Chapter 5: The Name on the Account
Alejandro arrived at eight forty-five with a woman I hadn't met before.
"This is Dr.
Pilar Vega," he said.
"Family law.
She's handled cases like this before."
Dr.
Vega was in her fifties, small, with reading glasses pushed up into her hair and a leather briefcase she set on my desk without ceremony.
"Tell me everything," she said.
"Start from the moment you arrived home."
I told her.
All of it.
The garden.
The footage.
The office conversation.
What Isabella had said about the rules, the typed message, the name Marcos Reyes.
Dr.
Vega took notes without looking up.
When I finished, she set her pen down.
"The footage is your strongest asset," she said.
"Ninety days of documented behaviour.
We'll need a certified copy made today, stored off-site, and a second copy with my office.
Has she had any access to your systems since last night?"
"I changed the passwords at midnight."
"Good." She looked at Alejandro.
"We move for an emergency protective order today.
Given the child's age and the documented pattern, a judge will grant it."
"What does that mean practically?" I asked.
"It means Beatriz cannot be alone with Isabella.
It means she cannot remove Isabella from the property or from Spain.
It means any contact between them is supervised until the court has reviewed the evidence." Dr.
Vega looked at me.
"Where is she now?"
"Upstairs.
She hasn't come down."
"She will.
People like this always come down." She closed her notebook.
"When she does, say nothing about the legal proceedings.
Let her talk.
Whatever she says in this house may be relevant."
Alejandro slid a folder across the desk.
"The security firm came back this morning.
Marcos Reyes.
Forty-one years old.
Based in Madrid.
He runs a small financial consultancy." He paused.
"He also has a prior relationship with Beatriz that predates your marriage by approximately two years."
"She told me last night."
"What she didn't tell you," Alejandro said, "is that three of your company's subsidiary accounts have had a secondary authorisation added in the last six weeks.
A signatory who was not there before."
I looked at him.
"What name?"
He turned the folder so I could read it.
Marcos Reyes.
I sat back in my chair.
Beatriz had not just been managing Isabella.
She had been managing access.
While I was in Dubai overseeing a four-hundred-million-euro project, she had been quietly opening a side door into my company's finances and handing the key to a man she had never stopped being involved with.
"How much has moved?" I asked.
"The security firm is still working through it.
But preliminary figures suggest transfers totalling approximately two point three million euros across the six-week period."
Dr.
Vega looked up from her briefcase.
"That changes the nature of this significantly."
"It was always going to be significant," I said.
"I mean it changes the criminal dimension." She looked at Alejandro.
"We need to bring in a financial crimes attorney today.
This is no longer just a family matter."
Footsteps on the stairs.
All three of us went quiet.
Beatriz appeared in the office doorway.
She was dressed, composed, her hair done.
She looked at Dr.
Vega and Alejandro and then at me, and the calculation behind her eyes moved fast.
"I didn't know you were having a meeting," she said.
"This is my lawyer and a colleague," I said.
"Come in."
She didn't move.
"I think we should speak privately first."
"We can speak here."
Her gaze moved to the laptop.
The screen was dark.
She couldn't tell what was open.
"I've been thinking about what I said last night.
About Marcos.
I may have overstated his involvement."
"In what sense?"
"The documents he mentioned.
I don't think they're as serious as I made them sound.
I was upset.
I was trying to—" She stopped.
Recalibrated.
"I want to find a way through this that works for everyone.
Especially for Isabella."
Dr.
Vega wrote something on her notepad without looking up.
"What would that look like?" I asked.
Beatriz stepped into the room.
"A clean separation.
Quiet.
No courts.
No lawyers." She glanced at Alejandro.
"No offence."
"None taken," Alejandro said.
"I walk away.
You keep the villa.
I take a settlement we agree on privately, and we both move forward." She looked at me.
"Isabella stays with you.
I won't contest it."
"That's very generous," I said.
"I'm trying to be reasonable."
"You're trying to avoid a criminal investigation," Dr.
Vega said.
Beatriz turned to look at her.
"Excuse me?"
"The subsidiary accounts," Dr.
Vega said.
"The secondary signatory.
The transfers." She set her pen down.
"We know about Marcos Reyes, Mrs.
Navarro.
We know about the two point three million euros.
And we have the footage from the security system covering the last ninety days, including his four visits to this property."
The colour left Beatriz's face the same way water leaves a glass when it tips.
"I want a lawyer," she said.
"That would be wise," Dr.
Vega said.
Beatriz looked at me.
For one moment, something crossed her face that might have been the beginning of an apology.
Then it was gone.
"You should have stayed in Dubai," she said.
She walked out of the office.
Her footsteps went up the stairs.
A door closed.
Alejandro looked at me.
"She'll call Reyes within the next ten minutes."
"I know." I looked at the folder on the desk.
"Are we ready for that?"
May you like
He allowed himself a small, careful smile.
"We've been ready since six this morning."
