Chapter 15 - The Letter Sara Never Wrote

Sara was eating peach yogurt when the clerk described the letter. She took another spoonful and said, "I'm eighty-three, not invisible. Ask me."
The hospital arranged a witnessed conversation and made a record of her wishes. Sara said clearly that she had never hired the new lawyer, hadn't signed the revocation, and wanted Teresa to continue assisting her. Her clinical team assessed her ability to understand the immediate questions; the judge, not any relative, would decide the legal dispute.
Claudia had treated Sara's weakness like ownership. I returned to the family home with Mateo and found the kitchen window open. Nothing valuable was missing. Someone had torn pages from Sara's notebook and emptied the drawer where she kept old bank letters.
"Claudia still has a key," Mateo said.
"Not after today. We'll tell the investigator and follow their instructions."
Pilar met us outside. She'd seen a gray car at the gate half an hour earlier. The driver wore a white shirt and kept his face turned away, but she recognized the damaged rear bumper from Andrés's earlier visit.
Teresa told us to leave the window untouched for officers to examine. As we waited, I saw the garden bench where Sara had taught me to tie my shoes. The bench was splintered now, one leg sunk into the dirt. We had been so busy chasing papers that I hadn't noticed what time had done to our home.
Mateo stood beside me. "When this is over, I'll fix it."
"Ask Abuela first. Maybe she likes it crooked."
He gave a tired laugh.
A police officer emerged from the house holding a torn shipping label. It had been stuck to an envelope beneath the emptied drawer. The destination was a company mailbox used by Valverde Urban.
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Across its corner, written in Claudia's hand, were three words:
ORIGINALS GO TONIGHT.