Chapter 6 - The Other Woman
Elena was waiting in the back corner of the closed coffee shop, wearing a hooded coat and no makeup. Without the flowing dresses and carefully positioned hands, she looked younger than Mara remembered.
Her stomach was flat.
Mara stopped three feet away. “Where is it?”
Elena swallowed. “In my car.”
Julian and Priya watched from a parked vehicle across the street. Mara had agreed to meet Elena only because the coffee shop had security cameras and two exits.
“You lied about being pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“You helped my husband ruin my life.”
“Yes.”
The blunt answers unsettled Mara more than denial would have.
Elena reached into her coat and placed a small memory card on the table. “I was paid to wear the bump and appear at the announcement. Beatrice said Adrian needed a reason to leave you before the bank called the loan.”
“How much?”
“Five thousand dollars.”
“You sold your name for five thousand?”
Elena flinched. “My father left debts. His company was still registered in my name. Beatrice threatened to report me for fraud unless I cooperated.”
“You could have come to me.”
“Would you have believed me?”
Mara did not answer.
Elena pulled a folded photograph from her pocket. It showed Beatrice in a storage room beside a mannequin wearing the prosthetic stomach. Adrian stood nearby, holding a box labeled prenatal supplements.
“The bump was made for appearances,” Elena said. “They wanted photographs at the club, at church, and outside the courthouse. Every time you resisted the divorce, they would add another public scene.”
“Why did it fall at brunch?”
“Because I wanted you to see it.”
Mara remembered Elena’s phone ringing and the frightened look on her face.
“Who called?”
“My brother, Rafael. He found the payment records.”
Elena’s voice cracked. “I was going to leave after the first appearance, but Beatrice kept threatening me. Then Adrian told me that if I backed out, they would say I had attacked you and stolen the ledger.”
“The video was edited.”
“Beatrice has someone who does that for her.”
“Who?”
Elena looked toward the window. “Isabel.”
Mara felt the pieces shift again.
“Adrian’s sister runs the consulting company.”
“She runs the accounts. Beatrice runs Isabel.”
Elena handed over another memory card. “This one has recordings.”
Mara slid it into an envelope without opening it. “Why help me now?”
Elena looked down at her hands. “Because Beatrice told me what would happen after you signed the separation agreement.”
“What?”
“She said Adrian would announce the baby, take control of the trust, and put me somewhere quiet until the story was over.”
“There is no baby.”
“She knows that.”
The sentence landed harder than Mara expected.
“Then what is the heir?”
Elena’s eyes met hers. “A legal condition in your grandmother’s trust. Beatrice believes a child publicly recognized as Adrian’s would let her claim control of the assets.”
“Even if the child didn’t exist?”
“She planned to produce a birth record later.”
Mara heard the door scrape outside.
Julian entered at once. “We need to leave.”
A black sedan had stopped beside the curb. Its driver remained inside.
Elena’s face went white. “They found me.”
Julian guided them through the rear exit. They reached the alley as the sedan accelerated toward the coffee shop’s front windows. Tires squealed. Glass shattered.
Priya pulled Elena into the waiting vehicle. Mara ran behind them, heart pounding.
The sedan sped away before anyone could read the plate.
At the safe apartment, Elena gave a statement. She admitted the fraud, identified the prosthetic manufacturer, and described Beatrice’s instructions. It was enough to make her a cooperating witness, but not enough to erase her own involvement.
“I’ll face whatever happens,” Elena said. “But I won’t let them hurt you again.”
Mara studied her. “You don’t get to call this redemption yet.”
“I know.”
“You get to call it the first honest thing you’ve done.”
Later, Julian opened the second memory card on an isolated computer. The first file was a recording of Beatrice’s voice.
“Mara will break when she thinks Adrian has chosen someone else,” Beatrice said. “The hair was necessary. A woman who looks humiliated behaves unpredictably.”
Adrian’s voice answered, “And the loan?”
“She signs after the announcement. If she refuses, we use the evidence.”
The recording ended.
Mara closed her eyes.
Then a second file began playing automatically.
May you like
This time, Beatrice was speaking to someone Mara had never heard before.
“If Adrian starts asking about his birth records, silence him. He is not entitled to know who his real father was.”
