Page 128 of Vows In Corruption

Not wanting to stew too much on who might have messed with my security system, I move on to the footage of my office. The cameras don’t have a direct line into my office, but there is a direct line to Ella’s desk.

I replay the footage from when Gerald and I leave the office to when security escorts Marisela out. Nothing catches my eye until I zoom into the frame.

The second I do, my teeth start to grind again.

As the security guards walks out of my office with Marisela’s arms in his hand, the woman stretches over as they pass Ella’s desk and swipes something from the desk.

My jaw feels like it’s going to break with how tight I’m holding it shut when I hit replay and slow down the footage. Sure enough, she swipes something from the desk. All I can tell is that it looks like a piece of paper but I can’t get a clear enough picture to see what type of paper it was.

“She took a piece of paper from Ella’s desk,” I state, feeling fucking irritated that the more that comes from all of this, the more questions I have. And I’m not anywhere near getting answers.

“It could be nothing.” Dante tries to reason but the second I throw him a glare he backtracks. “Okay, the best case scenario, it’s just a random piece of paper with no information. What about worst case?”

I see red just thinking about it.

“It has a signature.” I grumble, feeling like I’m seconds away from pulling out my own hair.

Dante sits back in his chair and thinks. His eyes dark as mine feel. “Okay. Let’s say it does have a signature. What can she do with it?”

If it were my signature, she could do a lot. Forge contracts, take money out of my bank accounts. Anything that could come to mind to a person like her.

But if she has Ella’s signature, she can’t do much with it. Even though Ella is my wife and holds my last name, her signature doesn’t hold as much power as mine, because that’s how I set things up when this whole arrangement started. Marisela could still do things with it. Mostly anything attached to the back accounts that Ella has access to, but that’s it. If this was happening a month from now though, everything would be in jeopardy. I guess luck wasn’t fully on Marisela’s side.

“Write herself a check and drain a few bank accounts.”

“If she does that, how much money are we talking about?”

“Anywhere between five to ten million dollars.”

Dante lets out an exasperated sigh. “Damn. You really went all in on this marriage didn’t you?”

Of course I fucking did, and I have no fucking regrets about it. Giving Ella access to those accounts was never something I gave a second thought to. Even though I had my doubts about her in the beginning, a part of me knew the I was going to be able to trust her. Which is why I was getting everything ready to give Ella access to everything I own and do. Now thanks to Marisela, that has to go on pause.

“What I gave my wife access to doesn’t matter. What matters is what the fuck are we going to do about Marisela. She’s here for a reason. You don’t come out of hiding just because. Something has to trigger it.”

Dante nods and looks like he is contemplating something.

“Have you talked to the kids? Have they heard from her?”

I fucking hope not.

“The only one that I have talked to is Elliot and even then, I didn’t mention anything about their mother and he didn’t sound like he knew anything. I just told him that I was sending a plane to bring him to Chicago and he better be on it.”

He asked me a million times why, but something like his mother popping up after years of us thinking she was dead is not something you mention over the phone.

They need to know though and as soon asI get more information, I will tell them.

The door to the study opens, and Ella pops in her head. She had excused herself about an hour ago to eat dinner and to check in with Henry and let him know what was going on. If Marisela even attempts to go to the house tonight, Henry will be on high alert.

“Sorry,” she says, throwing a small smile in my direction. “I just spoke to Henry and he said the Elliot is on his way. He should be at the airport about an hour.”

I give her a nod. “Thank you.”

Ella stays by the door way, looking nervous. I watch her as she opens that beautiful mouth of hers to speak a few times but nothing comes out. After about a minute, she finds her voice.

“Can I ask a question?” The question leaves her as she comes deeper into the room.

Both Dante and I give her a nod as she sits in the chair next to Dante.

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