Immediately after Clara and Riley's conversation, Mateo began celebrating.
Yes, he knew the battle hadn't been fully won,
but it was only a matter of time.
It wouldn't take long before she lost all hope of winning.
He had originally planned to go after every remaining witness and silence them one by one, but now—after hearing her say she would postpone the case—he decided otherwise.
He wanted to drag out her suffering.
He wanted to break her spirit.
He wanted to destroy her reputation, piece by piece, slowly.
He picked up his phone and spoke without any greetings.
"Hi. Did you manage to go through the file I gave you?"
The person on the other end affirmed quietly.
Mateo smirked, satisfaction warming his voice.
"Good. I want to start having fun with it tomorrow evening. I want her too busy fighting for her image to even remember my name. After tomorrow, the whole world will know the Ashfords are liars."
