Chapter 7 - The Recording Patricia Never Expected
For several seconds, Patricia stood motionless beneath the hallway chandelier.
Then she looked upward.
“Emiliano?”
His voice returned through the speakers.
“Bring the documents.”
Patricia ran toward the staircase.
The elevator would not respond. The exterior doors were locked. Her phone had lost access to the mansion’s private network.
When she reached the ballroom, Emiliano was waiting near the grand piano.
Adrian stood beside him with two security officers.
Rosa entered through another door holding Lucia’s and Sofia’s hands.
Patricia’s shock transformed almost instantly into wounded confusion.
“You were supposed to be in Europe.”
“I was supposed to believe you.”
She looked at Rosa.
“This is her fault. She manipulated the girls and turned you against me.”
Emiliano nodded toward the far wall.
A projector activated.
The ballroom curtains closed automatically, and the first recording appeared above the fireplace.
Patricia watched herself remove Elena’s bracelet from the private dressing room.
A second recording showed her meeting Victor in the garden.
A third showed her photographing trust documents.
A fourth showed her placing stolen items inside Rosa’s room.
Patricia shook her head.
“Those videos are edited.”
“They are backed up with timestamps, security logs, and independent server records,” Adrian said.
Patricia turned to Emiliano.
“You invaded my privacy.”
“You entered my children’s bedroom and threatened them.”
“I was disciplining them.”
“You told them I was tired of them.”
“They misunderstood.”
The screen changed again.
This time, Patricia was sitting inside her car three months earlier, speaking to someone on the phone.
“I don’t care how you do it,” she said in the recording. “Make sure the school sends another complaint about Lucia. Emiliano needs to believe the children are unstable.”
Lucia stared at the screen.
“You made my teacher lie?”
Patricia’s mouth opened, but no words came.
Another recording played.
Patricia spoke to Grant outside a restaurant.
“Once the marriage certificate is signed, we begin transferring control. The girls go to Switzerland. Rosa goes to prison. Emiliano will have no one left except me.”
Emiliano’s expression hardened.
But Adrian had warned him there was one final recording.
It had been recovered from an old backup connected to the original security network. Patricia had deleted the visible copy but failed to erase the archived data.
The screen showed Patricia in Emiliano’s office the night he proposed.
She was not alone.
Victor stood beside the desk.
Patricia held Emiliano’s written proposal speech and laughed.
“He still talks to his dead wife’s photograph,” she said. “It’s pathetic.”
Victor told her to be careful.
Patricia picked up a framed picture of Elena.
“I only need him emotional until the wedding. After that, I will remove every reminder of her from this house.”
Sofia squeezed Rosa’s hand.
Emiliano’s face remained calm, but his eyes shone.
Patricia looked at him desperately.
“I was angry. I didn’t mean it.”
“You meant every word,” he said.
“It was before I truly knew you.”
“No. It was before you thought you needed to hide.”
Sirens sounded outside the mansion.
Patricia turned toward the windows.
For the first time, she understood that the locked gates were not keeping danger out.
May you like
They were keeping her inside until the police arrived.
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