Romina sat in Denise's conference room the next morning with both hands wrapped around a paper cup she had not touched.
Nobody had slept much.
After Victor had been photographed leaving Alma's damaged apartment, investigators had told Alma to remain somewhere else with Mateo. Victor's name, already threaded through the questionable trust documents and storage unit records, had now moved from suspicious paperwork into something immediate and physical.
But the line beside Romina's name troubled Gaby almost as much.
Credit + signature access.
It sounded clinical.
Deliberate.
Like a note about equipment rather than a person.
Romina kept rereading the photocopy Denise had been permitted to provide.
"What does 'credit' mean?"
Denise sat across from her.
"We don't know yet."
"That's not good enough."
"No. It isn't."
Romina glanced at Gaby.
"I had good credit before Marco."
Gaby said nothing.
Romina lowered her eyes.
"I still do. I think."
Steven leaned against the far wall.
"Check."
Romina opened the credit-monitoring application on her phone.
For the next several minutes, the room was silent except for the hum of air conditioning.
Then Romina's face changed.
"Oh."
Gaby sat forward.
"What?"
Romina scrolled.
"There are inquiries."
"Recent?"
"Some."
"How many?"
"Five."
Denise held out her hand.
"May I?"
Romina passed her the phone.
Two inquiries came from lenders Romina recognized from the proposed house purchase.
Three did not.
One belonged to a commercial financing company.
Another to a private lender.
The third was associated with equipment leasing.
Romina shook her head.
"I never applied for equipment."
Denise wrote down the names.
"When did Marco first ask for copies of your identification?"
Romina thought.
"Maybe eight months ago."
"Why?"
"He said the mortgage broker needed everything early."
"Did you give him tax returns?"
"Yes."
"Bank statements?"
"Yes."
"Social Security number?"
Romina nodded.
Gaby watched the realization spread across her face.
It was uncomfortable seeing someone else discover how completely Marco had used trust as a tool.
"Did you give him passwords?" Denise asked.
Romina flinched.
"One."
"To what?"
"My email."
Diego, sitting near the window, stared at her.
"You gave him your email password?"
Romina looked irritated.
"He told me documents were arriving while I was at work and he needed to download them."
Diego looked away.
Gaby understood his reaction.
Every bad choice appeared absurd after its purpose became visible.
Before that, it could look like convenience.
Denise continued.
"Change it. Now. Then change any account that used the same or similar password."
Romina began typing.
Gaby looked at the photocopy again.
Signature access.
She remembered the separately presented pages Romina admitted signing.
"What if he copied your signature?"
Romina stopped typing.
"He could have."
"Did he ever ask you to sign blank paper?"
"No."
"Anything with lots of space around the signature?"
Romina frowned.
"Maybe."
Denise looked up.
"Explain."
"Once he said the broker had printed the page wrong. He asked me to sign at the bottom so they could attach it to the corrected packet."
Steven muttered something under his breath.
Romina heard him.
"I know."
Gaby looked at Steven.
"Let her finish."
Romina continued.
"He photographed the page instead of taking it."
Denise's pen stopped.
"With his phone?"
"Yes."
"Do you remember when?"
"Maybe five months ago."
"Where?"
"My apartment."
Gaby felt the same pattern again.
Gather the signature.
Gather identification.
Gather access.
Then construct whatever document became useful later.
Denise leaned back.
"There's something I need all of you to understand."
Everyone turned toward her.
"The evidence from the storage unit suggests repetition. If Victor's operation used the same methods with multiple people, then Marco may not have designed this system."
Diego crossed his arms.
"So that makes him better?"
"No."
Denise's voice remained level.
"It makes the structure larger."
That distinction mattered.
Gaby had spent days trying to understand why her husband would devise such an elaborate plan.
Perhaps he had not.
Perhaps he had learned it.
Maybe Victor had shown him how easily legitimate-looking documents could be built around fragments of truth.
A real signature photographed from one page.
A real identification card scanned for another purpose.
An ordinary joke about forgetfulness turned into a record of impairment.
A genuine financial emergency turned into authorization.
Not one gigantic lie.
Hundreds of small pieces arranged to produce one.
Romina's phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
Her color disappeared.
"Marco."
Denise immediately held up a hand.
"Do not answer unless you're comfortable being recorded."
"Can I record him legally?"
Denise answered according to the applicable rules, then had Romina put the phone on speaker only after confirming how to proceed.
