Chapter 9 - The Trap Inside the House
Varela didn't enter.
He stood outside the doorway.
Emilia moved beside me.
“You're trespassing.”
He smiled.
“This property belongs to the Salgado trust.”
“Exactly.”
“And you're not authorized to be here.”
“I am.”
He held up a document.
“Not according to this.”
I looked.
It was another authorization.
With my signature.
Forged.
Again.
I laughed.
“You really don't understand.”
His smile faded.
“I understand perfectly.”
“No.”
I stepped forward.
“You keep forging my signature because you still believe I'm powerless.”
He stared at me.
“You are tired.”
“I've had a baby.”
“You need rest.”
“I need justice.”
He turned.
“Careful.”
Then he walked away.
Emilia watched him disappear.
“Don't chase him.”
“I wasn't going to.”
We returned home.
The house was dark.
Too dark.
I turned on the lights.
Nothing.
The power had been disconnected.
“That's impossible.”
Emilia checked the breaker.
Everything was on.
Then we heard a sound.
A drawer opening.
Someone was inside.
I grabbed Renata.
Emilia called security.
Footsteps moved upstairs.
Then stopped.
We waited.
A man appeared at the top of the staircase.
Rodrigo.
He held a folder.
“Give me the documents.”
“No.”
“Mariana.”
“No.”
He came down.
“You don't know what you're doing.”
“I know exactly what I'm doing.”
“You're putting our daughter at risk.”
“You put her at risk.”
He stopped.
“I never wanted that.”
“Then why did you forge my signature?”
“I needed protection.”
“For what?”
He looked away.
I realized something.
He was afraid.
Not of me.
Of someone else.
“Who are you afraid of?”
He said nothing.
“Varela?”
His jaw tightened.
“Ofelia?”
Nothing.
Then I asked:
“Your mother?”
He looked at me.
And that was enough.
I understood.
Ofelia wasn't merely helping him.
She was controlling him.
“What did she threaten you with?”
“Nothing.”
“Rodrigo.”
He sat down.
For the first time in years, he looked exhausted.
“She knows what happened to your father.”
I stared at him.
“Tell me.”
“I can't.”
“You can.”
“No.”
“Then leave.”
He stood.
Before walking away, he whispered:
“Your father wasn't supposed to die.”
My heart stopped.
“What happened?”
He looked toward Renata.
“Your father found the money.”
“What money?”
“The money they had been moving through the companies.”
“Who?”
“Varela. Ofelia. Others.”
“And you?”
“I helped them.”
I felt like the floor disappeared.
“Why?”
“Because I was trapped.”
“You chose.”
“I was young.”
“You were a grown man.”
He looked at me.
“I loved you.”
I shook my head.
“Love doesn't look like this.”
He swallowed.
Then he handed me the folder.
“There's one document in here that can destroy them.”
I opened it.
It was an original agreement.
Signed by Ofelia.
And witnessed by Varela.
But there was a third signature.
Rodrigo's.
He had signed years ago.
I looked at him.
“What is this?”
He whispered:
“The agreement that started everything.”
Then the front door opened.
Ofelia walked inside.
She looked at Rodrigo.
Then at me.
Then at the document in my hands.
Her face changed.
“You found it.”
She reached for the folder.
May you like
I stepped back.
And she said a name I had never heard before...
