Chapter 5
I stared at the screen.
Richard.
My business partner.
My friend.
For fifteen years.
We'd built the company together.
From nothing.
And he'd been sleeping with my fiancée.
And plotting against me.
I felt sick.
I pulled up more footage.
From other days.
Other times when I'd been gone.
Richard coming to the house.
Chloe greeting him at the door.
Kissing him.
Him staying for hours.
While my daughters were in the house.
While Marisol was working.
They'd been carrying on right under my nose.
And I'd had no idea.
I called Hector.
"Get me everything on Richard," I said. "Everything. His finances. His communications. His travel. Everything. And don't tell anyone. Especially not him."
Hector got to work.
Twenty-four hours later, he had the full picture.
And it was worse than I'd imagined.
Richard and Chloe had been involved for over a year.
They'd met at a charity event.
They'd started an affair.
And they'd been planning this together.
Chloe would marry me.
They'd slowly drain my accounts.
And then they'd disappear together.
But when I'd caught Chloe abusing the girls, their plan had changed.
Now they were going to take everything through the courts.
Custody of the girls.
Half my fortune.
And then they'd run.
But there was more.
Richard had been embezzling from the company too.
For years.
Small amounts.
Adding up to millions.
He'd been using the money to fund his lavish lifestyle.
And to pay off Chloe's debts.
And now they were going to use the embezzlement they'd committed to frame me.
To destroy me.
To take everything.
I sat in my office.
Staring at the evidence.
I'd been betrayed by the woman I was going to marry.
And by my best friend.
The father of my godchildren.
The man I'd trusted with my life.
With my company.
With my family.
I felt a rage I'd never felt before.
But I also felt clarity.
I knew what I had to do.
I called my attorney.
I told him everything.
"We need to expose them," I said. "Both of them. Together. We need to show the court that this was all a scam. That Chloe never loved me. That she and Richard were working together to take everything. That the custody case is just part of their plan."
My attorney was quiet for a moment.
"This changes everything," he said. "If we can prove they're conspiring together, it destroys Chloe's credibility. It shows her custody claim is just a money grab. The judge will throw it out. And they'll both go to prison."
"Then let's prove it," I said.
The next week was a blur of activity.
We gathered more evidence.
Phone records.
Bank records.
Text messages.
Emails.
More security footage.
We had everything we needed.
And then we got a break.
Richard's wife found out about the affair.
She was furious.
And she wanted revenge.
She came to me.
She brought more evidence.
Love letters.
Hotel receipts.
Photographs.
And a recording.
A recording of Richard and Chloe talking.
Planning the custody battle.
Planning to take my money.
Planning to destroy me.
*"Once we have the girls, he'll pay anything,"* Richard's voice said on the recording. "He'll give us fifty million. A hundred million. Whatever we want. He'll never let those girls go."
*"And then we'll disappear,"* Chloe's voice replied. "To the Caribbean. We'll buy an island. We'll never have to work again. And those little brats… we can send them to boarding school in Switzerland. We'll never have to see them."
I stared at the recording device.
She'd been planning to send my daughters away.
To boarding school.
In another country.
Just to get them out of the way.
She'd never wanted them.
She'd only wanted to use them.
To get my money.
This was the smoking gun.
This would destroy them.
The custody hearing was in three days.
We were ready.
But the night before the hearing, something happened.
Marisol didn't come to work.
She always came to work.
She never missed a day.
I called her.
No answer.
I called her again.
Still no answer.
I sent Hector to her apartment.
He called me back an hour later.
His voice was grim.
"Her apartment is empty," he said. "There are signs of a struggle. And there's a note on the table. It's for you."
May you like
"What does it say?"
"It says: Drop the case. Or you'll never see her again."
