Chapter 21

Angela made her way home, showered, and kissed her daughter good night before collapsing in bed. The next day she washed her clothes, including the red lingerie. She studied it and wore it again, looking at herself in the mirror. She compared her reflection to the girl in the video of 13 years ago. She still looked great, but ruefully noted the fat coming over them hems compared to her 23 year old self. She then took the underwear to her backyard, and burned it.

She kept an eye out for news about Pembroke, and also tried googling him. She found next to nothing online except some entries about an Edward Pembroke who worked at a well known bank and was once awarded an IT award. She finally found one photograph, with him in the background at an awards ceremony. He looked awkward and weird even then. The photo was taken a year after she had met him in the hotel room in London.

A few days later she found a notice about his death. She called Dilan and spoke with her. She professed to be shocked and assured her that he had been fine when she left. He must have died in his sleep during the night. She told Dilan that they should both be quiet about it and not tell anyone.

Edward Pembroke had been a loner with a known drug problem. There had been numerous call outs by police and even the fire brigade often involving prostitutes who had stolen from him, or drug dealers demanding money. The coroner noted he had huge quantities of cocaine and alcohol in his system when he died and he seemed to have a problem based on previous hospital appointments and the amount of drugs found in his apartment.

His death was not deemed suspicious though police suspected there had been others at the villa either prior to his death or who had fled after the death.

Pembroke had left his computer equipment to be secured and police idly examined it, ostensibly looking for clues as to his death. Meanwhile, his lawyers looked at his quite extensive fortune. Despite spending prodigiously, years of living with his mother, earning huge amounts as a gifted IT expert, and stupefyingly good investments in crypto, meant that he still had a vast fortune of millions of Euros to be disposed of.

It was therefore, extremely puzzling when his probate lawyers located his will, dated four years previously, and found that all his money and estate was due to be left to someone called “Angela Candelema.” No address was given for her, other than a description that she had once worked at a school in London.

After some investigation, probate lawyers located “Maria Yildiz” who, almost incredibly, lived just an hour away from Pembroke, who was born Angela Candelema and who matched the description. But there was no known link between the two. It was impossible to know how they could have met or known of each other or why he had left her the money.

The lawyers were baffled but the will seemed watertight. A few weeks later they contacted Maria Yildiz.

Upon hearing that she was meeting with lawyers on behalf of Edward Pembroke, Maria Yildiz flew into a panic. However, Pembroke’s lawyers had investigated and looked into Ms Yildiz’s past. It did not take much to find out that Angela Candelema’s life had been turned upside down by exposed sex videos and photographs leading her to live and work across Europe and eventually settle back in Spain as Maria Yildiz. The fact that Pembroke had not named Yildiz, suggested to them that perhaps Pembroke had lost touch with her. It did not take much imagination to guess that he had exposed Angela/Maria and had bequeathed his money to her out of guilt.