Chương 7
“The transfers to CR Property Services.”
My father’s confusion was genuine enough to frighten me.
“I never paid Claudia through the company.”
Mariana leaned forward.
“Then what is CR Property Services?”
“I don’t know.”
“You approved eleven transfers.”
“No.”
“They came from the operating account.”
“Claudia wasn’t getting thirty-eight hundred a month.”
Teresa’s eyes moved between them.
“Who was?”
Nobody answered.
Rogelio walked toward the laptop.
“Show me.”
Mariana hesitated.
Then she opened it.
He bent over the spreadsheet.
His expression changed within seconds.
“These aren’t mine.”
“They’re from your account.”
“I can see where they’re from.”
“You authorized them.”
“I didn’t.”
His finger moved down the dates.
“No.”
“What?”
He pointed.
“I was in Rochester this day.”
“That doesn’t stop online banking.”
“I don’t do online transfers.”
Mariana stared at him.
“What do you mean?”
“I write checks.”
I almost laughed.
“Of course you do.”
He ignored me.
“Who downloaded this?”
“I did.”
“From the business portal?”
“Yes.”
“What user?”
“The administrator account.”
My father straightened.
“I don’t have the administrator password.”
Mariana frowned.
“You own the company.”
“Claudia managed online banking.”
The room went silent again.
My mother looked at the earring.
Then at my father.
“You slept with the woman who controlled your business bank account.”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
Teresa closed her eyes.
“God.”
Rogelio looked at Mariana.
“Pull the destination account.”
“I can’t see the full number.”
“Last four?”
“Six one nine four.”
He went still.
Ernesto appeared through the back door.
Nobody had heard him approach.
“What?”
My father turned toward him.
“Your account.”
Ernesto stopped.
“What about it?”
“The account ending in six one nine four.”
For the first time since I had known him, Uncle Ernesto looked genuinely terrified.
He backed toward the door.
My father moved faster.
“Don’t.”
Ernesto raised both hands.
“Rogelio.”
“You said you didn’t know anything.”
“I said I didn’t know who was in your room.”
“You’ve been taking money?”
My uncle’s face had gone gray.
Teresa stood.
“How much?”
Ernesto looked at her.
“I can explain.”
My mother let out a strange little laugh.
“Apparently today is explanation day.”
My father grabbed his brother by the shirt.
I got between them.
“Get off him.”
“He stole from me.”
“You forged my signature.”
“That has nothing to do with this.”
“It has everything to do with this.”
Ernesto pushed my father away.
“Stop acting like you’re the victim.”
Rogelio lunged again.
This time Mariana shouted.
“Enough.”
Everyone stopped.
She pointed at Ernesto.
“Why were payments going to your account?”
He stared at the floor.
“They weren’t for me.”
“Then whose?”
He swallowed.
“Claudia’s.”
My father’s face twisted.
“You just said—”
“She couldn’t use her own account.”
“Why?”
Ernesto looked at me, then Teresa, then finally his brother.
“Because she was moving the money for you.”
Rogelio shook his head.
“No.”
“You asked her to.”
“No.”
“You told her the company needed cash hidden from creditors.”
“That’s a lie.”
“She said you were moving assets.”
My father stepped closer.
“I never told her that.”
Ernesto’s voice rose.
“She showed me messages.”
“What messages?”
“From your number.”
Rogelio stopped.
Mariana was already holding out her hand.
“Do you still have them?”
Ernesto nodded.
“On my phone.”
“Show us.”
He unlocked it with shaking fingers.
Mariana took the phone.
She scrolled.
Then she looked at my father.
“These came from your number.”
Rogelio snatched his own phone from his pocket.
“I never sent them.”
Mariana read silently for several seconds.
Her face changed.
“What?”
I asked.
She turned the screen toward me.
The messages instructed Claudia to route monthly transfers through Ernesto’s account and move most of the money into cashier’s checks.
“What happened to the checks?”
I asked.
Ernesto said nothing.
My father stared at him.
“What happened to them?”
“I gave them to Claudia.”
“All of them?”
“Almost.”
“What does almost mean?”
Ernesto looked toward the kitchen window.
“One is still in my truck.”
My father cursed under his breath.
“Why?”
“Because the last time she came for it, something felt wrong.”
“What felt wrong?”
“She didn’t act like somebody helping you.”
My mother sat down again.
“What did she act like?”
Ernesto rubbed both hands over his face.
“Like somebody leaving.”
Mariana handed his phone back.
“When was this?”
“Thursday.”
Two days before the wedding.
“Where is Claudia now?”
My father reached for his phone.
He called.
We all heard the ringing through the speaker.
Then voicemail.
He called again.
Same result.
Mariana reopened the business account.
“Do you have any way to see today’s activity?”
“Yes.”
She refreshed the page.
Her face went still.
“What?”
Rogelio leaned over her shoulder.
The available balance had dropped to just over twelve thousand dollars.
Yesterday it had been seventy-four.
My father gripped the back of the chair.
“No.”
Mariana scrolled.
“There was a wire this morning.”
“To where?”
“I can’t see the destination.”
“How much?”
“Sixty-two thousand.”
My father pulled out a chair and sat hard.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
My mother reached for the tiny gold earring.
She rolled it once between her fingers.
Then she set it back down.
“Call the bank,” she said.
Rogelio looked at her.
“Teresa.”
“Call the bank.”
“If we report unauthorized transfers, they’ll review everything.”
“I know.”
“They’ll see the loan.”
“I know.”
“They’ll see Daniel’s guarantee.”
“I know.”
His face changed.
The full shape of the trap finally seemed to reach him.
Reporting Claudia could expose his own fraud.
Staying silent could let her disappear with whatever remained.
Teresa looked at me.
Then at Mariana.
Then back at her husband.
“For once in your life, Rogelio, stop deciding what this family is allowed to know.”
He did not move.
My mother picked up the phone and dialed the number printed on the account statement herself.
The bank representative asked Teresa to verify information my father usually handled, and for once he had to sit there listening while she answered without looking at him.
May you like
“Yes,” she said.
“No, I did not authorize the transfer.”
