PART 2 - PATRICIA TOOK THE MICROPHONE BEFORE ERNESTO COULD EXPOSE HER

Ernesto clicked the most recent recording.

The screen shook for a moment before showing the hallway inside his home. Lucía had apparently been holding the camera.

Then Patricia’s voice came through the speakers.

“I already told you to stop interfering.”

Lucía answered.

“My father deserves to know what you’re doing.”

Ernesto leaned closer.

A sudden impact exploded through the recording. Something crashed against a table. Lucía cried out.

Ernesto’s face went pale.

But Patricia’s voice remained horrifyingly calm.

“By the time your father realizes what’s happening, the house, the accounts, and everything he spent his entire life building will already belong to me.”

For a moment, Ernesto forgot how to breathe.

The woman waiting to marry him had been planning to take everything.

His home.

His accounts.

Everything he had spent his life building.

And Lucía had discovered it.

“She hurt Mommy,” Mateo whispered again.

Then someone struck the hotel-room door.

BANG.

Mateo jumped.

Another pounding

blow followed.

“Ernesto.”

Patricia.

The sweetness had disappeared from her voice.

“Open the door.”

Mateo immediately covered both ears.

Ernesto rose from the chair. On his laptop screen, the recording was still playing. Outside, 120 guests waited for a wedding that was supposed to begin at any moment.

The mariachi band was still playing.

The champagne was still waiting.

The local press was still seated.

And everyone inside that ballroom believed Patricia Robles was about to become Ernesto Aguilar’s loving wife.

BANG.

“Ernesto, open this door. Now.”

He stared at the handle, then at Mateo, then back at the evidence glowing on the screen.

Patricia struck the door again.

This time, she didn’t ask him to open it.

“Ernesto,” she said, her voice suddenly low and cold, “if you care about Lucía, you’ll delete whatever she gave you.”

His hand tightened around the edge of the desk.

Patricia knew exactly

what was on the USB drive.

And she knew where Lucía was.

Ernesto stepped toward the door but didn’t unlock it.

“What did you do to my daughter?”

Silence.

Then Patricia laughed softly.

“You’re about to make the biggest mistake of your life.”

Ernesto grabbed his phone and called Teresa.

She answered immediately, breathing hard.

“Ernesto, thank God. Lucía is with me. She’s barely conscious. We’re heading to the hospital.”

His blood turned cold.

“What happened?”

“She thinks Patricia put something in her drink. Lucía tried to warn you before she collapsed.”

Ernesto looked at the laptop again.

Bank transfers.

Legal documents.

Secret recordings.

Everything suddenly connected.

Outside, Patricia started walking away.

Ernesto unlocked the door and stepped into the hallway. At the far end, Patricia was moving quickly toward the ballroom.

Not escaping.

Heading straight toward the 120 guests waiting inside.

Ernesto followed her, but before entering, he crouched

beside Mateo.

“Stay with the hotel manager until I come back. Do not go anywhere with Patricia. Do you understand?”

Mateo nodded.

Ernesto handed the manager his room key and quietly told him to keep the room locked, preserve the corridor security footage, and call hotel security. Then he sent a copy of the USB folder to his own encrypted cloud account.

If Patricia took the drive, the evidence would survive.

Only then did he enter the ballroom.

Patricia was already standing beside the microphone.

She smiled at him.

Then she said, “Before this wedding begins… there’s something everyone needs to know.”

The room fell silent.

Ernesto stopped several steps inside the doors.

Patricia lowered her eyes with practiced sadness.

“Ernesto’s daughter has been struggling with our relationship for a long time. This morning, Lucía threatened me. She said she would do anything to stop this wedding.”

A murmur moved through the guests.

Ernesto saw his business partner, Rafael Mendoza, sitting near the front. Rafael did not look surprised.

That registered immediately.

Patricia continued.

“I didn’t want to embarrass Lucía. I love Ernesto too much for that. But she has created recordings, copied private financial documents, and tried to make me look like a criminal.”

Several guests turned toward Ernesto.

Patricia’s eyes shone as if she were fighting tears.

“She even told me she would claim I hurt her if that was what it took.”

It was brilliant.

In less than a minute, Patricia had taken the very evidence Lucía gathered and framed it as proof of obsession.

Ernesto felt anger rise in his chest, but he did not give Patricia the explosion she expected.

He walked slowly toward the front.

“Where is Lucía right now?” he asked.

Patricia hesitated for half a second.

“I assume she’s at home.”

“She’s on the way to a hospital.”

The ballroom went still.

Patricia’s face changed.

Only slightly.

But Ernesto saw it.

“So I’ll ask again,” he said. “Where did you last see my daughter?”

Patricia looked toward the guests.

“This is exactly what I mean. She is manipulating him.”

Ernesto reached the stage.

Rafael stood.

“Ernesto, maybe we should take this somewhere private.”

That was the second thing that registered.

Rafael had used the same tone he used in board meetings when he wanted a discussion ended before questions became dangerous.

Ernesto looked at him.

“You knew Lucía copied financial documents?”

Rafael’s mouth tightened.

“I only know what Patricia just said.”

“Interesting.”

Ernesto took out his phone.

Three minutes earlier, while Patricia was speaking, he had forwarded photographs from the USB to his attorney and to the bank’s fraud department.

One image had already produced a response.

A bank officer had flagged two pending transfers scheduled for later that afternoon.

Both came from an operating account connected to Ernesto’s company.

Both were directed to a consulting firm Ernesto did not recognize.

The authorized contact listed for that consulting firm was Rafael Mendoza.

Ernesto looked from the message to the man he had trusted for fourteen years.

Then he raised his eyes to Patricia.

For the first time that day, her composure cracked.

Rafael began moving toward the side aisle.

Ernesto did not chase him.

He simply looked at the hotel manager standing near the doors and said, “Please ask security to keep Mr. Mendoza here until the police arrive. I believe he may be connected to unauthorized transfers from my company.”

The ballroom erupted.

Patricia stepped away from the microphone.

“You don’t know what you’re doing.”

Ernesto looked at her.

“No. For the first time today, I think I do.”

His phone vibrated again.

A message from Teresa.

Lucía was conscious for a few seconds.

And she had told Teresa one thing before the doctors took her for testing.

“Tell Dad the screenshots aren’t the worst part. Tell him to open the folder marked AFTER THE WEDDING.”

Ernesto’s eyes lifted slowly toward Patricia.

She had heard the message.

And the fear on her face told him Lucía was right.

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