Chapter 12 - The ten days they tried to steal from me
Once we understood the ten-day window, everything became simpler.
Not easy.
Clearer.
Mateo did not need permanent custody.
Estela did not need permanent guardianship.
Benítez did not need to prove I was mentally ill.
Javier needed uncertainty.
A temporary legal fog.
Ten days in which:
Mateo’s management authority remained suspended.
I was occupied defending custody and capacity.
Carranza debt entered accelerated review.
Aurora gained restructuring leverage.
Then Aster could be pushed toward a governance transition Javier controlled.
The babies were not the prize.
They were pressure.
That realization enraged me more than the baby shower.
Four newborn lives had been converted into scheduling tools.
Lucía moved fast.
Independent psychiatric evaluation.
Independent postpartum medical review.
Full chain-of-custody comparison of altered medical records.
Hospital discharge documentation.
Video and audio from the wristband.
Relatives’ own recordings.
Ironically, the people who filmed my humiliation preserved evidence that I was calm, oriented, aware, and asking coherent questions while Mateo pressured me.
Estela’s cousins became some of my best witnesses without intending to.
One video captured Mateo saying:
“You have until midnight to disappear.”
Another captured Estela telling me I was “emotionally unstable” before any doctor had evaluated me.
Camila’s audio captured Javier discussing timing.
Benítez’s deleted message filled the motive.
Within forty-eight hours, the emergency incapacity narrative weakened substantially.
Not vanished.
Legal processes take time.
But the ten-day clock was no longer theirs alone.
Then Mateo requested a private meeting.
I refused private.
He came with counsel.
I brought Lucía.
He looked terrible.
For the first time in six years, no tailored suit could make him look important.
“You knew about Aster?” I asked.
“No.”
“Javier?”
“He said Aurora would refinance us.”
“And you believed him.”
“We needed money.”
“You hid four hundred million pesos in obligations.”
“We were expanding.”
“You forged my financial approval?”
He looked away.
“There were electronic authorizations.”
“Mine?”
“Some.”
“Did I give them?”
Silence.
There it was.
He had used company credentials in ways he could not defend.
Not necessarily forged by hand.
But false authority.
“Why the baby shower?”
His face tightened.
“My mother said public agreement would prevent you changing your story later.”
“My story?”
“That you accepted the separation.”
“And giving up four babies was supposed to be believable?”
He snapped:
“You were never supposed to actually lose them.”
I went still.
“What?”
He looked at his lawyer.
The lawyer advised him not to continue.
Mateo ignored him.
“The contract was pressure.”
“Pressure for what?”
“To sign the property settlement.”
“Why?”
“Javier said once marital claims were separated, the trust negotiations would be cleaner.”
My stomach dropped.
The custody clause was theater even to Mateo.
He expected me to resist eventually.
He thought the threat would force a broader financial settlement.
“You told me I’d never see them again.”
“I was angry.”
“Thirty-two relatives were filming.”
“My mother arranged that.”
“You brought Camila.”
His face hardened.
“I thought the marriage was over.”
“It was.”
That silenced him.
Then I asked:
“Did you know about the psychiatric room?”
“No.”
I watched him.
For once, I believed the surprise.
“Did you know Benítez altered my records?”
“No.”
“Did you know Javier needed ten days of uncertainty?”
Mateo’s face emptied.
“No.”
He had been a perpetrator.
And a pawn.
Both could be true.
Then he said something unexpected.
“Javier asked me to sign another document the night after the hospital.”
“What?”
“A temporary management nomination.”
“For whom?”
He swallowed.
“Gabriel.”
My former CFO.
The man who had already stepped aside after admitting his history with Camila.
Why would Javier want Gabriel controlling Carranza?
Mateo continued.
“I refused.”
“Why?”
“Because Javier said Gabriel would stabilize the company until Aster completed review.”
“That doesn’t explain why you refused.”
Mateo looked at me.
“Because Gabriel already knew too much about Aurora.”
So Javier wanted the investigator inside management.
That made no sense.
Unless Gabriel was not merely investigating Aurora.
Unless he had a stake.
Lucía checked the Aster trust supplemental beneficiaries.
One contingent advisory interest appeared under initials:
G.S.
May you like
Gabriel Santos.
Cliffhanger: Gabriel was not just the CFO who discovered Aurora—he had a hidden contingent interest inside the restructuring trust threatening Carranza.
