don't.”
I looked down.
“Why?”
“She makes Mommy's room feel bad.”
Their mother had been dead for years.
They called her memory “Mommy's room.”
I knelt.
“What does Patricia do?”
Daniela looked at Martina.
Then whispered:
“She goes in there when you're gone.”
“Why?”
“She says she owns the house.”
My blood turned cold.
I asked:
“Does she take anything?”
Martina nodded.
“She puts things in bags.”
“What things?”
“Mommy's things.”
I felt sick.
The theft had gone farther than jewelry.
Patricia had been stealing from my wife's belongings.
Why?
I entered the bedroom.
The jewelry box was missing.
The perfume collection.
Two watches.
Letters.
Photographs.
All gone.
I called Gabriel.
“Search every storage unit Patricia owns.”
He returned with a list.
One location stood out.
A warehouse owned by Victor.
We went.
Inside were boxes of my wife's possessions.
Photographs.
Jewelry.
Clothes.
Letters.
Everything.
Then I found something else.
A folder.
My marriage certificate.
A divorce petition.
An inheritance agreement.
And a life-insurance document.
Naming Patricia as the beneficiary.
My blood froze.
I had never signed it.
I opened the last file.
A medical form.
My supposed diagnosis.
It stated I had a severe heart condition.
False.
But the insurance payout would trigger if I died.
Patricia wasn't planning to steal from me.
She was planning to kill me.
I stood very still.
Then Gabriel found a second folder.
Inside were photographs.
Me sleeping.
Me in my office.
Me with my daughters.
Me driving.
Every movement of my life had been documented.
Someone had been tracking me for months.
I looked at the photographs.
Then one stopped me.
It was taken six months earlier.
Patricia.
Victor.
And another man.
My uncle's old business partner.
I recognized him.
He had disappeared ten years ago.
Everyone believed he was dead.
Apparently, he wasn't.
And he was standing beside the woman who planned to marry me.
May you like
The conspiracy was bigger.
Much bigger.
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