Chapter 4 - Unearthing the Truth
With Leo gone and the family threats temporarily silenced, I sat back down at my desk to review some additional financial audits I had quietly initiated over the weekend.
When you run an accounting firm, you develop an instinct for anomalies. When accounts don't line up, when receipts have missing serial numbers, or when supplementary cards show unusual spending patterns, your brain immediately starts connecting dots.
I opened a secondary folder on my desktop—one containing records from a joint family emergency fund that my late father had set up before he passed away seven years ago.
My father had left instructions: the fund was managed by me, but it was strictly designated for genuine medical emergencies or elderly care for our aging mother. However, three years ago, Lorena had begged me for access, claiming mother needed urgent dental surgery that cost nearly eighty thousand pesos. Trusting her at the time, I had transferred the funds directly from the trust account.
I started pulling bank statements from that specific period.
My eyes widened as I traced the trail.
Mother never had dental surgery. In fact, when I cross-referenced mother’s medical history and spoke to her directly, she had no idea what I was talking about. The eighty thousand pesos hadn't gone to medical care at all.
It had been wired directly to a luxury boutique in Polanco—the exact boutique where Lorena bought her limited-edition designer handbag.
Worse still, as I kept digging through old records, I discovered something even more sickening. Six months ago, Lorena had convinced me to co-sign a small personal loan for her so she could "renovate the children's study room." I had signed the paperwork without reading every single fine-print clause, trusting my own sister.
The loan wasn't for eighty thousand pesos.
It was for three hundred thousand pesos. And my name—Mariana Ríos—was listed as the primary guarantor. If they defaulted on the loan, debt collectors wouldn't come after Rogelio’s nonexistent assets or Lorena’s velvet couch.
They would come after my accounting firm. They would freeze my business assets.
A cold wave of fury washed over me, instantly replacing any lingering sympathy I might have had. This wasn't just entitlement anymore. This was calculated financial fraud. They had knowingly, deliberately weaponized my trust to put my entire livelihood at risk.
I picked up my desk phone and dialed a direct extension.
“Mateo? Yes, hi. It’s Mariana Ríos,” I said, speaking to my corporate attorney at our partner firm across town. “I need you to pull up some urgent documentation for me. We are filing an immediate motion for fraud investigation, loan invalidation due to fraudulent misrepresentation, and a formal restraining order against two individuals.”
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“Good afternoon, Mariana,” Mateo’s calm, professional voice came through the receiver. “You sound serious. What did they do this time?”
“They crossed the line from being parasites to committing financial forgery,” I replied, my voice hard as diamond. “And I’m going to make sure they learn what happens when you steal from an accountant.”
