Chapter 5 - THE RECKONING AT THE NOTARY
The legal fallout was a tidal wave.
Renata sat in a small,
windowless room at the police station,
her white dress now wrinkled and stained.
She demanded the best lawyers in the city,
but they were all calling my office,
asking for a way out of the scandal.
I met with Esteban,
my attorney,
in a quiet café.
He handed me a folder.
"She wasn't just abusing your mother, Alejandro."
"She was funneling money into a shell company in the Caymans."
"And she was planning to frame you for tax evasion."
I looked at the documents,
the complexity of her betrayal stunning me.
"She really hated me that much?"
I asked.
Esteban shook his head.
"She didn't hate you."
"She didn't feel anything for you."
"To her,
you were just a bank account with a face."
Back at the house,
my mother was sitting in the patio.
She wasn't scrubbing.
She was sitting in a comfortable chair,
drinking tea,
watching the birds.
I sat beside her,
taking in the peace of the inner courtyard.
"I want to sell this house, mamá,"
I said.
She looked at me,
surprised.
"But it was your father's pride."
"It’s tainted now,"
I replied.
"Every wall has heard her voice."
"Every corner holds a memory of your pain."
"I want to buy you a ranch,
outside the city."
"Where there are no smoke detectors needed for safety."
"Where you can see the mountains."
She smiled,
a real smile that reached her eyes for the first time in years.
"I would like that, hijo."
But the battle wasn't over.
Renata’s family,
a wealthy clan from Monterrey,
tried to intervene.
They sent her brother to my office,
offering me a 'settlement' to drop the charges.
He was arrogant,
just like her.
"Think about your reputation, Alejandro,"
he said,
leaning across my desk.
"A messy divorce,
allegations of abuse...
it’s bad for business."
I leaned back,
tapping my pen on the desk.
"You haven't seen the full footage, have you?"
I asked.
He frowned.
"What footage?"
I pressed a button on my desk.
A monitor on the wall came to life.
It showed Renata talking to him,
her brother,
about how they were going to 'drain the Ellis trust' once the mother was out of the way.
He went pale.
"I have three smoke detectors in my house,"
I told him.
"But I have ten in this office."
"You are currently on camera conspiring to obstruct justice."
He stood up so fast his chair hit the wall.
"We’re done here,"
he stammered.
"Yes,"
I said.
"You are."
"Tell your parents that if they interfere again,"
"I will release the Monterrey tapes too."
He fled the office,
his arrogance left on the floor like a dirty rag.
I was no longer the man Renata thought I was.
I was a man who had protected his mother.
And I was a man who was taking his life back,
May you like
line by line,
recording by recording.
