Chapter 10 - CARMEN'S LETTER
The missing trust gave Sebastián an opening.
Without the original documents, he claimed Carmen had never legally transferred her share of El Nogal to the boys.
He filed suit.
The ranch accounts were temporarily restricted.
Workers worried about their pay.
Buyers canceled contracts.
Rodrigo began spending his days with attorneys.
At night, he sat alone on the porch.
Valentina watched the man who had rescued her slowly disappear beneath a burden he refused to share.
One evening, she sat beside him.
“You don't always have to be the one saving everybody.”
Rodrigo gave a tired laugh.
“I'm not very good at anything else.”
“Yes, you are.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
“Staying.”
The word silenced him.
Rodrigo reached for her hand.
Then Mateo shouted from inside.
“Dad!”
They ran to Carmen's old bedroom.
Tomás stood beside the closet holding a wooden box.
They had been searching for photographs for a school project.
Inside the box were letters.
Dozens of them.
All written by Carmen during the last months of her life.
One envelope had Rodrigo's name.
His hands shook as he opened it.
Rodrigo,
If you're reading this, I'm gone, and you're probably trying to carry everything alone again.
Don't.
Our boys don't need a monument to me.
They need a father who keeps living.
Rodrigo stopped reading.
His eyes filled.
Mateo looked away.
Valentina squeezed Rodrigo's shoulder.
He continued.
And if one day someone brings warmth back into this house, don't punish yourself for letting her in.
Love doesn't erase what came before.
It proves the heart survived it.
Rodrigo lowered the letter.
Nobody spoke.
Then Tomás reached deeper into the box.
“There’s something else.”
A small brass key.
Rodrigo recognized it.
Carmen's bank deposit box.
The next morning, they drove into town.
Inside the box were certified copies of the trust.
The ranch belonged to Mateo and Tomás exactly as Carmen intended.
But there was something else.
May you like
A sealed envelope addressed to Sebastián.
And what Carmen had written inside would tear the Peralta family apart.
