Chapter 7 - THE RECORDING
The trust administrator had recorded calls for verification. Vanessa’s voice was clear on the file Claire played.
Roberto will approve it. I handle everything for Sofía now. Schedule us for Monday.
A man in the background said, She needs access before he changes his mind.
Vanessa claimed she didn’t know who the man was. She said she had only explored options because Roberto was too busy to manage the trust himself.
Detective Harris took the documents for examination. She also asked Vanessa to turn over her phone under a warrant if one was issued. Vanessa left with her attorney an hour later, watched by Daniel until her car cleared the gate.
Only then did Roberto go upstairs.
“She left,” he told Sofía.
“For how long?”
“She won’t live here again.”
Sofía reached for his hand. He sat on the floor beside her bed, where she could touch his shoulder whenever she needed to.
“Are you mad at me?” she asked.
“No. I’m mad that you were scared in your own home.”
“I thought you’d think I was lying.”
Roberto had no quick answer. Vanessa had made Sofía believe it. His own absence had helped.
“I should have listened sooner,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
Sofía was quiet for a while. Then she climbed down from the bed and leaned into him.
That afternoon, Roberto canceled his trip to Dallas. He told his staff that urgent company matters could go through his deputy. He called Sofía’s doctor to arrange a visit and asked María to keep her usual schedule.
María hesitated. “Vanessa told me she’d reported me to the agency.”
“I spoke to them. There’s no report.”
“She showed me an email.”
Claire examined the screenshot María had saved. The sender address was fake.
María stared at it. “All this time, I thought one complaint would make it hard for me to find work.”
Roberto said, “I’m sorry she used that against you.”
A call came in from Detective Harris. The examiner had found copied signatures on two more documents. One concerned the trust.
The other gave Vanessa permission to make decisions about Sofía’s medical care if Roberto became unavailable.
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At the bottom was a date.
It had been signed, falsely, three days before Roberto’s scheduled overseas trip.
