The price for a priest looking the other way wasn’t nearly as substantial as Abundio had believed it’d be.
He would have them cremated and interred in an urn that he’d keep on a shelf in his living room, next to the wedding picture and a framed copy of the ultrasound.And there they would stay until he avenged them.
His computer expert figured out that Jacinta had somehow hacked into his laptop and obtained the information Miranda and Manuel had gathered.She had copied all the files to her computer, not even a couple of weeks after they learned she was pregnant.That she’d begun her own serious research into it over a month earlier, and her search history, while she thought it was deleted, showed her investigations following the same path.
It was obvious to him that whatever this was had led someone to her.
When the mass ended, the priest left to summon the undertakers handling the cremation.Once the coffin was removed, Armando brought in Emilita.
Turned out one could get a package deal on having a funeral for a woman who technically committed suicide, and then also get married immediately to another woman who, despite being divorced, was given special dispensation to marry Abundio because her ex-husband was an admitted adulterer and he now, of course, was twice widowed.
Sure, he’d had to pay the ex-husband to swear that to the priest, but it was amazing how effective a generous bribe and thinly veiled threat proved.
From that moment on, Emilita would have 24/7 security.He wouldn’t require her to move in with him.In fact, he preferred she didn’t.
He wanted the ability to plan without her looking over his shoulder.Not to mention, he wanted her well isolated from his cartel dealings.She currently had no idea he was involved with it and wanted it kept that way.
There had to be a reason Miranda and then Jacinta both succumbed to the allure of the unknown, and he wanted Emilita to be kept fully insulated against it.
Meaning he would not have her in his home as anything other than an occasional guest.
He would also upgrade her housing and had given her a budget.She’d spend next week hunting for a new residence close to his, large enough for her son and other family to come visit.
His security team would assist her with purchasing a car, too, although she would rarely be driving from this point forward.
Unless it was with a security guard in the passenger seat.
The public story would be that she was being handsomely compensated to be a surrogate, and for now, the father wished to remain anonymous.
It wouldn’t be difficult for the staff to guess he was the father, but if they wanted to keep their jobs they’d keep their opinions to themselves.As far as they were concerned, in light of Miranda’s absconding to parts unknown with a lover—as he’d set up evidence—and Jacinta’s tragic death, he wanted a loyal employee who already knew much about the daily operations to be elevated to the rank of COO.
And Emilita tentatively agreed to more than one child, depending on how this pregnancy went.
When a baby was born, then Abundio would announce he was the father and turn over full control of the business to Emilita, with the stipulation that she would run the business and raise their child—or children—to take it over when they came of age.And when he died, she would inherit all his personal assets, including substantial bank accounts.
If after two years she could not get pregnant, she would still keep the house and car, as well as a handsome payout.
Although he suspected he would not live long past the birth of his first child with her.
Mostly because he planned to hunt down the bastards who’d ruined his life when they first killed Raul.A bastardized butterfly effect.It had cost him Manuel’s life, his daughter’s life?—
His bride’s life.
He was already working on trying to identify and locate the man who’d killed Raul.His guess was that if he identified him, it would lead to the mystery woman.
Or vice-versa.
There were too many coincidences.
With Ray Dorland apparently missing and likely dead, Abundio suspected he’d been silenced—by the Russians or the other, unknown party.Perhaps even Mateo and Carl, he didn’t know.
Five days after Jacinta’s death, Abundio was at work in the office that had been Jacinta’s.He’d left everything as it was, except to move the framed picture to the windowsill behind the desk.
His security man paused in the doorway and knocked.“Sir?”
Abundio waved him in.“Close the door.”
He did and approached the desk, holding out a sheet of paper.“I found something unusual, sir.”
