Chapter 5 - The Papers Teresa Signed
Lucía took them through a side entrance into the courthouse, where fluorescent lights made everyone look exhausted. She had managed to secure an emergency appointment with an independent physician, Dr. Ana Villaseñor, but the appointment was not until the following afternoon.
“By then,” Gabriel said, “Ramiro may have filed his petition.”
“Then we make sure the judge knows there is a dispute.”
Teresa walked between them with her cane held firmly in one hand. “I am not a package to be delivered before office hours.”
Lucía smiled. “Good. The court needs to hear that voice.”
They stopped at the property records counter. Lucía entered Teresa’s name into the public database, then frowned at the screen.
“There is a transfer instrument here.”
“Transfer of what?” Gabriel asked.
“The house.”
Teresa leaned toward the monitor. “I never sold it.”
The record showed a notarized transfer from Teresa to a company called Casa de Abril LLC, dated eighteen months earlier. The company’s registered manager was Marisol Alcántara.
Gabriel felt heat rise in his neck. “She forged my mother’s signature.”
“Maybe,” Lucía said. “But the document includes a medical certification stating Teresa understood the transaction.”
“Whose certification?”
Lucía clicked the attachment. Dr. Octavio Becerra’s name appeared beneath a statement declaring Teresa fully competent and free from coercion.
Teresa whispered, “He came to my room after Ramiro gave me pills.”
Gabriel turned. “What pills?”
“They said they were for sleep. After I took them, I could not keep my eyes open.”
Lucía copied the record number. “We will challenge the transfer. But we need proof that the document was executed under pressure or fraud.”
“The accounting firm,” Gabriel said. “Maybe they have more.”
His phone buzzed. A message from an unknown number contained a photograph of a police report. His name appeared at the top. The report accused him of threatening Ramiro in the street and attempting to force Teresa to sign a new will.
“They are building a case,” Lucía said.
“I haven’t seen Ramiro since yesterday.”
“That does not mean he hasn’t been collecting evidence.”
Outside, a uniformed officer approached Gabriel. “Mr. Alcántara?”
“Yes.”
“You need to come with us to answer questions about an assault.”
“What assault?”
“A man named Víctor Salgado was injured last night.”
Gabriel looked at Emilio’s bloodstained shirt in his memory. “I was not there.”
The officer glanced at Lucía. “You may accompany him.”
At the station, Ramiro sat behind a glass partition with a bandage across his cheek.
Gabriel stared. “You did this to yourself?”
Ramiro touched the bandage. “You sent someone to scare me.”
“Who?”
“You know who.”
The officer placed Gabriel’s missing drive on the table. “This was found in your hotel room.”
Gabriel’s stomach dropped. “It was stolen from my car.”
“It contains audio threatening your family.”
Lucía leaned forward. “You are not questioning my client without a formal statement of charges.”
The officer slid over a printed transcript. It contained words from the recording, but rearranged to make Gabriel sound violent. Someone had added a line that did not exist: If Mother talks, everyone will pay.
“That is fabricated,” Gabriel said.
“We can test the file,” Lucía replied.
Ramiro watched through the glass, his expression almost mournful.
After three hours, they released Gabriel with a summons. He returned to Teresa’s house and found the front door hanging open.
The kitchen had been searched. Drawers lay overturned. The metal tin was gone. The composition book was gone. Teresa stood in the center of the room, holding a single envelope.
“They came while I was at the courthouse,” she said.
Gabriel took the envelope. It contained a copy of an old medical chart from the year after his father died. The chart stated that Teresa had suffered a brief episode of medication-related confusion—but also that she had completed a detailed estate plan while fully oriented.
At the bottom, a handwritten note from the physician read: Patient refuses transfer of home. She says the house protects more than memories.
“What is she protecting?” Gabriel asked.
Teresa sat down. “Your father did not leave me only a house.”
“What else?”
“He left evidence.”
Before she could continue, every light in the house went out. A car door slammed beyond the gate.
May you like
Gabriel reached for his phone. No signal.
Teresa whispered, “They have come for the rest.”
