Total losses, with the padded invoices, exceeded four and a half million.

And behind it all sat three forged corporate documents: one to strip my voting equity, one to grant Arthur emergency powers over company assets, and one to establish a trust naming little Mateo as the primary corporate successor.

Chapter 15 — The Controlling Shareholder

When Arthur Sr. was shown my forged signature on those board resolutions — when he understood, at last, what his youngest son and his eldest son and his son’s mistress had actually done — he made a single phone call, to my attorney, and he said four words.

“Bring Mariana back to Chicago.”

I flew back alone.