Chapter 12 - The Account in His Name
Carmina’s son was named Adrian Villanueva.
He had been sitting beside her at graduation.
I remembered his polished shoes.
The phone in his hand.
The way he looked away while she insulted me.
Now his company appeared beside transfers labeled educational support services.
Mateo spread the documents across the table.
“We need to be precise.
A company receiving money is not automatically wrongdoing.”
“What services?”
“That is the question.”
The records listed student outreach, emergency assistance, and scholarship administration.
Nora’s preserved emails showed something else.
When students asked about missing funds, staff were told to mark them as declined or paid through an intermediary.
Some acknowledgments were scanned.
Others had been copied from old application forms.
My name appeared in an email exchange.
Ramos has merit waiver.
Less likely to inquire.
I read that sentence until Professor Santos covered it with her hand.
“They counted on you being too busy surviving,” she said.
I looked at Liam asleep in the crib.
“They were right.”
“No.
They were wrong eventually.”
That evening, Adrian contacted Mateo.
He wanted to speak without his mother present.
Mateo told him to get his own lawyer.
Two days later, they arranged a meeting.
Adrian looked less certain in a plain shirt than he had in the front row.
“I signed company documents,” he said.
“I didn’t manage the accounts.”
Mateo didn’t comfort him.
“What did you authorize?”
Adrian’s lawyer placed copies on the table.
Service contracts.
Bank mandates.
A distribution schedule.
My name appeared again.
Adrian stared at me.
“I didn’t know she had never been paid.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“No.”
“Did you hear your mother at graduation?”
He looked down.
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I should have stopped her.”
I had heard that sentence too many times.
His lawyer explained that he was cooperating with investigators.
He had also requested preservation of company records.
Adrian pushed forward a printed message from Carmina.
Close the remaining account before the review expands.
Do not put explanations in writing.
Mateo read it twice.
“Has this been given to the investigators?”
“Yes,” Adrian’s lawyer said.
I looked at Adrian.
“Why come to me?”
“Because she’s going to say your mother organized it.
There’s a file being prepared.”
My stomach dropped.
“What file?”
He swallowed.
“A confession.”
“My mother never confessed.”
“I know.”
Then he handed over the draft.
May you like
It carried Teresa Ramos’s name.
And beneath it, someone had listed me as her accomplice.
