Chapter 10 - The Ultimate Vengeance (The Twist)"Thank you, Esteban," Julieta whispered, her voice suddenly devoid of any warmth.
She walked over to the fireplace and tossed the pen into the flames.
"Julieta? Is everything okay?" I asked, a cold knot forming in my stomach.
She turned to face me. "Do you remember a man named Alejandro Vargas?"
The name hit me like a physical blow. Alejandro Vargas. He was the CEO of our biggest rival company twenty years ago. My grandfather and my mother had ruthlessly destroyed him, driving his company into bankruptcy. He had lost everything and taken his own life a year later.
"Yes," I stammered. "But what does he have to do with..."
"He was my father," Julieta said, her eyes dead and cold.
The air in the room evaporated. I couldn't breathe.
"My real name is Julieta Vargas," she continued, walking slowly toward my desk. "For fifteen years, I planned how to take back what your family stole from mine. But breaking into a fortress from the outside is impossible. You have to be invited in."
"No..." I backed away. "The kidnapping... my brothers..."
"Your brothers are greedy idiots," Julieta laughed softly. "I anonymously tipped them off about your grandfather’s secret trust. I planted the idea to drug me. I hired the actor. I wanted them to try and steal the company so I could expose them."
"Paula's fake custody threats..." I gasped, tears welling in my eyes.
"That was me too," she admitted smoothly. "I needed you divorced. I needed you broken, isolated, and desperate for a savior. Someone you would trust enough to willingly hand over the keys to the kingdom."
She tapped the freshly signed documents on the desk. "And you just did."
"I'll annul the marriage! I'll tell the police!" I shouted, panic rising in my throat.
"Tell them what?" Julieta smiled, a terrifying picture of calm. "That I heroically saved your children from the Russian mob? That I risked my life to stop your evil family? The world loves me, Esteban. I'm the hero of this story. And the documents you just signed are legally ironclad."
She picked up her purse and walked toward the door.
"What about the baby?" I choked out, a single tear falling down my cheek. "Are you even pregnant?"
Julieta paused at the door. She looked back at me, her face a mask of absolute, chilling victory.
"Oh, I'm pregnant," she said softly. "But the father isn't you, Esteban. It's EfraÃn."
The door clicked shut.
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I fell to my knees in the empty penthouse. I had survived the monsters under my bed, only to hand my entire life over to the monster I married.
[END]
