Chapter 7 - The Mountain of Debt
It took Victor exactly forty-eight hours to unearth the truth, and what he found completely shattered the illusion of the Montenegro family's untouchable wealth.
Victor returned to the mansion late at night, laying a thick manila folder on Alejandro’s desk. Isabella, who had insisted on staying at the house to protect their interests, sat in the corner armchair, watching with a critical eye.
"The Montenegro fortune is a mirage," Victor began, pointing to a series of complex offshore bank statements. "Valeria's father made a series of catastrophic investments in international real estate a decade ago. They’ve been heavily leveraging their legacy assets just to keep up appearances. The private jets, the galas, the charities... it’s all financed by high-interest offshore debt."
Isabella leaned forward, her aristocratic composure cracking. "That's impossible. They own half the shipping ports in the south."
"They mortgaged those ports to Russian syndicates three years ago, Ma'am," Victor corrected grimly. "Valeria is completely broke. In fact, she personally owes over twenty million dollars to some very dangerous people. The marriage to Alejandro wasn't a romantic merger. It was a desperate bailout."
Alejandro felt sick. "But why target Sofía? Why not just marry me and take the money?"
"Because of your grandfather's trust," Victor said, pulling out a copy of Alejandro's family legal documents. "I checked the fine print. According to the trust, the majority of your liquid assets are locked and automatically transfer to your primary heir—Sofía—in the event of a new marriage, to protect her inheritance. If Valeria married you, she wouldn't have access to the cash she needed to pay off her debts. But if Sofía were out of the picture..."
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"The trust defaults entirely back to me," Alejandro finished the sentence, the horrifying puzzle pieces snapping together. "And as my wife, she would have unlimited access to it."
Isabella covered her mouth in absolute horror. "She didn't want a family. She wanted a slaughter."
