Chapter 5 - Fifteen Million ReasonsFor several seconds, I couldn’t understand what I was looking at.
Gabriel stopped her.
“Not yet.”
He turned to me.
“You don’t have to speak with them.”
“I know.”
“Anything you say could become part of this.”
“I know.”
“Anything they say could also become part of this.”
That was why I opened the door.
Not completely.
Lucía had a security chain installed.
Daniel stood in the hallway holding white roses.
My favorite.
Teresa stood beside him in the same pale-blue suit she had worn the previous night.
For the first time since I had known her, she looked tired.
“Mariana,” Daniel said.
His voice was gentle.
Too gentle.
“You scared me.”
I nearly laughed.
“You tracked my phone.”
He blinked.
“The location app. I was worried.”
“Were you worried before or after the bank froze your loan?”
Teresa’s face changed.
Daniel stopped breathing.
There it was.
Confirmation without a word.
I looked at my husband.
“Forty-five minutes after your mother threw me out, the bank called me.”
“Mariana—”
“Don’t.”
Teresa stepped forward.
“This is a business misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding with my forged signature?”
“Keep your voice down.”
Lucía appeared behind me.
“This is my apartment, Teresa. She can use whatever volume she wants.”
Teresa’s eyes narrowed.
She had never liked Lucía.
Women who couldn’t be intimidated irritated her.
Daniel lowered the flowers.
“We can explain.”
“Explain the loan.”
“It was temporary financing.”
“Why was I listed as guarantor?”
“Because you’re technically a shareholder.”
“I never agreed to become one.”
Teresa spoke.
“You signed the transfer.”
“No, somebody signed my name.”
“We have notarized documents.”
That sentence mattered.
Gabriel stepped into view.
Teresa’s confidence slipped.
“Who is he?” she demanded.
“My attorney,” I said.
Technically, Gabriel hadn’t formalized representation yet.
He didn’t correct me.
Daniel’s face drained.
“An attorney? Mariana, seriously?”
“You forged my signature on a multimillion-peso loan.”
“I did not forge anything.”
“Then who did?”
Silence.
Fernanda’s witness signature flashed through my mind.
I watched Daniel closely.
“Was it your sister?”
His eyes moved.
Barely.
But enough.
Teresa saw it too.
“Daniel,” she snapped.
He recovered.
“Nobody forged anything.”
Gabriel spoke for the first time.
“The bank’s fraud department may have a different opinion.”
Teresa went still.
Her expression shifted from anger to calculation.
“How much does she know?”
Daniel looked at her sharply.
Too late.
The hallway became silent.
I felt Lucía’s hand touch my shoulder.
I repeated Teresa’s words.
“How much do I know?”
Teresa closed her eyes briefly.
Daniel whispered, “Mom.”
She ignored him.
“Mariana, let us inside.”
“No.”
“We should not discuss private financial matters in a hallway.”
“We won’t discuss them at all.”
She looked directly at me.
“What do you want?”
The question surprised me.
Not: What happened?
Not: Why are you accusing us?
What do you want?
As if we had already reached the bargaining stage.
“I want every document bearing my name.”
“That could take time.”
“I want every loan.”
“You don’t understand corporate finance.”
“I want every property, account, guarantee, transfer, and shareholder resolution connected to me.”
Teresa’s mouth hardened.
“You’ve been listening to lawyers for less than twelve hours and suddenly you think you’re an expert?”
“No. That’s why I hired one.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Mariana, please. Come home.”
I looked at him.
Home.
The word felt ridiculous.
“Which home?”
“What?”
“Our house? The one you pledged as collateral?”
His face flickered.
“That’s not what happened.”
“Then explain.”
He lowered his voice.
“The company had a liquidity problem.”
“How big?”
“Manageable.”
“How big?”
“Mariana—”
“How much debt?”
Teresa interrupted.
“That is not your concern.”
I actually smiled.
“You put my name on it.”
Her face reddened.
“It became my concern the moment you forged my signature.”
“Watch your accusations.”
Gabriel spoke calmly.
“Mrs. Salazar, I recommend you stop communicating directly with Mariana about the disputed documents.”
Teresa looked at him with contempt.
Then she did something I never expected.
She smiled.
Not warmly.
Strategically.
“Mariana, you’ve always wanted to be accepted by this family.”
My stomach turned.
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
Teresa continued.
“And perhaps we haven’t always made that easy.”
That was the closest she had ever come to acknowledging four years of insults.
“We’ve had disagreements. But there’s no reason to destroy a marriage because of paperwork.”
“Paperwork?”
She glanced toward Gabriel.
“We can correct the signatures.”
I stared at her.
Correct.
Not investigate.
Not apologize.
Correct.
She reached inside her purse.
Daniel said, “Mom, don’t.”
Teresa pulled out a folded document.
She slipped it through the opening allowed by the security chain.
I didn’t take it.
Lucía did.
She unfolded the paper.
Her eyes widened.
“What is this?”
“A settlement,” Teresa said.
Gabriel took the document.
I watched him read.
His face became unreadable.
“What?” I asked.
He handed it to me.
The offer was simple.
I would confirm that I had verbally authorized Daniel to sign the disputed loan paperwork.
In exchange, Teresa would repurchase my alleged twelve-percent stake in Salazar Hospitality.
Price:
3,000,000 pesos.
Three million.
More money than I had ever held at once.
Daniel spoke softly.
“We can use it to travel. Start fresh. Buy whatever house you want.”
I looked at him.
“You want to pay me three million pesos to say the forgery was authorized.”
“It wasn’t a forgery if you gave me permission.”
“I didn’t.”
“You could say you did.”
There it was.
No more pretending.
My husband had just asked me to lie to the bank.
I folded the paper slowly.
“What happens if I refuse?”
Teresa answered.
“You should think carefully before making enemies of people who have protected you for four years.”
Protected me.
I felt something inside me harden.
“You mean housed your son’s wife while using her identity?”
Daniel flinched.
Teresa leaned toward the gap in the door.
“You don’t know how complicated this is.”
“Then make it simple.”
I tore the settlement in half.
Then again.
I pushed the pieces through the door.
They fluttered to the hallway carpet.
Daniel stared at them.
Teresa didn’t.
She stared at me.
And for the first time, I saw fear.
Not fear of me.
Fear of what I might discover.
I closed the door.
Three minutes later, building security escorted them away.
At noon, Gabriel officially became my attorney.
At 12:17, he received the first response from the bank’s fraud department.
At 1:04, we learned the $2.2 million application had been rejected and referred for investigation.
At 2:30, something even bigger happened.
A second bank contacted us.
Then a third.
By sunset, we had identified six financial transactions involving documents supposedly signed by me.
Total exposure:
11.8 million pesos.
But that still wasn’t the worst part.
At 7:41 p.m., Gabriel called me into his conference room.
A single document was displayed on the monitor.
“Mariana,” he said, “I need you to prepare yourself.”
It was a life-insurance policy.
On me.
The policy had been increased six months earlier.
Death benefit:
15 million pesos.
Beneficiary:
Daniel Salazar.
May you like
And according to the form attached to it, I had personally requested the increase.
I hadn’t.
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