Chapter 5: What Brenda Didn't Know
I had not thought much about Brenda.
That was not cruelty.
It was simply accuracy.
Brenda was not the cause of anything.
She was the form Andrew's contempt had chosen to take — and if it hadn't been Brenda, it would have been someone else in a different dress, performing the same role.
But Brenda called me that afternoon.
I was back at my father's offices, working through a stack of documents with our legal team, when my phone rang with a number I didn't recognize.
I almost didn't answer.
Something made me pick up.
"Mariana." Her voice was smaller than I expected.
The performance from the night before was entirely gone.
"It's Brenda."
I said nothing.
I walked to the window and waited.
"I need to talk to you," she said.
"Not about Andrew.
About something else."
"I'm listening."
A pause.
I could hear her breathing.
"He told me the company was his," she said.
"He told me his family had built it from nothing.
He told me—" She stopped.
"He told me a lot of things."
"I imagine he did."
"I didn't know about your father.
I didn't know about any of it.
I thought—" Another pause.
"I thought I was going to be taken care of."
"And now?"
"He called me this morning and told me to find somewhere else to stay.
He said the situation had become complicated and he needed space to manage it." Her voice tightened.
"He used those exact words.
'Manage it.'"
I looked out at the city.
"Brenda, why are you calling me?"
"Because you're the only person in that entire world who actually had any power." She said it without flattery, just as a plain fact.
"And because I have something you might want."
I turned away from the window.
"What do you have?"
"Recordings," she said.
"From the last eight months.
Andrew talking about the company.
About the accounts.
About you." A beat.
"About what he was planning to do once he had Brenda — once he had me — settled in properly."
My hand tightened slightly on the phone.
"What was he planning?"
"He found someone," she said.
"A financial consultant.
Someone who told him there was a way to restructure the asset ownership.
To move things out of your name and into a new holding entity before you could act." Her voice was steady now, the nervousness burned off by whatever she had decided before making this call.
"He started that process four months ago."
I was quiet for a moment.
"Do the recordings make that clear?"
"Very clear.
He's specific about timelines.
He mentions your father by name.
He mentions the shell structure — he knew more than he let on in that conference room this morning."
I walked back to the table where our legal team was working.
"Send me the recordings," I said.
"All of them.
My attorney's contact is on the Escalante Holdings website.
Send them there directly."
"And in return?"
"What do you want?"
Brenda was quiet for a moment.
"Nothing from you," she said finally.
"I just want to not be the person who helped him do this without knowing it.
I want that on record somewhere."
"It will be," I said.
She hung up.
I set the phone on the table.
Our lead attorney, a woman named Claire Weston, looked up from her documents.
"Good news?" Claire said.
"He tried to restructure the assets four months ago," I said.
"Brenda has recordings."
Claire set her pen down.
"If those recordings show intent to defraud prior to the divorce filing—"
"They do."
Claire looked at the ceiling for a moment, then back at me.
"Then he doesn't just lose the assets," she said.
"He faces potential crjminal exposure."
I sat back down.
"Get the recordings," I said.
May you like
"And call the financial crimes unit.
I want them to have everything before end of day."
