Chapter 4: The Chairman's Wife
The press release went out at exactly 10:00 AM.
I watched it from my desk.
The company intranet updated first, then the financial newswires.
*Montalvo Global Appoints Elena Montalvo as Chief Executive Officer, Effective Immediately.* My full name.
My photograph.
My title.
Diane stood in the doorway watching my face.
"How does it feel?" she asked.
"Ask me in an hour."
I gave it four minutes before Alexander's extension lit up on my desk phone.
I let it ring twice, then picked up.
"Elena." His voice was smooth.
Warm, even.
"I just saw the release.
Congratulations."
"Thank you, Alexander."
"I had no idea the board was moving this quickly.
You should have told me."
"I wanted it to be a surprise."
A pause.
Brief, but there.
"We should have dinner tonight.
Celebrate properly."
"I'd like that," I said.
"Come by my office first.
Around six."
Another pause.
"Your office?"
"I'm the CEO now.
It seemed appropriate."
He laughed — the easy, practiced laugh I had heard ten thousand times.
"Of course.
Six o'clock."
I set the phone down and looked at the folded email still sitting on the corner of my desk.
Sofia knocked at half past ten.
She was younger than I had realized in the lobby — mid-twenties, with her sister's dark eyes but none of her sister's confidence.
She stood near the door as though she hadn't decided yet whether to stay.
"Sit down, Sofia."
She sat on the edge of the chair.
"I wasn't sure if I should come."
"You came anyway."
"My sister doesn't know I'm here." She looked at her hands.
"She can't know."
"All right."
"The email I gave you — I printed it from her workstation three weeks ago.
She left her screen unlocked and I saw it by accident." Sofia finally looked up.
"But there's more than the email.
There's a folder.
On her personal drive.
She calls it *Project Sunrise.*"
"What's in it?"
"I only saw part of it.
Correspondence between her and Alexander going back two years.
Transfers.
A lease agreement for an apartment on the Upper East Side registered in her name, paid from a Montalvo Global discretionary account." She swallowed.
"And something else.
A document from a fertility clinic."
The room was very quiet.
"Whose name is on it?" I asked.
Sofia didn't answer immediately.
She looked at the window, then back at me.
"Both of theirs," she said.
I kept my face still.
My hands were flat on the desk.
"How long have you known?"
"About the clinic document — three weeks.
About the rest — longer.
I kept telling myself it wasn't my business." Her voice dropped.
"But then she started talking about you.
Before you arrived.
She told Alexander you were coming and he said—" She stopped.
"What did he say?"
"He said not to worry.
That by the time you understood what was happening, it would already be done."
I stood up.
Walked to the window.
Below, the city moved in its ordinary way — taxis, pedestrians, a food cart on the corner with a short line.
"Sofia." I turned around.
"I need you to get me into that folder."
She pressed her lips together.
"If Camila finds out—"
"She won't find out from me."
"You don't know my sister."
"No," I said.
"But I know what's in that folder is evidence of fraud against this company.
Which means it's now a matter for the CEO's office, not a personal dispute." I held her gaze.
"You came here for a reason.
You handed me that paper for a reason.
What was it?"
Sofia was quiet for a long moment.
"Because she told him you were nothing," she finally said.
"She said you'd built everything on his name and you'd have nothing without it." Her jaw tightened.
"And I've watched you for four months.
I know that isn't true."
I looked at her for a moment.
Then I picked up my phone and called Diane.
"Get me the head of Internal Audit.
And call Legal — not the general counsel, the deputy.
May you like
Tell them both to be in the small conference room at two o'clock." I paused.
"Tell them to bring their personal laptops."
