Chapter 6 - THE SIGNATURE BEFORE THE WEDDING
Renata read Valeria's message three times.
Each time, the same phrase caught inside her mind.
The night before her wedding.
She had signed dozens of things that week.
Hotel forms.
Vendor approvals.
A marriage property agreement Alonso's attorney insisted was routine.
Insurance paperwork.
A last-minute bank form because Alonso claimed the florist needed an international transfer.
Renata had been twenty-eight, exhausted, in love, and determined not to look intimidated by the machinery of an Ibarra wedding.
Evangelina had made sure of that.
"Don't ask so many questions in front of Alonso's lawyers," she had whispered during one meeting.
"It makes you look provincial."
Renata had swallowed the insult and signed where the tabs told her.
Now she looked at Mariana.
"What did I sign?"
"We are going to find out."
Daniela's phone vibrated again.
Valeria was calling a second time.
Mariana held out her hand.
"May I?"
Daniela gave her the phone.
Mariana did not answer.
She let the call end, then photographed the message and wrote down the number.
"We do not negotiate through Daniela's phone."
Renata could not take her eyes off the screen.
"She knows something."
"Yes."
"What if it is real?"
Mariana looked at her.
"Then we deal with what is real."
"What if I signed something that makes all of this legal?"
"A signature does not magically legalize fraud."
"But what if I gave Alonso authority?"
Mariana's voice softened.
"Then we examine the scope of that authority, how it was obtained, and what he did with it."
Renata pressed her palms against the table.
"I don't remember."
"That is why we use documents."
Daniela spoke quietly.
"I remember one document."
Both women looked at her.
"What document?"
"A power of attorney."
Renata felt the room tighten.
"For what?"
"I don't know the final language."
Daniela looked apologetic.
"But I remember Alonso asking legal to prepare something before the wedding that would let him handle financial matters if you were unavailable."
Mariana leaned forward.
"General or limited?"
"The draft I saw was limited."
"Limited to what?"
"A property purchase."
Renata frowned.
"We were not buying property then."
"Maybe that was the point."
Mariana checked the time.
"We need the wedding file."
Renata knew exactly where it was.
The original documents were inside the apartment safe.
The same safe Alonso had objected to her opening the night before.
She looked at Mariana.
"We have to go back."
"Not alone."
"I know."
By noon, Salgado had arranged for two officers to accompany Renata to the apartment while she retrieved personal identification and documents bearing her name.
Alonso was not supposed to interfere.
That did not mean he would cooperate.
The apartment occupied the top two floors of a glass residential tower overlooking Chapultepec.
Renata had once loved the view.
That afternoon, the building looked like the headquarters of a life she had already left.
The concierge avoided her eyes.
"Mrs. Ibarra."
"Good afternoon, Jorge."
He glanced at the officers.
"Mr. Ibarra is upstairs."
"I assumed he would be."
"He asked me not to let you enter without him."
One officer showed the concierge the written access agreement.
"She is a titled resident."
Jorge nodded quickly.
"Of course."
The elevator doors opened directly into the apartment.
Alonso stood in the foyer.
Evangelina sat on the cream sofa behind him.
Renata stopped.
"Why is she here?"
Alonso folded his arms.
"She is my mother."
"This is my home too."
Evangelina smiled.
"You told him to change the locks."
"I told him he could try."
Renata looked at the officers.
"I am here for my passport, medical records, personal laptop, and documents with my signature."
Alonso stepped aside.
"Take your clothes too."
Renata walked past him.
"Gladly."
Her bedroom looked untouched until she opened the closet.
Three drawers had been emptied onto the bed.
Shoeboxes were open.
A filing case had been dumped across the floor.
Renata stopped in the doorway.
"You searched my things."
Alonso leaned against the hall wall.
"My things are in this room too."
"Did you find what you wanted?"
"I don't know what you mean."
Renata looked at him.
"That answer is getting old."
The safe was built into the wall behind a framed photograph from their honeymoon.
Renata removed the picture.
The keypad was dark.
She pressed a number.
Nothing happened.
"The battery is dead."
Alonso shrugged.
"Things break."
Renata turned.
"When did it break?"
"How would I know?"
She looked at the lower edge of the safe.
Fresh scratches marked the metal around the emergency key slot.
Someone had tried to force it.
One officer crouched beside her.
"Was that damage here before?"
"No."
Alonso laughed.
"You cannot possibly know every scratch on a safe."
Renata pointed toward the honeymoon photo.
"I dust this area myself because your mother says our housekeeper cannot be trusted with private spaces."
Evangelina's voice came from the hall.
"Do not drag me into your housekeeping obsessions."
Renata almost smiled.
"Thank you for confirming it."
The officer photographed the scratches.
Renata retrieved the backup key from a hidden compartment in her jewelry box.
The safe opened.
The top shelf was empty.
Her passport was gone.
So was the blue folder containing their wedding legal documents.
Renata stared at the empty space.
"Where are they?"
Alonso's expression remained blank.
"Where is what?"
"My passport."
"Maybe you moved it."
"And the wedding file."
"I have no idea."
Renata turned to the officer.
"They were here three days ago."
Alonso laughed again.
"Prove it."
Renata's eyes moved toward the ceiling.
A tiny white camera sat in the corner of the dressing room.
