Before my husband stopped looking at me and started looking at her instead.
I tightened my grip on the backpack.“Explain the part about ‘destroying your son,’” I said bluntly, deciding that politeness was a luxury I could no longer afford.
Ernesto leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, his posture suggesting someone carrying a heavy burden.
“A year ago I had a mild heart attack,” he began. “Nothing life-threatening, but enough for my doctors and my lawyers to start talking about things that, at my age, can’t be avoided anymore: wills, succession, inheritance, legacy.”
I pictured him surrounded by papers and notaries and people with expensive degrees who specialized in making wealthy people wealthier.“Javier always knew that one day the company would be his,” he continued. “He grew up with that understanding. It was his inheritance, his birthright, his reason for existing in some ways. And when he married Lucía…” his mouth twisted at the memory, “…everything accelerated. They started pressuring me to retire, to sell assets, to make financial moves that didn’t make sense strategically.”
“That sounds…” I paused, choosing my words carefully, “normal in a wealthy family. Ambitious children wanting to take over.”
Ernesto shook his head firmly.
Ezoic
“If it were only ambition, I could live with that,” he said. He pulled a thin leather folder from the door compartment and placed it in my hands. “It’s easier to explain with this.”
Inside were copies of bank statements, printed emails, and audit reports. Names of companies I didn’t recognize. Numbers with far too many zeros to comprehend. Shell corporations registered in Luxembourg, in the Cayman Islands, in places designed specifically to hide money.
Source: Unsplash
“They created a network of shell companies,” he explained, his voice taking on the tone of someone who’d discovered something he couldn’t quite believe. “They’ve diverted money from the main company to accounts abroad. On paper they’re investments, diversifications, legitimate business strategies. In reality, it’s embezzlement. They’re looting everything I built over forty years.”I looked up from the documents.
