CHAPTER 6 – The Storage Unit
CHAPTER 6 – The Storage Unit
Two days later, Doña Esperanza called me.
Her voice trembled.
"I remembered something."
"What?"
"I still have papers."
"What papers?"
"The apartment."
"The sale."
"The investment."
"Where are they?"
"In a storage unit."
I frowned.
"You rented a storage unit?"
"No."
"Mateo did."
"He put my things there after I left."
"Do you have the key?"
"I found it inside my coat."
Within an hour we were standing outside a row of metal storage doors on the edge of town.
The manager checked her identification.
"Unit 214."
He rolled the door open.
The smell of dust rushed out.
Inside were old family photographs.
Boxes of Christmas decorations.
A rocking chair.
Kitchen dishes wrapped in newspaper.
Everything that had once filled Doña Esperanza's apartment.
Everything except furniture.
Except...
One large fireproof file box.
She picked it up with shaking hands.
"I've never opened this."
We carried it to the office.
Inside were neatly organized folders.
Apartment sale documents.
Bank statements.
Insurance papers.
Then my eyes landed on a folder labeled:
POWER OF ATTORNEY
My stomach tightened.
I opened it.
The document named Mateo as his mother's financial representative.
Doña Esperanza looked confused.
"I never signed that."
"You've never seen this?"
She shook her head.
"I don't even know what that is."
I looked closer.
The signature at the bottom looked strangely familiar.
Not because it belonged to her.
Because the handwriting reminded me of something else.
I took out my phone.
Opened the forged lease application.
Placed the two signatures side by side.
The same slant.
The same looping capital letters.
The same exaggerated flourish under the last name.
My pulse quickened.
Whoever had forged my signature...
Had also forged Doña Esperanza's.
Then another document slipped from the folder.
It was a bank transfer authorization.
Amount transferred:
$412,680.
Destination account holder:
Mateo Alvarez Construction LLC
Below that...
A second transfer.
$87,000.
Different account.
Different bank.
Account holder:
Camilo Alvarez.
I felt the blood drain from my face.
Slowly...
Very slowly...
I turned the paper toward Camilo's mother.
"Did you know..."
"...that your younger son received almost ninety thousand dollars from the sale of your apartment?"
Her eyes widened.
"What?"
"I never gave Camilo money."
The room became deathly silent.
Every excuse Camilo had made.
Every lie.
Every guilty silence.
Suddenly they all made sense.
He hadn't stayed quiet because he was afraid of his brother.
He had stayed quiet...
Because he had taken the money too.
And at that exact moment, my phone rang.
It was my lawyer.
The first words out of her mouth made my knees go weak.
"Sofia..."
"I've just received a call from the police."
"They want to speak with you immediately."
May you like
"They've arrested someone..."
"...using your name."
