Chapter 7 - The Call from Dubai.
Lucas Ortega asked everyone except Ethan and Sofia to leave the hidden office while he examined the printed email.
He photographed it first, then scanned the header information visible on the page.
"This printout alone doesn't prove where it came from," he said.
"But if the original message exists in an account, we can trace it."
Ethan looked at the date.
It had supposedly been sent at 11:43 p.m. Dubai time on June 18.
He remembered that night because the project had suffered a crane failure and he had been on site until nearly two in the morning.
"I know where I was when this was sent."
"That helps," Lucas said.
"Do you know what device you used that night?"
"Company phone and site laptop."
"Both managed?"
"Yes."
Lucas nodded.
"Then there will be logs."
Sofia slid the page into a clear sleeve.
"If someone accessed Ethan's email, we need to know whether anything else was sent."
Ethan stared at the words I trust your judgment completely.
They sounded just enough like him to be dangerous.
He often told senior executives that he trusted their judgment.
Beatriz had heard him say it for years.
"Check drafts too," Ethan said.
Lucas looked up.
"Why?"
"Because whoever wrote this may have practiced."
Lucas gave a brief approving nod.
"Good thought."
Ethan did not feel good about anything.
He left the hidden office and went to Elena's house to collect Isabella.
On the drive, he called the Dubai site director, Malik Rahman.
"I need a favor."
"Anything."
"June eighteenth, between eleven and midnight."
Ethan gripped the steering wheel.
"Can you confirm where I was?"
Malik laughed once.
"I can confirm you were making my life miserable beside Tower Three."
"I need records."
The humor vanished.
"What kind?"
"Access logs, meeting notes, security footage if it still exists."
"That serious?"
"Yes."
"I'll preserve everything."
Ethan hesitated.
"Malik, did anyone ever contact the Dubai office pretending to be me or asking about my schedule?"
There was silence on the line.
"Your wife did."
Ethan's grip tightened.
"How often?"
"A few times."
"Why?"
"She said she was planning visits and surprises."
"Did she ever ask whether I had unscheduled travel?"
"Yes."
Ethan closed his eyes briefly at a red light.
"When?"
"More than once."
Malik lowered his voice.
"Ethan, what happened?"
"I don't know yet."
"Do you need me in Spain?"
"Not yet."
"Then I'll send you everything."
When Ethan reached Elena's home, Isabella was sitting at the kitchen table drawing with colored pencils.
She looked up and smiled.
This time she actually smiled.
It was small, but it reached her eyes.
Ethan felt his chest ache.
"Ready to go home?"
The smile faded.
He corrected himself immediately.
"Ready to come with me?"
She nodded.
In the car, Isabella held the silver locket Ethan had recovered from the storage room.
He had given it back without explanation.
She rubbed her thumb over the tiny hinge.
"Did Beatriz say I can have this?"
"Beatriz doesn't decide that."
Isabella stared at him.
"Who does?"
"You."
She considered the answer with solemn concentration.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Even if I'm bad?"
Ethan pulled the car to the side of the quiet residential road.
He turned toward her.
"Bella, listening carefully."
She looked at him.
"There are things you might do that need consequences."
He chose each word deliberately.
"You might leave toys out, say something rude, or forget homework."
She nodded cautiously.
"But nobody gets to make you earn photographs of people you love."
Her eyes filled.
"Nobody gets to tell you that you lose me because you made a mistake."
A tear slid down her cheek.
She wiped it quickly.
"She said you were tired of me calling."
Ethan could not speak for a second.
"She said what?"
Isabella looked frightened by his expression.
He softened immediately.
"I'm not angry with you."
She took a breath.
"She said you were busy building the hotel and I made you feel guilty when I looked sad."
Ethan stared through the windshield.
That explained the coached smiles.
The shortened calls.
The way Isabella had started saying everything was fine before he even asked.
"Did she tell you not to call me?"
"She said good girls don't make Dad worry."
Ethan swallowed.
"What happened if you asked to call anyway?"
"Sometimes I lost points."
"Points?"
"On the chart."
"Anything else?"
Isabella looked at the locket.
"She said she could send me away."
The boarding-school folder flashed through Ethan's mind.
"Where?"
"A school in the mountains."
"Did she show you pictures?"
A nod.
"She said kids sleep there and parents don't visit much."
Ethan felt a controlled rage settle into his bones.
"Did she say I wanted you to go?"
Isabella's silence answered first.
