Chapter 6 - Orbe Desarrollo
I slept at my sister Camila's house with a suitcase full of documents and one question in my head.
Who did the money belong to?
The next morning, Elena had an answer.
Orbe Desarrollo was registered to a man named Javier Rivas.
His company claimed to finance small construction projects. In reality, it had been sued three times for using aggressive private loans secured by family property.
"Mauricio borrowed from him?" I asked.
"More than once."
Elena showed me bank transfers.
First Ofelia borrowed money after losing her house.
Then Mauricio borrowed more to cover her missed payments.
Then more again when his own contracting business lost two major clients.
He had been feeding one debt with another.
My apartment was supposed to be the exit.
At noon, the property manager called.
"Laura, someone is inside the Del Valle unit."
"Who?"
"Your mother-in-law. And two men I've never seen."
I drove there with Camila and a security guard from the building.
By the time we arrived, the men were gone.
The gray box was gone too.
Ofelia stood in the kitchen wearing rubber gloves.
"Finally cleaning?" I asked.
She smiled. "Since you refused."
I looked around.
The bedroom floorboards had been pulled up.
"What were those men looking for?"
"Mold."
"Under the floor?"
She said nothing.
Then Camila called from the hallway.
"Laura. You need to see this."
Behind a loose baseboard, she had found a small black phone wrapped in plastic.
Ofelia lunged for it.
The building guard stepped between us before she reached Camila. Ofelia immediately changed her tone, claiming she only wanted to prevent us from damaging her property.
"Your property?" I asked.
She stared at me, realizing the mistake.
May you like
That told me two things at once: the phone mattered, and somewhere along the way Ofelia had started believing that anything she used long enough eventually became hers.
I turned it on.
