Chapter 7 - The Listener
Mateo did not disable the microphone.
Instead, we fed it a lie.
We spoke loudly in the hallway about moving Isabella to my coastal estate near Cádiz.
We mentioned a departure time.
We mentioned a route.
Then we waited.
Carmen positioned unmarked officers along the highway.
The next morning, an empty armored SUV left the villa exactly as planned.
Twenty kilometers outside Marbella, a delivery truck swerved across two lanes and tried to force it into a concrete barrier.
Police surrounded the truck.
The driver ran.
They caught him in an olive grove.
His name was Andrés Vela.
Tomás Vela’s younger brother.
Inside his phone were messages from an unregistered number.
STOP THE GIRL BEFORE SHE TALKS.
The last payment to Andrés came from a shell company linked to Javier.
Carmen finally had enough to issue a warrant.
Javier disappeared.
His house was empty.
His passport remained in Spain.
But private aviation records showed a charter jet had departed Málaga for Tangier under another name.
Beatriz remained in Marbella.
That made no sense.
If they were partners, why had he left her behind?
The answer arrived at noon.
Beatriz requested a private meeting.
Against Elena’s advice, I agreed.
We met in a conference room at my attorney’s office.
Carmen listened from the next room.
Beatriz entered wearing black.
No jewelry.
No makeup.
She looked smaller.
“I want immunity.”
I stared at her.
“You abused my daughter.”
“I did what Javier told me.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“He has videos.”
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
Her hands trembled.
“He recorded me from the beginning.”
“Why?”
“To control me.”
“You were having an affair with him.”
“Yes.”
“For four years.”
“Yes.”
“And you helped him steal from me.”
“Yes.”
“And Isabella?”
She looked down.
I wanted to hear remorse.
Instead, she said, “She kept getting in the way.”
My chair scraped backward.
Elena put a hand on my arm.
I sat again.
Beatriz continued.
“Javier said if Isabella became afraid of you, guardianship would be easier later.”
“So you told her I wouldn’t believe her.”
“Yes.”
“You starved her?”
“I withheld meals.”
“You locked her in that room?”
“Sometimes.”
“You burned her?”
Beatriz’s eyes moved away.
“Answer.”
“It was an accident.”
“You made her afraid to drop a trash bag.”
“I lost control.”
“No.”
I leaned forward.
“You practiced control.”
She began crying.
I felt nothing.
Then she gave us the information she had come to trade.
Javier had not gone to Morocco to escape.
He had gone to retrieve money and documents.
He intended to return.
“Why?”
“Because of the original trust instrument.”
Elena frowned.
“What original?”
“The copy Lucia’s father signed before the final version.”
“What does it contain?”
“A clause.”
Beatriz swallowed.
“If Isabella is harmed by a guardian or prospective guardian for financial benefit, control of the trust passes permanently to an independent foundation.”
That meant Javier could never access the money if the abuse became legally established.
He needed the original destroyed.
“Where is it?”
Beatriz looked at me.
“In Lucia’s grave.”
I stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
“Her father hid it in the lining of the memorial box buried with her ashes.”
“How would Javier know?”
“Because the attorney who drafted it told him.”
Elena’s face went white.
“Samuel Cárdenas?”
Beatriz nodded.
Samuel had been Lucia’s family attorney for thirty years.
He had attended our wedding.
He had held Isabella at her baptism.
Beatriz's request for immunity split the investigators.
Some saw a frightened accomplice ready to cooperate.
Others saw a skilled manipulator trying to become a victim before trial.
I saw both possibilities.
A person can be controlled and still choose cruelty.
Her fear of Javier did not erase Isabella's fear of her.
And according to Beatriz, he had sold the secret of my daughter’s inheritance to Javier.
Before we could ask another question, Elena’s receptionist burst through the door.
“There’s been an incident at the cemetery.”
My phone rang at the same moment.
Mateo.
I answered.
His first words turned my blood to ice.
May you like
“Gabriel, Lucia’s grave has been opened.”
