Tomás delivered the final blow:

“There is also a no-contest clause. If anyone tries to challenge the will without grounds, they will receive one peso. Exactly one peso.”

For the first time since the funeral, Vanessa did not look offended.

She looked frightened.

Daniel stared at her as if he were seeing a stranger.

“Did you do it?” he asked, his voice broken. “Did you really steal from my mother?”

Vanessa’s eyes filled with sudden tears, the kind that come when there is no strategy left.

“I was protecting us,” she said. “Your mother never accepted me. She always wanted to leave me out. I was only trying to secure our future.”

“You called my mother’s funeral ‘a day for celebration,’” Daniel replied. “Was that for our future too?”

Vanessa tried to touch his arm. He pulled away.

The chair fell to the floor as she stepped back.

“Fine,” she spat angrily. “Stay with your father, your grief, and your damn trust.”

And she stormed out of the office, crying, furious, striking the floor with her heels as if she wanted to crack it open.

Daniel did not go after her.

He remained seated, Elena’s letter in his hands, staring into nothing.

I thought that was the end of it, but Tomás pulled out a small silver key and placed it in front of us.

“There is one more instruction,” he said. “Mrs. Elena requested that you open her safety deposit box at the bank today. Together.”

Half an hour later, Daniel and I were sitting in a private room at the bank. Inside the box there was a velvet pouch, a USB drive, another envelope, and a note written in Elena’s firm handwriting.

Daniel broke the seal.

He read the first line.

And the way he began to cry made me understand that the worst… had not yet come to light.

PART 3

The note said: