“I want a divorce because that incident exposed three years of calculated deception.”

Roderick seized the documents and tore them apart before throwing the pieces onto the floor.

“You willingly agreed to marry me, Valerie, and you should never forget that decision.”

I offered him a faint smile.

“Twenty electronic copies are stored securely with my attorney and inside my computer.”

Then I delivered the information that destroyed his remaining confidence.

“Tomorrow morning at nine o’clock, I will personally lead the Apex Capital negotiations from our Midtown office.”

Roderick stopped breathing for a moment. He still failed to understand that his humiliation of me inside The Plaza had not defeated me.

It had merely announced my return.

The following morning, I entered the Salcedo Holdings building in Midtown Manhattan wearing an impeccably tailored ivory suit and carrying my business tablet. Several years had passed since I last walked through those doors as the company’s chairwoman.

My father had built the corporation from nothing, but before passing away, he left me one essential warning.

“Never surrender your entire life to a man whose only contribution is promising that he loves you.”

I had forgotten those words during three years of marriage, but I would never dismiss them again.

Apex Capital was not acquiring Salcedo Holdings outright. Our companies were forming a strategic alliance through which Apex would contribute capital and international networks, while I retained strategic ownership and directly controlled several new investment divisions.

My opening proposal concerned Emerald Bay. Alcazar Development had secured the prestigious project, but the corporation lacked sufficient cash to begin construction. Apex Capital would provide the necessary credit facility, while Salcedo Holdings would obtain substantial ownership and financial control.

Two days later, I sat at the head of a conference table opposite Roderick inside his own executive office. I was no longer the invisible wife hidden inside his private apartment.

I now controlled whether his signature project survived.

“We require thirty percent ownership of Emerald Bay,” I said.

Roderick closed the proposal and clenched his jaw.

“You are exploiting a temporary financial difficulty facing my company.”

“I am conducting business according to the standards you have always praised on Wall Street.”

“Alcazar will surrender twenty percent, but nothing beyond that amount.”

“Thirty percent, accompanied by Apex Capital’s complete financial oversight.”

Roderick stared at me with furious helplessness, but the project could not proceed without our funding. After several tense minutes, he signed the agreement.

As I collected the documents, he asked a bitter question.

“Is every part of this arrangement intended to punish me?”

“You are overestimating your importance again. I have merely stopped sacrificing my interests to support your ambitions.”

Part 3: The Fraud Behind Camille’s Smile

That afternoon, my private attorney, Daniel Serrano, delivered a disturbing financial report. While reviewing our marital assets, he discovered multiple incidents of insider trading and short selling involving Salcedo Holdings shares shortly before the corporation’s significant decline two years earlier.

The transactions had been conducted through Delaware shell companies controlled by Camille Velez and members of her family.

I invited Camille to meet me inside an exclusive café in SoHo. She arrived wearing Celine sunglasses, carrying a Hermès bag, and displaying the same arrogant smile she had worn at The Plaza.

“Did you arrange this meeting because you are finally ready to accept that Roderick never loved you?”

I calmly pushed the trading records across the table. Her smile vanished as soon as she recognized the account numbers.

“What exactly are these documents supposed to represent?”

“They prove that your family used confidential information obtained from Alcazar Development to short Salcedo Holdings stock. The Securities and Exchange Commission will find this material extremely interesting.”

Camille’s face became pale, and her fingers trembled around the edge of the folder.

“You cannot possibly prove that I participated in those transactions.”

“I can establish your involvement, which is why I allowed this conversation to happen privately. Who supplied your father with the confidential information, Camille? Was it Roderick?”

Her frightened glance moved around the room before returning to me. That reaction made me reconsider everything because it did not resemble the guilt of a confident accomplice.

It revealed pure fear.

“You have seventy-two hours to report yourself voluntarily and cooperate with investigators.”

Roderick arrived at my apartment that evening, insisting he knew nothing about Camille using office information to manipulate Salcedo Holdings stock. I told him to deliver that explanation to the corporation’s legal department rather than bringing it into my home.

The following day, Camille telephoned and requested a private meeting inside an underground parking garage. She arrived without makeup, and panic had stripped away every trace of her usual confidence.

“My father used information I obtained from the office computers, but he promised the profits would give us enough money to stop depending upon Roderick’s generosity.”

“Who exactly do you mean when you say ‘us’?”

Camille looked at me with resentment and desperation.

“Roderick never told you why he rushed into a secret marriage, did he? Ask him about the shares he secretly transferred to my father, and then ask him who Sofía is.”