Chapter 6 - The Fall of Ortega
The fallout was immediate and catastrophic.
Within two hours of Mauricio being escorted out of the Horizonte Capital building by security, news of NexoWare’s rejected funding application leaked to the local financial markets. By noon, Banco Nacional declared his outstanding commercial loans in immediate default, seizing his corporate bank accounts to cover their risk.
Beatriz Ortega’s grand family estate—the house she had used as a platform to look down on me—was placed under a court-ordered lien by evening.
I sat in my office, drinking green tea while reviewing the legal filings Daniel had submitted. The story of what had happened in the boardroom had already spread through the upper circles of Mexico City's business community. The arrogance of the Ortega family had made them few real friends, and their sudden, spectacular ruin was met with cold satisfaction by the very peers they had tried so hard to impress.
My phone buzzed. It was a call from a private number. I answered it, placing it on speaker.
"Valeria?" Mauricio’s voice was broken, choked with sobs. "Please... don't hang up. I'm begging you."
"You are breaking a court-issued restraining order by calling this number, Mauricio," I said calmly. "This call is being recorded."
"I don't care about the order!" he cried out. "Valeria, they took everything! The bank froze the payroll! My board just voted to remove me as CEO! My mother is having a panic attack in the living room because the sheriff just served us an eviction notice for the house! We have nowhere to go!"
"You have your pride, Mauricio," I replied coldly. "The pride that allowed you to stand by and watch your mother treat me like a servant. The pride that gave you permission to raise your hand against me."
"I was stupid! I was an idiot!" he screamed into the receiver, his voice echoing with sheer desperation. "I didn't know who you were! If I had known you were the owner of Horizonte, I would have treated you like a queen! I would have protected you! I would have put my mother in her place!"
I let a long, painful silence stretch over the line before I spoke.
"That is the saddest thing you have ever said, Mauricio," I whispered. "You think respect is something a person only deserves because of their bank account. You think a woman is only worthy of safety and dignity if she holds power over you. If I had really been just Valeria, the poor administrative assistant, you would have spent the rest of your life making me suffer."
"Valeria..."
"Good luck, Mauricio," I said flatly. "You are going to need it."
I hung up the phone and passed the recording directly to Daniel’s team to be added to his criminal harassment file.
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That evening, I stood on the balcony of my apartment, looking out at the glittering lights of the city. The bruise on my face still ached slightly, but the heavy, suffocating weight that had lingered in my chest for months was entirely gone. I was no longer hiding behind a mask of artificial humility to please a man who was incapable of loving me.
I was free.
