Chapter 9 - My Father's Warning
I opened the envelope with shaking hands.
There were three pages.
The first was a letter.
Laura,
I hope I am wrong. Mauricio is charming, but charm and character are not the same thing. Twice I have caught him asking questions about property that should not concern him. Once, he asked whether inherited assets could become marital assets through debt. When I challenged him, he called it curiosity.
The second page was a copy of an email Mauricio had sent my father six years earlier.
He wanted my father to guarantee a business loan.
Dad had refused.
The third page contained handwritten notes from a meeting with Ofelia.
She had asked whether the Del Valle building could "eventually pass through Mauricio" if something happened to me.
Camila covered her mouth.
"Dad knew."
"Not everything," I said. "But enough to worry."
At the bottom of the letter, my father had written one final line.
Never sign because someone you love is standing over your shoulder.
I thought about the keys spinning beside my coffee cup.
Then Elena called.
The bank had suspended the loan, but Javier Rivas had filed a private claim insisting the debt was valid.
"He's trying to force a hearing," she said.
"How soon?"
"Monday."
"That's four days away."
"There's more. Mauricio submitted evidence that you knew about the loan."
"What evidence?"
"Text messages. From your number."
She emailed me screenshots.
The messages said I approved using the apartment as collateral.
They looked real.
May you like
Except I had never sent them.
And one had been sent while my phone was locked in an airplane safe during a flight.
