Chapter 12 - THE MAN ON THE SCREEN
The impersonator wore my glasses.
My haircut.
A dark shirt similar to mine.
In low-resolution video, he could pass.
Not under careful review.
The ears were wrong.
The jawline narrower.
Then the notary asked an identity question.
“What is the name of your daughter?”
The man answered:
“Isabella Elena Vega.”
Correct.
“What property do you currently occupy in Marbella?”
He gave my villa address.
Correct.
Information anyone with my household records could learn.
Miguel Santos looked sick when investigators showed him a current video of me.
“I believed it was Mr. Vega.”
“Did Mrs. Vega arrange the appointment?”
“Yes.”
“Was she present?”
“Not on camera.”
Then building access logs from the private office used for the call showed three visitors.
Beatriz.
Ethan.
And Cole Mercer.
I knew Cole.
My former operations director.
I fired him two years earlier after he falsified construction invoices.
He blamed me publicly.
I had not seen him since.
Suddenly the conspiracy gained a person with motive against me and detailed knowledge of my life.
Investigators contacted Cole.
He denied impersonation.
Then travel data placed his phone in the building.
His lawyer asked for time.
The next day, Cole offered to cooperate.
That fast.
Not loyalty.
Self-preservation.
He admitted sitting for the video.
Beatriz told him the document corrected an ownership mistake created during our marriage.
“She said Adrian knew.”
“Why impersonate him if Adrian knew?”
Cole looked down.
“She said he was abroad and wanted it handled.”
Even he seemed embarrassed by the explanation.
“What did she pay you?”
€25,000.
Payment came through White Coast Capital.
Beatriz’s company.
He claimed he did not know the document created a false marital interest in Vega Global.
Maybe.
But he knew he was pretending to be me.
That carried responsibility.
Then Cole produced messages.
Cole:
Why can’t Adrian sign remotely himself?
Beatriz:
Because he’ll overthink it.
Cole:
That sounds like no.
Beatriz:
It sounds like a husband who delegates everything until someone makes him focus.
Cole:
I want 25.
Beatriz:
After verification.
He knew enough to know something was wrong.
Then another message.
Beatriz:
This keeps Mar Azul alive and protects Isabella too.
Cole:
How does forging Adrian protect his kid?
Beatriz:
You don’t understand the trust.
That sentence mattered.
She knew it was forgery.
No innocent estate planning.
Then came the larger question.
Why create a fake postnuptial interest if the trust transfer was the main goal?
Grace understood.
“If Mar Azul fails after trust money enters, creditors might attack the transaction as self-dealing.”
“So?”
“If Beatriz could pretend she had a legitimate marital economic interest in Vega Global, she could argue Mar Azul was a family investment rather than her personal investment.”
Paper supporting paper.
Lie supporting lie.
Every barrier required a new document.
Then Cole added one final detail.
Beatriz told him:
“Adrian will be gone before any of this matters.”
Gone.
Investigators asked what she meant.
Cole shrugged.
“I assumed divorce.”
I wanted to assume that too.
But Isabella had already whispered:
That’s not even the worst thing she’s done.
May you like
And suddenly that sentence sounded darker again.
📖 Cole’s messages proved Beatriz knowingly forged my marital-interest document, but her claim that I would be “gone” raised the first question money alone could not answer. 👇
