PART 2
Rodrigo tried to speak, but his voice got stuck.
Valeria squeezed his arm tighter, furious that he didn’t obey.
—What are you waiting for? —he spat—. Call security. This employee attacked me first. I want them to drag her out.
Mariana wiped a drop of coffee from her sleeve and looked at everyone present.
—Curious —he said calmly—. A minute ago you screamed that that cup belonged to your husband.
The entire cafeteria tightened.
Valeria frowned.
—AND?
Mariana took a step towards her.
—So we have a problem, Valeria. Because Rodrigo Aranda’s only registered legal marriage is with me.
The silence broke into fierce murmurs.
A practitioner dropped his glass. A manager covered her mouth. Two vice presidents looked down as if the tables had become fascinating. Valeria blinked several times, unable to process the sentence.
Rodrigo took her elbow.
—Enough —whispered—. Let’s go.
—Why are you talking to him like that? —Valeria demanded—. Who do you think?
Mariana picked up the phone.
—My name is Mariana Aranda. I am the daughter of Ernesto Aranda. Owner of 51% of the voting shares of this company. And the woman you just hit in front of witnesses.
Valeria paled.
Rodrigo pulled her towards the executive elevators, but Mariana did not follow them. Clara appeared through a side door and led her to an office without cameras, used for internal investigations.
—This got out of control —Clara said, looking at the marked cheek—. Rodrigo has people in purchasing, finance and legal. If you don’t have solid evidence, they’re going to say it was a relationship fight.
Mariana opened her bag and put an encrypted memory on the desk.
—My dad was distrustful by trade —he responded—. And I learned late, but I learned.
Before dying, Ernesto had left independent administrative access to Grupo Aranda’s financial system. It did not go through the servers that Rodrigo controlled. From that terminal, Mariana and Clara began an emergency audit.
What appeared on the screen was not infidelity.
It was looting.
Luxury suites billed as “strategic retreats”. Bags, watches and jewelry charged to representation expenses. Trips to Los Cabos, Madrid and New York recorded as meetings with non-existent clients.
But the biggest hole was in 3 newly created digital agencies.
They all received million-dollar monthly payments.
They all had inflated contracts.
They were all registered in the name of Valeria’s mother and younger brother.
Clara was speechless.
—This is diversion of resources.
—And we are just getting started —Mariana said.
He then remembered an old measurement of his father: a tiny camera installed inside a brass lamp in the main office, placed years ago after an attempt at industrial espionage. Rodrigo never knew that it continued to work with external support.
Mariana downloaded the nightly files.
In one of them, Rodrigo and Valeria appeared sitting on the office sofa, toasting with whiskey.
—When the money from Capital Norte enters —Rodrigo said—, we move the good assets to the agencies. We leave Grupo Aranda with debt, Mariana signs the divorce financially suffocated and we leave clean.
Valeria laughed.
—And Lomas’ house will also be ours.
—Everything will be ours —he replied.
Mariana didn’t cry.
Not there.
At 10 p.m., in a private restaurant in Polanco, he met with Arturo Beltrán, his father’s historical lawyer and honorary advisor of the company. He showed him the recording, account statements, invoices and evidence of the assault.
Arturo listened to everything without blinking. In the end, he closed the folder with a force that made the glasses vibrate.
—That man didn’t just betray your marriage, Mariana. He tried to bury Ernesto’s work alive.
—Then we’re going to dig it up —she said.
They agreed to call an extraordinary session of the Council at 8:00 in the morning. Clara would send the summons. Arturo would ask for precautionary measures. Mariana would present the evidence in person.
When she returned home to Lomas de Chapultepec, Rodrigo was waiting for her in the lobby with an ice pack and a rehearsed smile.
—My love, today was a terrible misunderstanding. Valeria is stressed, you shouldn’t have caused her…
Mariana dropped several printed photographs from the night video on the table.
Rodrigo remained motionless.
—Tomorrow —she said— you will understand what happens when you try to sell my father’s memory as if it were cheap merchandise.
For the first time since I met him, Rodrigo was afraid.
And Mariana still hadn’t shown him the worst proof.
