Chapter 6 - THE WIVES THEY UNDERESTIMATED
Rodrigo’s wife contacted me through Priya.
Her name was Lucia Santillan. She had been married to Rodrigo for seventeen years and had two teenage sons.
We met in a lawyer’s conference room rather than a restaurant. Lucia arrived carrying a small metal box.
“I knew about Mariana for six months,” she said.
“Why didn’t you contact me?”
“I was protecting my children while I collected evidence.”
The answer could have sounded cold.
After what I had learned about fear and money, it sounded human.
Lucia opened the box.
Inside were copies of hotel receipts, photographs, and a safe-deposit key. She had discovered them after Rodrigo left a bank envelope inside a golf bag.
“He told me the account was for an acquisition,” she said. “The bank statements showed payments from a company called Northstar.”
“Did he mention me?”
“Repeatedly.”
She produced printed messages between Rodrigo and Mariana.
One read:
Keep Ethan tired. He signs quickly when he thinks a hospital is waiting.
Another said:
After the December packet, compliance gets Cole’s name. You file as the deceived spouse. I stabilize Vithera.
Mariana had replied:
And us?
Rodrigo’s answer contained only three words:
After the audit clears.
Lucia watched me read it.
“He was never leaving me for her.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he asked me to renew our vows in February.”
The cruelty was familiar.
Different ring. Different spouse. Same performance.
Lucia handed Priya the safe-deposit key under a written evidence-transfer agreement. Investigators later obtained legal authority to open the box.
It contained bearer documents for an overseas account, copies of false invoices, and $94,000 in cash.
The account was controlled by Rodrigo.
No document gave Mariana access.
Rodrigo had allowed her to believe they were equal partners while keeping the safest money for himself.
Lucia also provided something more valuable than cash: backups of messages Rodrigo thought he had deleted.
They showed he discovered Northstar twenty months earlier.
At that time, the company had processed only three contracts totaling $214,000. Rather than report the undisclosed vendor, he confronted Mariana privately.
Within two months,
THE HOOK
My phone began ringing while two hundred pink roses lay scattered across Mariana’s office floor.
She pulled away from Rodrigo, but not quickly enough to erase the comfortable way his hands had rested on her waist.
“Ethan,” she whispered. “This isn’t what it looks like.”
Outside the glass building, employees surrounded the custom hot-pink Brabus SUV I had bought for her. Beside my shoes lay a limited-edition Louis Vuitton handbag. In my blazer pocket was the diamond ring I had planned to give her that night.
My phone continued ringing.
I answered without taking my eyes off my wife.
“Mr. Cole,” my lottery attorney said, “the commission has verified that your ticket matches the eighty-million-dollar jackpot drawing.”
Mariana’s face drained of color.
“EIGHTY MILLION?!”
Rodrigo slowly released her.
Only moments earlier, I had heard him whisper, “After tonight, lose him.”
Now Mariana stepped toward me as though the kiss had never happened.
I called the dealership instead.
“Cancel her surprise.”
May you like
Then my attorney spoke again.
“Ethan, there’s something else we found during the financial review.”