Romina answered.
"Hello?"
Marco's voice filled the conference room.
"Where are you?"
Romina looked at Denise.
"Why?"
"Because we need to talk."
"About what?"
"About what you gave Gaby."
Gaby's shoulders tightened.
Marco knew.
Romina kept her voice steady.
"I gave her things that belonged to her."
"No. You gave her things you stole from me."
"You kept them in my apartment."
"That doesn't make them yours."
Romina swallowed.
"Did you use my credit?"
A pause.
"What are you talking about?"
"Did you apply for loans using my information?"
Another pause.
Then Marco exhaled.
"Romina, this is exactly why we need to meet."
"Answer me."
"You're getting manipulated."
Gaby nearly laughed.
The phrase was familiar now.
Everyone else was manipulating the women around Marco.
Never Marco.
"By who?" Romina asked.
"By Gaby. By her lawyer. By Alma. They need you frightened so you'll say whatever helps them."
Romina stared at the speakerphone.
"I found applications."
Marco's tone changed slightly.
"What applications?"
Gaby saw Denise raise one finger.
There.
Reconnaissance.
Marco wanted to know exactly what they had.
Romina understood.
"You tell me."
Silence.
Then Marco said, "I was trying to build our future."
"Using my credit?"
"We were buying a house together."
"Equipment leasing isn't a house."
Another silence.
Marco recovered.
"Some financing was for the business."
"What business?"
"The one I told you we would build."
Romina's eyes narrowed.
"You told me we'd open a design shop after we moved."
"Exactly."
"That doesn't need industrial equipment."
Marco snapped.
"You don't understand finance."
Romina looked toward Gaby.
The sentence affected them both.
Different woman.
Same tactic.
Make the subject too complicated.
Make questioning itself seem foolish.
Romina's voice became quieter.
"Why is my name in Victor's file?"
The room froze.
Denise's eyes widened.
Romina had revealed more than planned.
Marco stopped speaking.
Gaby saw Romina realize her mistake.
"What file?" Marco asked.
Too calm.
Romina looked at Denise apologetically.
"I don't know."
"Romina."
"I don't know."
"What did they find?"
She said nothing.
Marco's voice hardened.
"You need to stay away from Gaby."
Gaby almost smiled.
So did Steven.
Marco continued.
"You don't know what you're involved in."
"Victor broke into Alma's apartment."
"Who told you that?"
"A neighbor photographed him."
Marco said nothing.
Romina's fingers tightened around the cup.
"Why was he there?"
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"Romina—"
"Why did Victor have my name attached to credit and signature access?"
The sound from Marco's side changed.
A door closing, perhaps.
Then his voice dropped.
"Listen to me carefully."
Nobody moved.
"You need to go home."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Go home. Pack essentials. Stay with your sister."
Romina stared at the phone.
"Why?"
"Because Victor knows you talked."
Denise leaned closer.
Romina whispered, "How?"
Marco did not answer directly.
"He knows things."
"What things?"
"Just stay somewhere else."
Romina's anger shifted into fear.
"Are you threatening me?"
"No."
For once, Marco sounded almost desperate.
"I'm telling you that you don't understand Victor."
Gaby thought of his earlier message.
You have no idea what Victor will do if you keep pushing.
Perhaps Marco had not been threatening her.
Perhaps he had been warning her.
That possibility did not excuse him.
But it changed the shape of the danger.
Romina asked, "Are you afraid of him?"
Marco remained silent.
"Marco?"
He ended the call.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Steven said, "That wasn't helpful."
Denise disagreed.
"It was extremely helpful."
She saved the recording.
"Marco confirmed a relationship with Victor, acknowledged awareness that Victor knows Romina has talked, and advised her to relocate because of it."
Romina looked shaken.
"Does that mean he's helping us?"
"No," Gaby said.
Everyone looked at her.
She had not planned to speak.
But she knew Marco.
Or at least she knew the man he had been with her.
"He helps himself first."
Denise nodded.
"That's a useful assumption."
The investigators were informed about the call.
By afternoon, Romina arranged to stay with her sister.
She returned to her apartment only with an escort.
Gaby went home.
For the first time since the storage unit search, she spent an hour alone.
She made tea.
She sat at the kitchen table.
She opened the notebook again.
Not Marco's original, which remained evidence, but photographed copies.
D trusts M more on business.
Easy.
The sentence still hurt.
Not because Diego had trusted his father.
