Chapter 6 - The Person My Grandmother Feared
My mother stared at the message as if she had seen a ghost. I asked her who had been inside the house that night. She whispered: “Your father's old business partner.” Then the interrogation-room door opened behind me.
I turned.
Detective Vargas stood there.
“What business partner?”
Teresa looked at her.
“Julián.”
But that answer didn't make sense.
Julián had been seen elsewhere that night.
At least according to the records.
The detective closed the door.
“We need everything.”
Teresa finally broke.
She admitted that Julián had approached her after Gabriel's death.
He told her that Gabriel had left behind debts.
He offered to help.
Instead, he gradually took control of her finances.
Then he introduced her to Sierra Azul.
“They told me I could clear everything if Valeria sold the house,” Teresa said.
“You knew she wouldn't.”
“I thought she would eventually.”
“And the coffee?”
Her face crumpled.
“I lost control.”
I believed that part.
But not everything.
“What happened the night Grandma died?”
Teresa looked down.
“Julián came to the house.”
“Why?”
“He wanted documents.”
“What documents?”
“I don't know.”
“Mom.”
“I swear.”
She began crying.
Then she said something that stopped me.
“Your grandmother had a second will.”
I stared at her.
“A second will?”
“She told me about it.”
“Where is it?”
“I don't know.”
The detective took notes.
Then a police officer entered.
“Detective, we found the vehicle.”
“What vehicle?”
“The one connected to the notary's death.”
They showed us a photograph.
The same black SUV.
The same symbol.
The same vehicle that had been near my house.
I left the station after midnight.
Marcus drove me home.
We had barely entered the gate when my security system sent an alert.
Someone was inside.
I froze.
Marcus raised his hand.
We entered silently.
The study door was open.
The drawers had been pulled out.
The metal box was gone.
But something else had been left behind.
A single white envelope.
My name.
I opened it.
Inside was a copy of my company's original incorporation documents.
Except someone had marked one clause in red.
It stated that a portion of Nexo Cero's intellectual property had been protected under a private trust.
My grandmother's trust.
I stared at Marcus.
“Why would my grandmother own part of my company?”
He shook his head.
“I don't know.”
I read the clause again.
Then I understood.
My grandmother hadn't simply left me a house.
She had protected the company I was going to build before I had even built it.
She had known what I would become.
The doorbell rang.
We both turned.
A woman stood outside.
She was in her sixties.
I didn't recognize her.
She held an old leather briefcase.
“I'm here because Aurora asked me to come if you ever found the seventeenth drawer.”
I opened the door.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Clara Reyes.”
She stepped inside.
“I was your grandmother's attorney.”
She placed the briefcase on the table.
Inside were documents.
The second will.
The original trust.
And a letter.
Clara looked at me.
“Your grandmother knew they would eventually come for everything.”
“Who are they?”
She hesitated.
Then answered:
“Not everyone who worked with Julián was working for him.”
She opened the second will.
The first page contained my name.
The second contained a list of companies.
The third contained something unexpected.
A handwritten note.
If Valeria ever sells the house, she will lose more than the property. She will lose the evidence.
I looked up.
“What evidence?”
Clara didn't answer.
Instead, she removed a photograph from the briefcase.
It showed my grandmother, my father, Teresa, Julián...
And one other person.
A person standing directly behind them.
Someone I recognized.
Someone who had been helping me all week.
I stared at the photograph.
Then the lights in the house went out.
May you like
Clara whispered:
“Don't turn around.”
