Camila barely spoke during the drive home. The heater was on, but she kept rubbing her hands as if the cold had settled into her soul.
“Dad, I’m sorry,” the little girl said. “I just wanted to protect you.”
A lump formed in my throat.
“Never apologize for standing up for someone you love. They’re the ones who should be apologizing.”
I tucked her into bed after giving her a cup of hot chocolate. I sat beside her until she finally fell asleep.
Only then did I go into my office.
That was my other life.
Contracts, accounts, projects, audits, signatures from major clients. Everything the Villarreal family never wanted to see because it suited them to believe I was worthless.
I called my CFO, Clara Beltrán.
“I need a full audit,” I told her. “Every employee brought in by Ernesto Villarreal. Payroll, travel expenses, fuel costs, bonuses, invoices, access logs, GPS records. Everything.”
Clara was silent.
“Why now, Gabriel?” she asked.
That made me look up.
“What do you mean, ‘why now’?”
“We’ve been finding irregularities for months. We didn’t push the issue because Mariana asked us to handle it carefully. She said it involved her family.”
I opened the system and typed in the Villarreal surname.
Forty-seven names appeared.
Ernesto as Regional Manager.
Mauro in Fleet Operations.
Víctor in Purchasing.
Cousins in the warehouse.
Aunts in administrative positions.
Nephews on payroll as assistants even though they never logged in.
Then the reports started appearing.
Ernesto was claiming overtime while GPS records showed him at a private club.
Mauro was charging company fuel to his personal vehicle.
Víctor was billing meals to supposed clients that coincided with family vacations in Valle de Bravo.
There were duplicated bonuses, altered invoices, and payments approved without supporting documentation.
It wasn’t negligence.
It was theft.
As I reviewed everything, a message arrived from Mariana:
“I hope by tomorrow you’ll understand.”
“Just sign the divorce papers without making a scene.”
I didn’t reply.
Then Clara sent me another file titled:
“You need to see this.”
It was an internal email chain from two years earlier.
The first email was from Mariana, instructing employees not to tell Ernesto the true structure of the company.
“My father thinks Gabriel is just a supervisor. Let’s keep it that way. It’s better for everyone.”
I already knew that.
But the second email left me frozen.
Mariana had requested that several “family compensation bonuses” be deposited into a temporary account under her control.
According to her explanation, she was organizing pending payments for the Villarreal family.
Clara added a note:
“That account received 1.8 million pesos without formal authorization.”
I stared at my wife’s name on the digital signature.
Mariana hadn’t just allowed me to be humiliated.
She had profited from making me the fool of her family.
I didn’t sleep on December 26.
My attorney, Alonso Rivas, arrived early.
The three of us assembled a solid case file: GPS records, bank statements, screenshots, fraudulent access logs, altered checks, and testimonies from employees who had endured years of abuse from the Villarreal family.
“This goes beyond termination,” Alonso said. “There are grounds for fraud and breach of trust charges as well.”
“Do it cleanly,” I said. “Perfectly. No cheap revenge.”
“And Mariana?” he asked.
I didn’t answer immediately.
Because Mariana wasn’t just part of the problem.
She was the woman who slept beside me while secretly moving money behind my back.
The woman who claimed to love me while allowing my daughter to shiver outside.
On December 28, at 9:00 a.m., forty-seven termination notices were sent out.
At 9:11, my phone rang.
It was Ernesto.
“Gabriel! Some idiot from your company sent me a letter saying I’ve been fired. Fix it!”
“He’s not an idiot, Ernesto.”
“Then talk to the owner. You know someone important there, don’t you?”
I took a deep breath.
“Yes. I know the owner.”
“Then tell her to stop playing games with me.”
“She already did. It was me.”
Silence filled the line.
“Don’t joke with me,” he finally said.
“Integrated Infrastructure Installations. The company. Ernesto. My last name. My company has been paying forty-seven members of your family for years.”
His breathing changed.
“Mariana told me that you were—”
“Mariana lied.”
Before I could say anything else, my lawyer placed a USB drive on my desk.
“The security footage from Ernesto’s house just arrived,” he said. “You can see everything they did to Camila.”
And moments later, Mariana started calling me over and over again.
What do you think that video contained, and what should Gabriel do with Mariana after discovering all of this?