Children should be allowed to trust their parents.
What hurt was Marco treating that trust as a resource.
Gaby turned pages.
More initials.
More amounts.
One set appeared repeatedly.
V.S.
M.H.
L.P.
N.B.
Then another.
C.R.
Gaby searched the copied notes for context.
C.R. met at property.
C.R. can authenticate.
C.R. wants percentage.
Who was C.R.?
She sent the initials to Denise.
Then continued reading.
Near the bottom of one page, she found a sentence she had overlooked.
R useful until transfer complete.
Gaby stared.
R.
Romina.
Useful until transfer complete.
Not loved.
Not chosen.
Useful.
She photographed the line and sent it to Romina.
Then immediately regretted it.
Maybe there were gentler ways to deliver that kind of truth.
Romina replied five minutes later.
I needed to see it.
Nothing more.
At four, Denise called.
"We identified C.R."
Gaby gripped the phone.
"Who?"
"Charles Rowan."
"Should I know him?"
"Have you ever refinanced your house?"
"Once. Twelve years ago."
"What bank?"
Gaby told her.
Denise was silent.
"What?"
"Charles Rowan worked there."
Gaby stood.
"Worked?"
"He left six years ago."
The timing struck her.
Six years.
The same year her identification documents had first been scanned.
"What did he do?"
"Loan processing."
Gaby pressed one hand against the counter.
"Marco knew him?"
"Apparently."
Denise continued.
"Rowan later joined a private document-verification company connected to Victor."
Gaby closed her eyes.
"Can authenticate."
"Yes."
The phrase from the notebook finally had meaning.
Charles Rowan could make documents appear legitimate.
Signatures.
Property records.
Loan files.
Maybe more.
"Where is he now?"
"That's the interesting part."
Gaby waited.
"He's dead."
The answer stopped her.
"When?"
"Eighteen months ago."
Gaby immediately thought of the timeline.
Marco's access to the safe-deposit box intensified around then.
"How?"
"Heart attack. Nothing suspicious from what I can see."
Gaby exhaled.
"So that's a dead end."
"Not necessarily."
"Why?"
"Because after Rowan died, somebody acquired the records from his verification company."
"Victor?"
"No."
Gaby waited.
"Marco."
The kitchen seemed suddenly colder.
"He bought the company?"
"Through another LLC."
"Why would he do that?"
"I think we just found the answer."
Denise emailed a business record.
Gaby opened it.
The company had changed names after Rowan's death.
Its new purpose sounded boring.
Document retention and compliance services.
But listed among its assets were archived client files.
Thousands of them.
Including property transactions handled by Rowan while working privately.
Gaby scrolled.
"What are you looking for?"
Denise asked.
"Anything tied to my house."
"Don't bother."
"Why?"
"I already found one."
Gaby stopped.
A file created seventeen years earlier.
The year written on the photograph of Marco and Victor labeled FIRST PROPERTY DEAL.
Gaby's house address appeared in the record.
The property where she was standing.
"What kind of transaction?"
"That's what we're trying to determine."
"I bought this house with Marco."
"I know."
"We had a normal mortgage."
"Maybe."
The word landed heavily.
"What do you mean, maybe?"
Denise paused.
"The original closing file contains a second version of your purchase agreement."
Gaby stared at the screen.
"Second version?"
"Different purchase price."
Gaby's heart began pounding.
"How different?"
"Forty-eight thousand dollars."
She sat down.
That amount had been enormous to them seventeen years ago.
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know yet."
"Was the seller paid more?"
"I'm checking."
"What did Marco do?"
"I'm checking."
Gaby almost shouted.
Then Denise added something that silenced her.
"The second agreement lists an additional private contribution."
"From who?"
"Victor Sloane."
Gaby looked around the kitchen.
The walls.
The cabinets she had painted.
The floor they had saved years to replace.
The house she had believed she and Marco purchased together.
Victor had been connected to it from the beginning.
Before Romina.
Before Mateo.
Before the false medical letter.
Before the scanned documents.
Seventeen years ago.
Gaby whispered, "What did he buy?"
Denise answered carefully.
"That's exactly what we need to find out."
Click here to continue reading: PART 10: The Secret Behind Gaby’s House Began Seventeen Years Earlier, With a Payment Marco Never Told Her Victor Had Made
At 3:17, a Forgotten Phone Revealed the Life Gaby’s Husband Had Been Hiding in Plain Sight
Part 9 of 35
