By then, I was sitting across from my lawyer, Valeria Montes, in an office in Polanco with enormous windows and a frightening calm. On the table, I placed my phone, a folder with account statements, internal reports, and copies of the property deeds.
Valeria watched the entire video without changing her expression.
When Teresa shouted that Alejandro should “put everything in his name,” my lawyer barely raised an eyebrow.
—Did he know the house was protected by a prenuptial agreement?
—Yes.
—And even so, he allowed his mother to say that?
—He didn’t just allow it. I think he wanted it.
Then I handed her the rest.
For months, my chief financial officer had been detecting strange charges on Alejandro’s card: meals at expensive restaurants on Masaryk, hotel nights in Puebla, gifts sent to addresses that didn’t belong to clients. There were also emails forwarded from his personal account to Teresa with information about contracts, income, and properties.
It wasn’t a huge theft.
It was something worse: rotten trust.
Alejandro had used my company as if it were an extension of his ego. And Teresa spoke of my money as if it were a family inheritance I was wrongfully occupying.
—This is not a mother-in-law quarrel —Valeria said—. This is confidentiality, misuse of resources, and divorce with evidence.
At three in the afternoon, Human Resources formalized his dismissal for cause.
At four, the joint account was limited only to the money Alejandro had provably contributed.
At five, I sent him a folder by courier.
Inside were the divorce papers, the notice of employment termination, the inventory of assets, and the house deeds.
They didn’t take long to show up.
Alejandro arrived first, pale, sweating inside his gray suit jacket. Teresa came behind him, still wearing makeup, still proud, still believing she could force her way through with shouting.
—This is a disgrace! —she said in front of the door—. You’re going to destroy my son over a dress!
