Part 3
Andrés sat again. “I’m sorry.”
She touched the side of her belly. “I should have told you how far the report had gone.”
“Yes.”
“I couldn’t discuss a privileged investigation with someone whose company appeared in it.”
“I’m your husband.”
“That is exactly the problem.”
The answer hurt him. She saw it before he looked away.
He picked up a paper cup from the bedside table, discovered it was empty, and crushed the rim slightly between his fingers.
“Did my father know?” he asked.
“That your invoices were being reviewed? Yes.”
“That you were going to say the contracts were improper?”
“I didn’t say they were improper. I said the approval process was compromised and the board had been given incomplete information.”
He gave a short laugh without humor. “That distinction will sound excellent in a newspaper.”
“It matters legally.”
“It matters to lawyers.”
“I am a lawyer.”
“And I’m the man who has to explain to twenty-three employees why their names are suddenly connected to a fraud investigation.”
“There is no fraud finding yet.”
“Yet.”
Elena closed her eyes. She was too tired to separate his fear from his accusation.
When she opened them, Andrés had placed the flattened cup carefully back on the table as though embarrassed by what he had done to it.
“Did Clara know about the baby?” he asked.
“She knew I was pregnant.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No. I never told her who you were.”
“Why not?”
“Because I did not want our marriage used to discredit my work.”
“And now?”
“Now she’ll use it anyway.”
Rafael appeared at the door before Andrés could answer. He had recovered his tie but not his composure. Mateo stood behind him holding Elena’s green purse and a folded coat.
Father and son looked at each other with the wary recognition of men who had spent years learning how to turn affection into procedure.
“How is she?” Rafael asked.
“She is here,” Elena said.
His gaze shifted to her. “I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t push me.”
“No. I hired the person who did.”
Andrés stood. “This is not the room for your guilt.”
Rafael’s expression tightened, but he nodded. “You’re right.”
Mateo placed the purse on the chair and lingered near the doorway.
“Did Clara give you the document case?” Elena asked.
“No.”
“Where is she?”
“She left the building,” Rafael said.
“With the case?”
“Yes.”
Elena looked at Mateo.
He adjusted one cuff, then stopped when he realized he was doing it. “She went to her office first. I saw her come down the service corridor about ten minutes later. She still had it.”
“Did anyone go with her?”
“No.”
“Did she remove anything?”
“I couldn’t see.”
Rafael said, “I instructed security to seal her office.”
“After she left?”
His silence answered.
Elena pushed herself higher against the pillow. The monitor strap shifted, and Andrés reached automatically to steady it.
“Who has access to the legal server?” she asked.
“Clara, you, the finance director, and the external technology provider,” Rafael said.
“Clara’s access must be suspended.”
“I called Martín from information security.”
“Did you tell him why?”
“I told him it was an emergency governance matter.”
“Call him again. Tell him to preserve access logs, email archives, document versions, printer records, and deletion activity. Nothing should be overwritten by routine retention processes.”
Rafael took out his phone.
“And the cameras,” Elena added. “The entrance hall, upper corridor, reception desk, garage, and service exit.”
Andrés looked at her. “You’re doing this now?”
“Yes.”
“You’re in a hospital bed.”
“The evidence is not.”
Rafael stepped into the hallway to make the call.
Mateo remained by the door. “There is a camera facing the staircase,” he said. “But one of the columns blocks part of the middle landing.”
“Do you know whether it records continuously?”
“I think so. I can ask security.”
“Don’t ask casually. Tell them the footage is subject to legal preservation. Ask them not to view, copy, forward, or discuss it except through counsel.”
Mateo nodded and then hesitated.
“What?” Elena asked.
“Several guests were recording the reception before it happened. Not the fall, I don’t think. But afterward.”
“Names?”
“I can make a list.”
“Do that while you remember.”
Andrés stared between them. “You’re turning him into an investigator.”
“I’m asking a witness to write down what he saw before people begin telling him what he saw.”
Mateo’s face colored. “I can do it.”
“Only your own observations,” Elena said. “No guesses.”
He nodded again and left.
Andrés waited until the door closed. “You trust him?”
“I trust contemporaneous notes more than memory after three board members have called.”
“Have they?”
Rafael returned, phone still in his hand. “Eleven calls. I answered none.”
“Good,” Elena said.
He looked toward Andrés. “Clara sent the board an email.”
Elena felt the room narrow.
“What did it say?”
“That you became distressed during a disagreement, stepped backward, and fell. She says she attempted to stop you.”
The baby’s heartbeat continued unchanged.
Andrés spoke first. “That’s a lie.”
Rafael’s jaw shifted. “She also disclosed that Elena is married to you and stated that the legal review may be compromised by an undisclosed family conflict.”
Elena looked down at her hands.
There it was. Not invented, not entirely false, and therefore far more dangerous than a simple denial.
“Did she attach anything?” Elena asked.
“A draft conflict memorandum prepared by the foundation’s former counsel two years ago.”
“I’ve never seen it.”
“She says it was provided to you when you were retained.”
“It wasn’t.”
Andrés walked to the window and back. The room was too small for pacing, so each turn brought him close to the bed.
“What does the memorandum say?” he asked.
Rafael looked at Elena rather than his son. “That appointing a close relative of the chairman’s family to a legal oversight role could create an appearance of partiality.”
“Close relative,” Andrés repeated. “We weren’t married two years ago.”
May you like
“We were living together,” Elena said.
“Which half the board didn’t know.”
