Chapter 34
CHAPTER 34 — The Confrontation
She didn't call him. She didn't send a warning. Valeria drove through the pouring rain to Ernesto’s suburban estate—the grand, dark house where she had been raised alone.
She pushed the front door open. Ernesto was sitting in his study, a glass of dark scotch in his hand, staring into the dead fireplace. He didn't look up when she entered.
"You knew Julian was hitting me before I ever told you, didn't you?" Valeria asked, her voice striking the room like a physical blow.
Ernesto took a slow sip of his drink. "I had eyes on the house, Valeria. Yes."
"And you let it happen," she whispered, the horror creeping into her veins. "You let him shove me. You let him lock me away for months. Why?"
Ernesto finally turned his head, his eyes hollow and dead. "Because I needed the evidence to be undeniable, Valeria. Julian was getting too close to discovering the family assets. He was digging into the 1996 files. If I arrested him too early, his mother's legal team would have dismantled our entire network during discovery. I needed him to destroy himself completely so his defense would have zero credibility."
Valeria stepped back, looking at her father as if he were a complete stranger. A monster wearing the mask of a protector.
May you like
"You used my blood to save your empire," she said, her voice shaking with absolute disgust.
"I used your survival to save our family, Valeria!" Ernesto slammed his glass onto the desk, shattering the crystal. "If the Iron Ledger falls, we both go to a federal penitentiary for the rest of our natural lives. You think you're clean? The money that paid for your Ivy League education, the money that bought your clothes, the money funding your new precious Phoenix Alliance—it’s all stained, Valeria. You are a Salgado. You are just as guilty as I am."
