Chapter 6 - SOMEONE WAS WATCHING
Mateo didn’t show me the photograph immediately.
I noticed something was wrong when he stopped letting me walk down the hospital corridor alone.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Mateo.”
He looked at me.
We had been together seven years.
He had never been good at lying to me.
He handed me the phone.
I read the message.
SIGN OR SHE PAYS.
My first reaction was fear.
My second was anger.
My third surprised even me.
“Send it to the police.”
Mateo nodded.
“I already did.”
The police took the threat seriously because of the property dispute.
A detective named Carmen Ortega came to speak with us.
She asked who knew about the documents.
My parents.
Noelia.
Sergio.
Andrés.
The development company.
Possibly whoever my father owed money to.
“Do you believe your father would threaten you?”
Carmen asked.
I wanted to say no.
Instead, I remembered him standing in the doorway while my mother dragged me by the hair.
“I don’t know who he is anymore.”
That evening, my father finally called.
His voice sounded twenty years older.
“Lucía.”
“What?”
“I need to see you.”
“No.”
“Please.”
I almost hung up.
Then he said something unexpected.
“Your mother doesn’t know I’m calling.”
I looked at Mateo.
“Why does that matter?”
“Because this wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“What wasn’t?”
“The threat.”
My pulse jumped.
“You know about the message?”
He started breathing heavily.
“Dad?”
“I borrowed money from Sergio.”
Everything inside me stopped.
Noelia’s boyfriend.
“How much?”
“Originally eighty thousand.”
“Originally?”
“Interest.”
“How much now?”
“Two hundred and seventy.”
I felt sick.
“Why?”
“My company was failing.”
“You don’t have a company.”
“I did.”
Another secret.
Another lie.
“I invested with Sergio three years ago.”
“In what?”
“Property.”
Mateo leaned closer to the phone.
“What kind of property?”
My father recognized his voice.
“Stay out of this.”
Mateo’s expression hardened.
“My wife received a threat.”
“I’m already in it.”
My father whispered.
“Sergio knew about Elena’s house.”
I looked at Mateo.
“How?”
“Noelia told him.”
Of course she did.
“He offered to help me sell it.”
“A house you knew wasn’t yours.”
“I thought I could fix everything before you found out.”
“By forging my signature?”
“I was desperate.”
“You were stealing from me.”
“I was trying to save this family.”
I closed my eyes.
“No.”
“You were trying to save yourself.”
He began crying.
I had almost never heard my father cry.
“Lucía, Sergio isn’t who Noelia thinks he is.”
“What does that mean?”
“He has other people involved.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then go to the police.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
His answer came in a whisper.
“Because I already helped him commit fraud.”
The line suddenly went dead.
I called back.
No answer.
Ten minutes later, Noelia called me screaming.
“What did you say to Dad?”
“What happened?”
“He’s gone.”
“What?”
“He left the house.”
May you like
Her voice cracked.
“And there’s blood in the garage.”
