Chapter 18: The Plan

By Sunday night, Fabiola's orange tablecloth held a legal pad, three phones and a plate of burnt churros.

Brenda sat at one end with her feet on a chair and her hand on her belly.

Valeria sat at the other, with a pen.

Fabiola stood at the stove in her court lanyard, which she wore at home when she wanted to feel official.

"Four hundred guests," she said. "One ballroom. Two big screens on either side of the stage."

"Aurora's heir toast starts at nine," Brenda said. "A video plays first. Her assistant made it. Baby photos of Rodrigo, then my scan."

"Who loads the video?"

"I do. I'm chief of staff. The technician hands me the drive at eight."

Fabiola grinned.

"So we have a problem," she said. "We have a lot of evidence and one drive."

"Two drives," Brenda said. "I'll make a second one tonight."

She tapped the legal pad.

"We put in her voice from Valeria's lunch. We put in the tearoom. We put in the forged letter next to the real signature."

"And the four pages from the safe," Valeria said.

"All four. The two lab reports first, side by side."

Valeria drew a line under the list.

"One thing is missing. Photographs of pages can be called fake."

"She'll call them fake," Brenda said. "She'll say we made them on a computer."

"So we need someone who can say they're real," Fabiola said. "In public, in his own voice."

All three women looked at the door.

Nobody had to say the name.

Brenda's father came at nine, because she had asked him.

He was a heavy, tired man in a good coat, with a clinic director's careful hands.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Sterile? I Had Children with the Magnate from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.