Chapter 18 - The Last Forgery
The third document was a release of claim.
It stated that I accepted the loan as valid and withdrew my fraud complaint.
The signature looked almost perfect.
But Mauricio had been in mediation with me when it was submitted.
That left Ofelia.
Or someone working for Rivas.
Investigators traced the upload to an office computer at Orbe Desarrollo.
Rivas was arrested two days later on fraud-related charges connected not only to my case but to three other families.
His employees had been collecting forged property authorizations from desperate borrowers and pushing them through compromised clerks.
Mauricio had opened the door.
Ofelia had walked through it.
Rivas had built a business around people just like them.
The bank canceled the fraudulent lien.
For the first time in months, the Del Valle title was clean.
I stood in the apartment after the investigators released it back to me.
The mold had been removed. The broken furniture was gone. Sunlight reached the bedroom floor.
Camila handed me a paint roller.
"So," she said, "are you finally going to clean your mother-in-law's apartment?"
I laughed until I cried.
"No."
"Good."
"I'm cleaning mine."
Then the property manager walked in holding a small package.
"This was delivered for you."
Inside was my father's watch.
Tomas had returned it through the police after ownership was confirmed.
Beneath it was a note in Mauricio's handwriting.
I'M SORRY I SOLD THE ONE THING HE GAVE ME BECAUSE I NEVER UNDERSTOOD WHAT IT MEANT.
I turned the watch over.
May you like
My father's initials were still there.
For the first time since all of this began, I let myself cry for the life I had actually lost.
