Chapter 4 - WHAT HE LEFT IN THE DRAWER
By morning, my building access had been suspended.
My supervisor sounded miserable.
“This isn’t a conclusion.”
“It feels like one.”
“An allegation involving client funds requires a review.”
“I reported the conflict myself.”
“I know.”
That was what hurt.
She knew, and I was still sitting outside my own career.
Nina arrived carrying coffee and a yellow legal pad.
She put both on the table.
“Today we make a timeline.”
“I want to find whoever sent that complaint.”
“First, we make sure nobody can rewrite your last three years.”
We started with bank statements.
Then messages.
Then every document Marco had ever asked me to sign.
By noon, the floor was covered with folders.
By two, my coffee had gone cold.
At three, I found the envelope.
It was tucked inside the drawer where Marco used to keep spare keys.
Across the front, in his handwriting:
HOUSE PAPERS.
Inside was a photocopy of an old identity card, a property valuation, and a blank page bearing my signature.
I stared at it.
Nina leaned forward.
“When did you sign that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
The memory came slowly.
A courier deadline.
Marco standing beside me before his flight.
A stack of forms.
“Sign the last page now,” he had said. “I’ll fill in the boring parts.”
I had been rushing to finish dinner.
I had trusted him.
Nina slid the page into a clean document sleeve.
“Anything involving the property goes through me from now on.”
That evening, Marco’s mother arrived.
She didn’t knock so much as attack the door.
I let her in because some stupid part of me still wanted her to ask if I was okay.
Instead, she pointed at the dining table.
“You set him up.”
“He stole money.”
“That woman confused him.”
“He brought her into my home.”
“A wife protects her husband.”
“From what? The consequences?”
Her face tightened.
Then she pulled a folded document from her handbag.
“Sign this. His attorney says it will help clarify things.”
Nina, still seated at the table, held out her hand.
“I’m Elena’s counsel.”
My mother-in-law hesitated.
Nina read the first paragraph.
Then the second.
Her expression went flat.
“This says Elena authorized the overseas transfers.”
“She handled their finances.”
“It also gives Marco authority to sell the house.”
The room went quiet.
May you like
His mother wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“How long,” I asked, “have you known he planned to take it?”
