PART 2
Arthur asked the rest of the family to step into the main living room for coffee.
When the heavy double doors of the dining room clicked shut, only five people remained: Mariana, Rodrigo, Valeria, and Rodrigo’s parents.
“First,” Arthur said quietly, “someone bring Mariana an ice pack.”
Teresa finally exploded, rounding on her son. “Rodrigo! Have you completely lost your mind?! You bring your mistress into our home and stand there while she strikes your wife?!”
Valeria cut in smoothly. “We love each other, Mrs. Sterling. A loveless marriage doesn’t make sense for anyone.”
Arthur turned his sharp gaze onto her. “I am speaking to my son. No one gave you permission to speak.”
Valeria’s face flushed red.
Rodrigo set his jaw. “Dad, Mariana and I haven’t worked for a long time. I want a divorce, and I’m going to marry Valeria.”
Arthur glanced down at his watch.
Twenty seconds left.
“Are you finished?” Arthur asked.
“Yes.”
Arthur stood up straight, his posture imposing. “Then listen to me very carefully. As of this exact second, you are removed from your position as CEO of the Sterling Group.”
Rodrigo’s eyes widened in shock. “What?!”
“I founded that company,” Arthur said coldly. “I remain the majority shareholder. I put you at the helm because I believed you were a responsible man.”
“You can’t just strip away everything I’ve built!”
“You built it using family capital, family connections, and when you were buried in early debt, the personal savings of the woman you just allowed to be struck in front of us.”
Rodrigo went dead quiet.
Arthur pointed toward the foyer. “And you, young lady, get out of my house immediately. If you ever put a hand on Mariana again, your next conversation will be with my corporate legal team.”
Valeria clutched Rodrigo’s arm, her composure cracking. “Rodrigo, tell him something!”
Rodrigo couldn’t form a sentence.
Later that same night, under intense questioning from his mother, Rodrigo confessed something else: Valeria was allegedly two months pregnant.
That revelation changed everything for Teresa. For years, she had desperately wanted a grandchild, and Mariana had been unable to conceive. By the following morning, when Valeria returned to the house offering a soft, tearful apology, Teresa was already looking at her differently.
“I made a terrible mistake,” Valeria murmured, resting a hand on her stomach. “The pregnancy hormones have me so emotionally unstable.”
Arthur didn’t buy a single word. “Where are your medical records?”
“I… I left them at home.”
Mariana, sitting quietly at the breakfast table, had heard enough.
She looked at Rodrigo. “I accept the divorce.”
Rodrigo let out a bitter laugh. “Fine. But don’t come crying to me when you realize you’re walking away with nothing.”
Mariana lifted her chin. “That won’t be your problem anymore.”
She went upstairs, packed her bags, and resolved to reclaim the life she had given up.
Arthur found her in the guest room as she packed her old brushes and sketchbooks. “What are you going to do, Mariana?”
“I’m going back to painting. I want to open a new studio.”
Arthur placed a black bank card on the nightstand. “Take this as a personal loan. Start over.”
Mariana tried to refuse. “Arthur, I can’t—”
“You’ll pay me back later,” he interrupted gently. “Even if you stop being my daughter-in-law, to me, you are still family.”
A few days later, Mariana found a charming commercial space in a vibrant neighborhood surrounded by coffee shops and schools. She began painting the walls, buying easels, and advertising art classes for children.
While she rebuilt her life, Rodrigo was quietly orchestrating a far darker plan.
He began transferring marital assets into a close friend’s account and manufactured millions of dollars in fake promissory notes to make it appear as though he had accrued massive debts during the marriage that Mariana would legally be forced to split.
“When she sees she owes millions, she’ll come crawling back,” he told Valeria.
Valeria smiled, nodding along.
But she was hiding a massive secret of her own: she had never been pregnant. She was planning to secure fake medical reports through an acquaintance and get pregnant for real after the wedding was finalized.
What neither of them knew was that Arthur had already hired a private investigator to look into everything.
A week later, Arthur’s investigator walked into his private office holding a thick manila folder. “Mr. Sterling, we’ve tracked Rodrigo’s asset transfers.”
“And the pregnancy?” Arthur asked.
The investigator laid several certified documents on the desk. “We have the truth about that as well.”
Arthur read the first page. His expression hardened into stone.
“Don’t tell Mariana about this yet,” Arthur instructed, closing the file. “I want them to dig their own grave completely.”
And what lay inside that folder didn’t just threaten to destroy Valeria’s lie.
It had the power to leave Rodrigo without a company, without money, and without a family.
