Chương 5
“You know me.”
“I thought I did.”
I flinched.
She noticed.
Neither of us spoke for a few seconds.
Finally she closed the laptop.
“When I found your name in the records, I confronted Rogelio.”
“In his bedroom.”
“The files were in a locking cabinet there.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never asked?”
“I asked a lot of things.”
“And then promised him you wouldn’t tell me.”
“No.”
I stared at her.
“You said you promised not to get involved.”
“That isn’t the same promise.”
“What did you promise?”
Mariana crossed her arms tightly.
“That I would give him until after the wedding.”
I felt my face go hot.
“You knew before we got married?”
“Yes.”
“You stood beside me yesterday and said vows while knowing my father had forged my name on a loan.”
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
“Today.”
“Before or after I caught you lying?”
“I did not lie about the records.”
“You omitted the part where my father committed a felony using my identity.”
“I was trying to keep our wedding from becoming a disaster.”
“Our wedding was already a disaster.”
Her eyes flashed.
“No, Daniel, your father created a disaster.”
“And you helped hide it.”
“Yes.”
The answer took the fight out of me for half a second.
She swallowed.
“Yes, I did.”
I looked away.
She continued more quietly.
“And I was wrong.”
I sat at the table.
The laptop screen showed a spreadsheet with rows of payments highlighted yellow and red.
“What is that?”
“His company account.”
“You still have access?”
“I downloaded what I could.”
“Why?”
“Because the numbers didn’t make sense.”
I looked at her.
“What numbers?”
She turned the laptop toward me.
“There are monthly payments leaving the business account that Rogelio told me were equipment storage fees.”
“So?”
“They aren’t going to a storage company.”
“Where are they going?”
“A limited liability company called CR Property Services.”
The initials registered immediately.
“Claudia Reyes.”
“That was my guess.”
“How much?”
“Three thousand eight hundred dollars a month.”
I stared at the screen.
“For a year?”
“Eleven months that I can see.”
More than forty thousand dollars.
Nearly the amount my mother had transferred.
I leaned back.
“So he took Mom’s savings while paying his girlfriend.”
“I don’t know what the payments are for.”
“Come on.”
“I’m not defending him.”
“It sounds like you are.”
“I’m trying not to accuse somebody of something we can’t prove.”
The distinction irritated me because it was reasonable.
I hated reasonable things that afternoon.
My phone rang.
Uncle Ernesto.
I nearly ignored it.
Mariana nodded toward the screen.
“Answer.”
I put him on speaker.
“Daniel?”
“What?”
“You talked to your father?”
“Yes.”
A pause followed.
Then Ernesto exhaled.
“Okay.”
“What else do you know?”
“Your dad called me.”
“Of course he did.”
“He’s upset.”
“He’ll survive.”
“Maybe.”
Something in Ernesto’s voice made Mariana look at me.
“What does that mean?”
“Your mother found something.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“What?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“Where are you?”
“At their house.”
“And Mom?”
Another pause.
“She locked Rogelio out.”
I stood.
“What did she find?”
“I think she found Claudia’s earring.”
Mariana’s face changed.
Ernesto continued.
“But that’s not why I called.”
My skin prickled.
“Then why did you call?”
“Because your mother opened the cabinet in his bedroom.”
I looked at the white envelope on the table.
“What cabinet?”
“The locked one.”
“What was inside?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“Ernesto.”
“There were loan papers.”
“I already have copies.”
“Not those.”
He lowered his voice.
“These have Teresa’s name on them.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“What do you mean Teresa’s name?”
Ernesto spoke more quietly.
“I mean there are documents with her signature.”
Mariana was already closing the laptop.
“Ask whether he saw the amounts.”
I raised a hand.
“What kind of documents?”
“Home equity.”
I stopped breathing for a second.
My parents had owned that house for twenty-seven years.
My mother talked about the mortgage being paid off the way other people talked about surviving war.
She had kept the final payoff letter in a plastic sleeve inside her desk.
“How much?”
“I only saw one page.”
“Ernesto.”
“Two hundred and ten thousand.”
Mariana covered her mouth.
I walked toward the door.
“Is Mom there?”
“In the kitchen.”
“Put her on.”
“She won’t talk to anybody.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means she told me to get out too.”
That sounded like her.
Teresa rarely raised her voice.
When she was truly furious, she became formal.
Even as a kid, hearing her say, “Please leave this room,” had been more frightening than any yelling.
“What’s Dad doing?”
“Sitting in his truck.”
“Don’t let him leave.”
Ernesto gave a short, humorless laugh.
“I’m not tackling Rogelio in the driveway.”
“Take his keys.”
“You take his keys.”
I ended the call.
Mariana was already pulling on shoes.
“You’re coming?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“No, you didn’t.”
She looked at me.
“Your mother trusted me with those records.”
“So?”
“So if she found out what I knew, she may think I helped him.”
“Did you?”
The question came out harsher than I intended.
Her face went still.
“Not with this.”
I immediately knew I had gone too far.
She picked up her purse.
“I’m driving separately.”
“Mariana.”
“I’m not doing this in the car with you.”
She walked out.
I stood alone in the kitchen for several seconds, then grabbed the envelope and followed.
My father’s truck was parked crooked near the workshop when I arrived.
He sat behind the wheel with both hands resting on top of it, staring straight ahead.
Ernesto leaned against the garage with his arms folded.
He lifted his chin when I got out.
“She’s still inside.”
“Did Dad say anything?”
“Mostly things that start with ‘you don’t understand.’”
Mariana pulled in behind me.
My father’s eyes moved toward her car.
He opened his door.
“Daniel.”
I kept walking.
May you like
“Daniel, don’t go in there angry.”
I turned.
