CHAPTER 5 — THE ATTORNEY’S CONFESSION
The sedan left the garage through a private exit.
No one spoke for several blocks.
Renata sat beside Lucía, watching Mexico City’s lights slide across the windows.
Finally, she said, “Tell me.”
Lucía folded her hands.
“Fourteen years ago, I was a junior attorney at a firm retained by Grupo Ibarra.”
“You worked for Evangelina.”
“I reviewed contracts. I did not know the full scope of the fraud.”
“But you saw my mother’s records.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I needed evidence before making accusations that could get you killed.”
Daniel turned from the front seat.
“Lucía.”
She ignored him.
“One night, Evangelina asked our firm to verify whether Elena Cruz had left behind a child. I found your birth certificate.”
Renata felt her throat tighten.
“You told her where I was.”
“No. I altered the report and claimed the trail had ended.”
“Then how did Alonso find me?”
“Someone else reopened the search years later.”
Lucía reached into her briefcase and removed an old envelope.
It was yellowed at the edges.
“Elena gave this to my father two days before she died. He was an accountant at Grupo Ibarra.”
Renata recognized her mother’s handwriting immediately, though she had seen it only in a handful of childhood birthday cards.
The letter was addressed to Lucía’s father.
If anything happens to me, protect my daughter. Evangelina knows the trust cannot be dissolved without Renata’s consent after her thirtieth birthday. She will try to reach her before then.
Renata’s hands trembled as she continued reading.
Her mother had described false invoices, political payments, and land purchased through charitable organizations. She also claimed that Octavio Ibarra had wanted to expose the scheme but had been threatened with financial ruin and criminal charges.
At the bottom was one final sentence.
The original ledger is not in the company office. It is where Octavio and I made our first promise.
“What promise?” Renata asked.
“We don’t know,” Lucía replied.
Daniel looked at the city map on his phone.
“Elena and Octavio founded their first bookkeeping office in Coyoacán.”
Renata stared at him.
“The church.”
Lucía nodded.
The same church where Renata and Alonso had married.
“That cannot be a coincidence,” Renata said.
“It wasn’t,” Lucía replied. “Alonso insisted on that church.”
Renata remembered how sentimental he had appeared when selecting it.
He had told her the chapel reminded him of his grandparents.
Another lie.
The sedan stopped outside a secured apartment building where Lucía had arranged for Renata to stay.
Before getting out, Daniel’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed as he listened.
“When?” he asked.
A pause followed.
“Was anything taken?”
He ended the call and turned toward them.
“The court approved the temporary freeze.”
Lucía exhaled.
“That’s good.”
“No,” Daniel said. “Because someone accessed Account 407 ten minutes before the order took effect.”
Renata looked at the tablet.
“How much?”
“Everything that remained. Seventeen million pesos.”
“Where did it go?”
Daniel enlarged the destination account.
The transfer had not gone overseas.
It had been sent to an account at a small regional bank under the name of a recently created consulting company.
The registered owner was not Evangelina.
It was not Alonso.
Daniel placed the tablet in Renata’s hands.
The company belonged to Tomás Ibarra.
May you like
Alonso’s younger brother.
And security footage showed Tomás leaving the anniversary dinner less than two minutes after Renata.
