Chapter 5 - What Mateo Signed
Mateo arrived after dark, still wearing the work jacket from the shipping warehouse in Bilbao. He looked at the naked stairwell where our family photographs used to hang.
"What happened to Mom and Dad?" he asked.
"Their pictures are gone. Claudia took everything."
"She said she was repainting."
I handed him the torn document. He examined the signature. "That's mine, but I never saw these words."
"You signed something without reading it?"
"A form on her tablet. I was on a loading dock with forklifts going past. She said it was to get an emergency contractor paid."
I wanted to shout. Instead I pointed to the notebook. "And this?"
His face changed at €460,000. "That's not money I received. My wages barely cover rent."
He sat hard in Sara's kitchen chair. "Hugo, I know I haven't been here. I told myself sending money was enough. Claudia kept saying Abuela didn't want visitors."
"Did you ever ask Abuela?"
"No."
Teresa called. She had checked publicly available property filings and arranged an urgent records review. "A sale option has been lodged against your grandmother's property," she said. "The buyer is a development company called Valverde Urban. The closing appointment is listed for Friday."
"Can they do that?"
"Not legally with forged authority. The trouble is proving the authority was forged before the money changes hands. And the medical papers accompanying the power of attorney say Sara was competent and informed."
"She could barely hold a pen."
"Then we'll need witnesses and records. I have another concern."
Teresa emailed a scan. It showed a personal guarantee attached to a large advance from the buyer. Below it was a second signature that looked like my own.
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I had been overseas on the date written above it.
Someone had made me responsible for a debt I had never agreed to pay.