Alonso followed her gaze.
His face changed.
The camera was part of the apartment security system.
It had been installed after a jewelry theft in the building two years earlier.
Evangelina had complained that it was tacky.
Renata had insisted on keeping it.
"The camera records motion."
Alonso's jaw tightened.
"It records to the home server."
"And to cloud backup."
"No."
Renata looked at him.
"I set it up."
One officer smiled faintly.
"Then we should preserve that footage."
Evangelina entered the room.
"This is absurd."
Renata ignored her and opened the security application on her personal tablet.
The app asked for a password.
She entered it.
Access denied.
She tried again.
Access denied.
Alonso's mouth curved slightly.
"Maybe you forgot it."
Renata looked at him.
"You changed the password."
"It is my system too."
The officer held out his hand.
"Sir, do not delete any footage."
"I haven't."
"Can you provide the current password?"
Alonso glanced at Evangelina.
"My attorney told me not to provide access to company systems."
Renata pointed toward the camera.
"That is our home security system."
"It runs through the same network."
Mariana, who had been waiting in the living room, appeared in the doorway.
"Wonderful."
Alonso frowned.
"What is wonderful?"
"You just identified the home server as part of a company system covered by the preservation notice."
Alonso's expression went blank.
Mariana smiled.
"Thank you."
Evangelina hissed something under her breath.
Alonso stepped toward Mariana.
"Get out of my house."
"I am here as Renata's counsel."
"She is collecting personal items, not conducting discovery."
"Correct."
Mariana pointed toward the empty safe.
"And now we have an apparently missing passport and missing legal file, plus fresh damage to the safe and a preserved home camera system."
She looked at the officer.
"I think we are done here until the footage is secured."
Renata packed clothes into two suitcases.
She found her birth certificate in a desk drawer Alonso had missed.
She took her university degrees, tax records, and a small wooden box containing the only photographs she had of her parents.
When she carried the box into the hallway, Evangelina looked at it and rolled her eyes.
"You always did cling to sentimental junk."
Renata stopped.
Inside the box was a photograph of her father holding her on his shoulders at a street fair.
He had died when she was nine.
Her mother died four years later.
Renata had spent the rest of her childhood moving between an aunt's apartment and a church-supported scholarship residence.
Evangelina knew all of that.
She had once used it during a Christmas toast.
"Renata understands gratitude because she grew up with so little."
Everyone had smiled.
Renata had smiled too.
Now she looked at Evangelina.
"My father owned almost nothing."
Evangelina gave a bored shrug.
"I know."
"But he never put debt in my name."
The officer turned away to hide a reaction.
Evangelina's face tightened.
Renata carried the box to the elevator.
Alonso followed.
"You are enjoying this."
Renata turned.
"Enjoying what?"
"Humiliating my family."
She stared at him.
"Your mother put a plate in my face in front of twenty people."
"And now you have frozen business accounts that pay hundreds of employees."
"I did not create the fraud."
"You could have come to me."
"I did."
Alonso frowned.
"When?"
"Three months ago."
His expression changed.
Renata remembered the night clearly.
She had asked why a tax notice contained the name Ibarra Strategic Holdings next to her taxpayer number.
Alonso had barely looked at it.
"Probably a database error."
Then he had kissed her forehead and changed the subject.
Renata continued.
"You told me it was a database error."
"Maybe that is what I believed."
"You were the administrator on the company."
Alonso looked toward the officers.
"This is not the place."
"It never is with you."
The elevator arrived.
Renata stepped inside.
Alonso lowered his voice.
"You still have time to fix this."
"For who?"
"For yourself."
The doors began to close.
He reached between them, forcing them open again.
"Valeria will destroy you if you drag her into this."
Renata's pulse jumped.
"So you know she contacted me."
Alonso realized his mistake too late.
Mariana stepped forward.
"How do you know Valeria contacted Renata?"
Alonso removed his hand.
"I assumed."
"No."
Renata stared at him.
"You knew."
The elevator doors closed between them.
Mariana waited until they were moving.
"That means Valeria told him."
Renata nodded.
"Or he told her to contact me."
"Exactly."
When they reached the lobby, Mariana's phone rang.
It was Salgado.
He had already obtained an emergency preservation copy of the home security system through the vendor.
Mariana put him on speaker.
"Did you find the safe footage?"
"Yes."
Renata gripped her suitcase handle.
"Who opened it?"
Salgado was quiet for a moment.
"That is the interesting part."
"Who?"
"At 2:13 this morning, Alonso entered the dressing room with Evangelina."
Renata closed her eyes.
"They removed the passport?"
"They removed a blue folder and several other documents."
"Where did they take them?"
"We are still following that."
Mariana asked, "And the passport?"
"Alonso put it in his jacket."
Renata opened her eyes.
There was no ambiguity now.
Her husband had taken her passport after filing a theft complaint against her.
Salgado continued.
"But that is not the most important part of the footage."
Mariana stopped walking.
"What is?"
"The camera microphone recorded their conversation."
A pause.
"Evangelina asked Alonso whether he had found the original power of attorney."
Renata's heart began to pound.
"And?"
Salgado's voice lowered.
May you like
"Alonso said, 'No, but if Renata finds the original, she will see we changed page four after she signed it.'"
