Reina de la Muerte

chapter sixteen

♕

vanessa

Trust is never something that I gave away easily. I've always treasured it and kept it close so no one could use it against me when I least expected it.

I gave it to Gabriel. Of all fucking people, I gave it to him and staring at the file that trembles in my hands, I wish I could rip it out of his fucking grasp.

On the date 10-04-22, 100% of assets belonging to Vanessa Marie Martinez will be given to Gabriel Antonio-Matias Díaz.

The same sentence circles around my mind until I can't breathe.

I sold my company to him. Everything I have.

Everything I worked so hard for. Gone.

My hand slaps over my mouth to silence the sudden sob that escapes. He fucking knew and he played oblivious the entire time. He called me his partner in this while he was working on taking over everything that was once mine—and I let it happen with open arms.

I'm married to a man who played me.

"Princesa," Gabriel greets as he walks in. "I was calling you."

He doesn't even care that I'm in here. He probably didn't think I'd find this damned file. I look at him through blurred vision, still tightly holding the file. His gaze moves to it and his brows push together in confusion.

"Where'd you find that?"

"When were you going to tell me?" I whisper, my hands shaking with rage.

I'm going to kill him.

"Vanessa, where did you—"

"When were you going to tell me, Gabriel!" I shout again and throw the file to his feet. It scatters across the floor but he makes no move to pick it up, watching me as I wipe my tears away. "How long have you known that my business wasn't mine!"

Gabriel doesn't say anything, trying to take a step forward. He stops as soon as I point a pencil in his direction. It's not a knife but it's sharp enough to do damage—and I want to do a lot of damage to him.

His eyes glance between my own and my shaking hand.

He sighs in defeat. "Since our wedding day."

Our wedding day. He's been hiding this from me since we got married.

I start laughing so hard that tears build in my eyes but I'm far from amused. I've never imagined I'd ever experience this sort of betrayal. I trusted him with knowledge about my past and the monsters my parents turned out to be, but I never trusted them. Not the way I was starting to trust him. I fell for him, for fuck's sake.

But he stole everything from me.

Gabriel runs a hand down his face. "Give me a chance to explain."

"I've given you time to fucking explain, Gabriel! I've asked time and time again for your chance to explain while you were setting up your men in my fucking building! Where the fuck were your answers when I wanted them, huh?" I cry angrily.