Then she whispered, "She showed me an email."
Ethan turned fully toward her.
"What email?"
"From you."
His heart thudded once.
"What did it say?"
"That you trusted her."
Ethan closed his eyes.
The forged email had not been created only for lawyers or school officials.
It had been shown to Isabella.
A seven-year-old had been presented with manufactured proof that her father had authorized whatever came next.
"Bella, that email wasn't from me."
She looked confused.
"But it had your picture."
"Someone can make an email look like it came from another person."
"Beatriz made it?"
Ethan hesitated.
He would not put an accusation into her mouth.
"I don't know yet."
He took her hand.
"But I know I never sent it."
Isabella stared at him.
"You didn't say she could do whatever?"
"No."
"You didn't say I had to go away?"
"Never."
Her face changed so suddenly that Ethan realized she had carried those questions alone for weeks.
She started crying without sound.
Ethan unbuckled his seat belt and leaned across the center console to hold her.
"I'm here."
She pressed her face into his shoulder.
"I'm sorry I was bad."
"You were not bad."
"I complained."
"Children complain."
"I spilled juice."
"People spill juice."
"I said I hated her."
Ethan paused.
"Were you angry?"
"Yes."
"Then you said something angry."
He stroked her hair.
"That doesn't mean anyone gets to scare you."
They stayed parked until her breathing slowed.
Back at the villa, Sofia met Ethan in the library.
Beatriz had left with her attorney for what she called a private meeting.
A company security officer remained at the residence.
"Lucas found something," Sofia said.
Ethan sent Isabella upstairs with Elena, who had agreed to stay for the afternoon.
Then he followed Sofia to the hidden office.
Lucas had connected a forensic copy of the household computer to an isolated workstation.
"The email was never sent from your corporate account," Lucas said.
"Good."
"Not exactly."
Lucas opened a browser archive.
"A look-alike account was created."
The address differed from Ethan's real one by a single letter in the domain.
On a phone screen, the difference would be almost invisible.
"Who created it?"
"We don't know yet."
"Can you trace the recovery information?"
"We're working on it."
Lucas clicked into saved drafts.
There were eleven versions of the message.
The earliest sounded nothing like Ethan.
The later versions gradually adopted his phrasing.
One draft contained notes in brackets.
[SHORTER. HE DOES NOT EXPLAIN.]
[USE TRUST YOUR JUDGMENT.]
[ADD BELLA DIFFICULT.]
Ethan stared.
"Someone studied how I write."
"Yes."
Lucas opened another folder recovered from temporary files.
It contained screenshots of Ethan's genuine emails to staff and family.
Dozens of phrases had been highlighted.
Ethan felt exposed in a way that had nothing to do with passwords.
"There's more," Lucas said.
He opened the account's sent folder.
The forged message had been sent to Beatriz.
Two days later, it had been forwarded to an educational consultant.
A week after that, a screenshot had been saved as an image labeled EVIDENCE DAD AGREES.
Ethan's stomach turned.
"What else was sent?"
Lucas scrolled.
Several messages went to Beatriz's private attorney.
One went to a psychologist Ethan had never met.
Another went to a public-relations consultant in Madrid.
The subject line read FAMILY NARRATIVE - POSSIBLE SEPARATION.
Sofia leaned closer.
"Open that."
The email contained an attachment.
Lucas clicked.
A document appeared titled SCENARIO OPTIONS.
Option One described Ethan returning from Dubai exhausted and agreeing that Isabella required residential schooling.
Option Two described a marital separation in which Beatriz would claim Ethan had become emotionally volatile after months of overwork.
Option Three described a public dispute in which Beatriz would present herself as Isabella's primary caregiver trying to manage a distressed child and an absent father.
Ethan read the final line twice.
If E.C. becomes confrontational, preserve recordings and emphasize instability.
Sofia looked at him.
"She prepared for your reaction."
Ethan thought of Beatriz on the terrace warning him about his reputation.
"She prepared a story before I knew there was a problem."
Lucas clicked another attachment.
This one was a calendar.
Several future dates were highlighted.
The first was Ethan's scheduled return from Dubai.
The second was an appointment with a family-law attorney.
The third was Isabella's proposed boarding-school assessment.
The fourth was a meeting with Cole Meridian's board chair.
Ethan looked at Sofia.
"Why would she meet my board chair?"
May you like
Sofia's face had become grim.
"That's what we need to find out."
