“Daniel,” Tomás read in a firm voice, “if you are hearing this, it means I am no longer here to keep protecting you from what you refused to see.”

Daniel jerked his head up.

Vanessa stopped moving her foot.

I felt the air harden inside that office.

Tomás kept reading. Elena wrote that over the last twelve months, things had gone missing from the house: first cash, then a gold bracelet inherited from her mother, later half-signed checks, strange movements in her accounts, and purchases she had never authorized. At first she thought it was a mistake. Then she wanted to believe someone was taking advantage of her confusion from the medication. But one day she realized she was not imagining any of it.

Daniel’s breathing grew faster and faster.

“What is this?” he murmured.

Vanessa let out a nervous laugh, far too loud to sound innocent.

“This is absurd. Your mother was not well at the end, Daniel. We all know that.”

I leaned forward, but Tomás raised a hand.

“I am not finished yet.”

Elena’s letter continued. It said that after noticing the persistent questions about inheritances and paperwork, she had secretly hired a private investigator. Not out of revenge, she wrote, but because she needed to know whether the danger was coming from outside… or from her own table.

Tomás opened another folder and began taking out documents one by one.

Pawnshop receipts from Tonalá.

Printed photographs from security cameras.

Copies of credit card applications submitted using our home internet.

Transcripts of legally recorded conversations in which Vanessa pressured Elena to sign papers while she was sedated.

Daniel picked up one of the photographs with trembling hands. In it, Vanessa appeared with her hair tied back and dark glasses on, handing a velvet box to the clerk at the store.

“No…” he whispered. “It cannot be.”

“Of course it can,” I said, without raising my voice. “Your mother wanted to believe in her longer than she should have.”

Vanessa stood up.

“That proves nothing. I was helping. I did everything for Daniel. That house was going to be ours too.”

“It was never yours,” Tomás replied. “And neither was Mrs. Elena’s jewelry.”

Then he opened the final will.

Elena’s estate would not be left free for anyone to use however they wanted. Everything would pass into a family trust. I would be allowed to live in the house until the last day of my life. Daniel would be the sole beneficiary of the income, but the principal could only be used for health, education, or the care of future children. And if he remained married to Vanessa when requesting any distribution, all payments would be suspended until a judge confirmed that she would not have access to a single peso.

Vanessa blinked several times, as if she did not understand.