Chapter 6 - The Digging of the Grave
The air in the conference room was suffocating. Ricardo looked as if he might physically collapse onto the floor. His hands shook so violently he could barely hold the paper showing Mariana’s name.
"Mariana, please," Ricardo begged, his voice reduced to a pathetic whimper. He literally slid out of his chair, dropping to his knees on the plush carpet. "I am begging you. I have a wife. Laura didn't do anything to you. Please, don't destroy my agency. I'll do anything. I'll issue a public apology. I’ll make a video, I’ll post it on social media, I'll tell everyone what an idiot I am! Just don't pull the contract!"
Mariana looked down at him, her expression completely unchanged. "Stand up, Ricardo. You look pathetic."
"I am pathetic!" Ricardo sobbed, not moving. "I’m an idiot! Please, Mariana!"
Javier finally found his voice, though it was weak and trembling. "Mariana... you can't do this. Okay, I get it. You’re angry, and you have every right to be. But this is my best friend. If you do this, you’re ruining his life. You’re ruining our life! We can go to therapy. We can fix this marriage. You don't have to throw eight years away over this."
Mariana turned to Javier, a bitter, beautiful smile spreading across her lips.
"Our marriage was over a long time ago, Javier. You just didn't notice because your bank account was always full."
She reached into her designer handbag and pulled out a small, sleek black USB drive. She tossed it onto the table. It slid across the polished wood, stopping right in front of Javier.
"What's this?" Javier asked, staring at it with a growing sense of dread.
"That," Mariana said, "is a complete backup of your private text messages with Ricardo over the last three years."
Javier gasped, his face draining of what little color he had left.
"You... you went through my phone?"
"No," Mariana said. "I didn't have to. You connected your phone to our home iPad three years ago and forgot to log out of your cloud account. Every single message you exchanged with Ricardo synced directly to my personal tablet."
She leaned against the edge of the table, crossing her arms.
"I didn't want to look, Javier. I really didn't. But two years ago, after Ricardo made a particularly nasty comment about my weight at our anniversary dinner, I opened the tablet. And do you know what I found?"
Javier couldn't answer. He stared at the USB drive as if it were a venomous snake.
"I found a message from Ricardo," Mariana said, her voice quiet but carrying a terrifying weight. "He said, 'I don't know how you sleep with that whale, Javi. You deserve a medal.' And do you know what your response was, Javier?"
Tears of shame began to well in Javier's eyes. He closed them tight, unable to look at her.
"Your response," Mariana continued, "was: 'I just close my eyes and think of the bakery profits. She’s a cash cow, buddy. I’ll milk her until the bucket is full.'"
The room went entirely silent. Even Ricardo stopped sobbing, his eyes wide with horror as he looked at Javier.
"You both thought I was blind," Mariana said, her voice finally cracking with a trace of the deep, agonizing pain she had carried in silence for years. "You thought because I didn't shout, because I didn't scream, that I was stupid. But I was just waiting. I wanted to see how far you would go. I wanted to see how much of my soul you were willing to sell for a comfortable life."
She took a step closer to Javier.
"I funded your lifestyle. I paid for your luxury vacations. I allowed you to pretend to be a successful, wealthy man in front of your colleagues. And all the while, you and your friend were laughing at me behind my back, calling me a 'cash cow'."
"Mariana, I swear, it was just locker room talk!" Javier cried, reaching out to grab her hand. "I love you! I swear I love you! I was just trying to fit in with him, I didn't mean any of it!"
Mariana pulled her hand back, avoiding his touch as if he were covered in poison.
"The divorce is final, Javier. My lawyers have already filed the petition. The prenuptial agreement stands. You have forty-eight hours to pack your clothes and leave my house. If you are still there by Thursday morning, the security team will remove you."
She then turned to Ricardo, who was still on his knees.
"And as for Viento Creativo... the bank has already been notified of the termination of your contract. Since DulcePro was listed as your primary guarantor for your commercial office loan, the bank is exercising its right to call in the outstanding balance immediately."
Ricardo gasped, his eyes bulging. "No... no, they can't do that!"
"They can, and they will," Mariana said. "You have thirty days to pay off the remaining three million pesos on your building, or they will foreclose. And since you have no other major clients, I highly doubt any other bank will refinance you."
She walked back to her desk and sat down in her high-backed leather chair. She picked up a pen, signifying that the meeting was over.
"You may leave now," she said without looking up.
"Mariana, please!" Javier screamed, stepping toward her desk.
"Sofía," Mariana said calmly. "Call security. Have them escorted out of the building."
Within minutes, two large, uniform security guards entered the room. They didn't have to use force. Javier, broken and defeated, slowly walked out, his head bowed. Ricardo followed him, stumbling like a man who had just survived a shipwreck, his face wet with tears and his hands shaking uncontrollably.
As the elevator doors closed behind them, Mariana finally let out a long, slow breath.
May you like
The weight of eight years of humiliation, silence, and pain seemed to lift from her shoulders, dissipating into the warm, vanilla-scented air of her office.
She was finally free.
