Chapter 6 - The Unraveling
Beatriz stared at me, her expression shifting from fury to a desperate, manic disbelief. She realized that crying didn't work, screaming didn't work, and her family's political muscle had been neutralized.
"You'll ruin everything," she whispered, her voice shaking. "Our social circle... my mother, my friends... what are they going to say when they find out you locked me out?"
"They’ll probably say you finally reaped what you sowed," I replied flatly. "Now, you have twenty-four hours to collect your personal belongings from the Madrid apartment under supervision. After that, your access codes will be permanently deactivated."
She opened her mouth to argue, but the look in my eyes must have finally broken through her delusion of invulnerability. Without another word, she turned on her heel, marched back to the private elevator, and slammed her hand against the call button.
As the doors closed, sealing her away from our lives, I felt a profound, heavy weight lift from my shoulders. The past three months of absence had been a blind spot I deeply regretted, but the future belonged to us now.
Later that evening, Isabella and I sat on the living room rug, building a towering structure out of wooden blocks. She was laughing—a bright, clear sound that filled the high ceilings of the penthouse.
"Dad," she said, placing a small red block on top of the unstable tower. "Are we ever going back to Marbella?"
I paused, looking down at her. "Do you want to go back?"
She shook her head vigorously, her dark curls bouncing. "No. There are too many bugs there. And the garden is too big."
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"Then we're never going back," I promised, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "We have everything we need right here."
She smiled, leaning against my chest, completely unaware of the multi-million-dollar empire backing our safety, or the ruthless legal war I had waged to keep her secure. To her, I wasn't the feared real estate tycoon known across Spain; I was simply her dad, the man who made sure nobody ever yelled when she dropped her cup.
