Chapter 11: The Woman Who Knew Too Much

I spent the entire night reviewing the files on my father's USB drive.

Every document revealed another piece of the life Reed had hidden from me.

There were offshore accounts.

Private transfers.

Payments to shell companies.

And Pilar's name appeared again and again.

But one document stopped me cold.

It was a property agreement dated seven years ago.

The property belonged to my parents.

According to the document, they had planned to transfer ownership of it to me.

But the transfer had never been completed.

Instead, the property had been acquired by a company connected to Reed.

I called Daniel immediately.

“Find out who signed this.”

He examined the document.

“Your father's signature is here.”

“But your mother's isn't.”

I frowned.

“She would never have agreed to sell it.”

Daniel nodded.

“That's what concerns me.”

A few hours later, he returned with the answer.

“The signature was forged.”

I stared at him.

“Who forged it?”

He placed a second document beside the first.

“A notary who worked exclusively with Ferraro Holdings.”

My chest tightened.

Someone had systematically taken my parents' assets after their deaths.

And Reed had benefited from it.

But there was still something I couldn't understand.

“Why would Reed need their property?”

Daniel pointed to the records.

“Because it's connected to one of the shell companies.”

“The property was being used as collateral.”

I leaned back.

Everything was beginning to connect.

My parents had discovered the financial scheme.

They had confronted Reed.

They had tried to protect their property.

Then they died.

Afterward, Reed took control of their assets.

And Pilar received money through the same network.

I closed my eyes.

My grief was turning into something harder.

Something colder.

That afternoon, I received a message from an unknown number.

There was only one sentence.

“You should stop digging.”

I showed it to Daniel.

“Can you trace it?”

He shook his head.

“It's routed through several private servers.”

I smiled without humor.

“Then they’re nervous.”

That evening, I received another message.

This one contained a photograph.

It showed me entering the hotel.

The message beneath it read:

“You have no idea what you're risking.”

I stared at the photograph.

They were watching me.

Someone had followed me from Switzerland.

I immediately called Clara.

“Freeze every account connected to the investigation.”

“And hire additional security.”

She sounded alarmed.

“Fernanda, what's happening?”

“Someone is trying to scare me.”

“Are you going to stop?”

I looked at my father's letter on the desk.

“No.”

The next morning, Daniel discovered something even more disturbing.

A second audio file had been deleted from the USB drive.

But the deletion wasn't complete.

He managed to recover part of it.

The recording began with my mother's voice.

“If something happens to us, Fernanda must know the truth about Reed.”

Then my father's voice followed.

“And she must know about Pilar's child.”

I froze.

Pilar's child.

I replayed the recording.

Again.

And again.

Then the file ended.

I looked at Daniel.

“What does that mean?”

He didn't answer.

My mind returned to the hospital.

Pilar had said the baby was Reed's.

Reed had never questioned it.

But my parents had known something about the child before they died.

Something important enough to mention in their final recording.

I stood up.

“Find out who the baby's biological father is.”

Daniel stared at me.

“Fernanda, are you sure?”

I looked toward the window.

“I've spent eight years believing every lie they told me.”

“I'm not making that mistake again.”