Chapter 4 - The Test in Europe
Emiliano did not sleep that night.
Patricia’s tears troubled him.
Rosa’s warning troubled him more.
He walked through the silent mansion and stopped outside his daughters’ room. The door was slightly open.
Lucia and Sofia were awake.
“What happens if Rosa leaves?” Sofia asked.
“She won’t,” Lucia answered.
“Patricia said Daddy will believe her.”
Lucia was quiet for several seconds.
Then she whispered, “Daddy believes adults because adults know how to make lies sound reasonable.”
Emiliano felt the words like a hand closing around his heart.
He returned to his office and called Adrian.
By sunrise, they had reviewed six months of security reports.
There were deleted recordings, disabled motion sensors, unregistered visitors, and multiple instances of Patricia entering Emiliano’s office while he was away. None of it proved a crime, but together the incidents formed a pattern.
Adrian recommended installing an independent surveillance system.
“The existing network can be accessed by anyone with the administrator password,” he said. “A second system would operate separately. No one outside this room would know it exists.”
Emiliano hated the idea of secretly recording people inside his home.
Then he remembered Sofia asking what would happen if Rosa left.
“Install it,” he said.
Small cameras were placed in common areas, hallways, the girls’ bedroom entrance, Emiliano’s office, and the main staff rooms. There were no cameras in bathrooms or private changing areas.
For three days, nothing unusual happened.
Patricia remained affectionate.
She organized wedding arrangements, helped Sofia with her art project, and apologized to Rosa for the tension between them.
Emiliano almost felt ashamed.
Then Adrian discovered that Patricia had searched Emiliano’s desk for nearly twenty minutes while he was swimming with the girls. She photographed documents and called someone immediately afterward.
The audio captured only one sentence.
“He still hasn’t changed the trust.”
Emiliano listened twice.
Patricia later told him she had been looking for an old guest list.
That was when the plan for Europe began.
Emiliano publicly announced an urgent ten-day business trip to Geneva, Paris, and Milan. Patricia offered to accompany him, but he insisted she remain home to supervise the final wedding preparations.
He apologized for leaving her with so much responsibility.
Patricia smiled and kissed him.
“Go take care of business. I’ll take care of your family.”
Rosa watched from the doorway.
There was fear in her eyes.
Before leaving, Emiliano pulled her aside.
“Stay close to the girls.”
“Always.”
“If anything feels wrong, call Adrian.”
“Will he believe me?”
Emiliano looked at her.
“He will.”
Rosa understood that something had changed, but she did not ask for details.
At the private airport, reporters photographed Emiliano boarding the jet in his bright-red suit.
Minutes before takeoff, he exited through a maintenance stairway hidden from the cameras. A security vehicle returned him to the mansion through an underground entrance built decades earlier.
He entered the monitoring room at 4:20 in the afternoon.
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At 4:37, Patricia’s first secret visitor arrived.
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