Settlement wire: $400k drafted, routed through Magda Cruz, release conditioned on signed NDA + full deletion verification
Press packet (screenshots, chat logs, financials): pre-loaded, embargoed 72 hrs. If he ever speaks her name again, Miami wakes up to front-page news of his “yacht lifestyle.”
Personal note (delete before archive):
I promised I wouldn’t tell a soul.
I lied.
Max Lopez (PI) and Magda Cruz (Lawyer) don’t know her name. That has to count for something.
Commission for L. Benitez:
She’ll get to keep it. She earned it, it’s as it should be.
GW humiliation level:
Moderate. Could have ruined him publicly. Chose surgical instead.
Final entry:
This should have been done when he messed with Giana.
It should’ve been this instead of the punch. This would hurt him more.
I was too slow and too unsure of myself then.
She’s paying for my inaction.
Never again.
End of memo.
Chapter 18-Ya Ves
Lizzie woke up feeling hungover on Saturday, even though she hadn’t drunk on Friday. The emotional strain of the last few weeks, plus the project coming to an end, had left her wrecked.
Carolina’s insults on the rooftop still lingered. Lizzie internally laughed to think that Carolina was somehow jealous of her, and here she was in an oversized, ratty Miami Dolphins T-shirt and her hair in a knot on top of her head, the evidence of her dinner of cereal lying by her bed.
“Some catch,” she thought.
Next week was Christmas, and while Lizzie wanted to focus on the last few reports she needed to complete before then, and plan the Noche Buena festivities she looked forward to every year, she instead had to face the fact that she still hadn’t solved how she could afford to save Lidia from ruin.
The doorbell rang as Lizzie was washing her bowl, and Lizzie was ready to tell off whatever door-to-door salesman or Jehovah’s Witness had dared interrupt her reverie, but instead swung the door open to a very serious-looking woman in a tailor-made suit and a neat bun.
“Lizette Benitez?”
Lizzie was almost scared to respond. A nod was the best she could do. “I’m Magda Cruz. I’ve been hired to represent yourinterests in some proceedings. May I come in and review things with you?”
“I’m sorry, hired? My interests?”
Magda smiled. “I’ve been paid to make Mr. Wick very sorry. I’d like to outline his humiliation for you, if you have a moment.”
