“Tell your housekeeper to make coffee while we take care of adult matters.”
Eresto smiled.
“No. Rosa is staying today.”
Hector’s expression flickered.
“Er, perhaps we should talk in private.”
“We’ll do it,” Ernesto said. “I’ll reserve the guest room.”
The color disappeared from Victor Aguero’s face.
Lorepa recovered first.
“Which guest room?”
“The door upstairs,” Ernesto replied. “The door full of my money.”
No object moved.
Outside, thunder rumbled over the city.
Lorepa laughed.
“You are unstable.”
“I’ve been called worse things by people with a better sense of timing.”
Erпesto went upstairs, forcing them to follow him.
When they arrived at the guest room, Lorepa stopped so abruptly that Hector almost bumped into her.
The money lay exposed under a yellow light.
The metal box was open on the bed.
Rosa stood in front of the door like a witness carved into the staircase.
Erпesto spun.
“Surprise.”
Victor Aguero whispered, “That’s what it looks like.”
Erпesto almost laughed.
“That is the patriarchal coffin of the guilty man.”
Lorepa stepped forward.
“This moпey is miпe.”
“I’m interested,” Ernesto said. “Because Rosa tells me it was stolen from company projects.”
Lorepa’s eyes were fixed on Rosa.
“You are a miserable servant.”
Rosa’s child got up.
“You should have paid attention when you were talking through the open doors.”
Hector raised both hands.
“Let us calm down. Herpes, you’re emotional.”
Erпesto looked at the map that the office called brother.
“You’ve left me in an empty house today.”
Hector swallowed hard.
“My wife-“
“Your wife is Acapulco,” Erpesto said. “I called her from the front door.”
Silence fell.
Lorepa’s mask fell off for the first time.
Erпesto chose a USB memory stick.
“Rosa kept copies. Transfers. Photographs. Conversations. Everything to reopen it all.”
Victor headed towards the door.
Rosa stepped aside.
Two federal agents entered the hallway.
Then two more appeared behind them.
Lorepa whispered, “What have you done?”
Erпesto looked at Rosa.
“What should have been done months ago.”
Hector paled.
“Did you call the authorities?”
Rosa answered before Erpes could.
“Yes. Fifteen minutes after Dop Erpesto arrived home.”
Lorepa stared at her.
“You?”
Rosa’s voice remained calm.
“Yes, ma’am. The maid.”
The word had a stronger impact than she did, because Rosa returned it sharply.
The Agepts entered the room, displaying warraps.
Hector Bega sweatig.
Victor Agüere dropped his canvas bag.
Lorepa remained completely still, calculating until the calculation became useless.
“You can’t prove that I orchestrated a murder,” he said.
Rosa approached the metal box and took out a small recorder.
“Do you remember the time you told Mr. Salipas, ‘Erpesto is too proud to look under his own roof’?”
Lorepa’s lips parted slightly.
Rosa pressed play.
Lorepa’s voice filled the room, clear and ruthless.
“Let the company fail. Let it drown in shame. By the time it understands, the money will already be clean.”
Eresto closed his eyes.
The betrayal hurt him less than he expected.
Perhaps the pain had run its course.
Perhaps the truth, even the brutal truth, was still a kind of air.
The ageps moved.
Victor Aguero was arrested first.
Hector began to talk about lawyers, friendship, misunderstandings, and stress.
Lorepa just looked at Erpesto.
“Would you let them arrest your wife?”
“My ex-wife,” he said.
His face hardened.
