Chapter 2
The folder contained printed conversations between Renata and Mauricio. For eight months they had fabricated a story: Teresa supposedly suffered from dementia, Alejandro experienced anxiety attacks, and the couple needed "asset protection."
Mauricio had prepared fake medical certificates, while Renata hid Teresa's keys, moved her medicines, and sent messages from the old woman's phone to make her seem disoriented.
The goal was for Alejandro to sign a trust that would give Renata control of the family construction company and the candy factory if he or his mother were declared incapacitated. The 80,000,000 peso insurance policy was the final piece.
Alejandro went downstairs with the folder and handed it to the police. Renata stopped crying. She insisted it was all a legal measure to protect her assets from a manipulative mother-in-law, but the officer found her cell phone hidden behind the flowerpot.
The video Renata had recorded did not show an accidental attack: it began seconds after the attack and focused on her backing away with a terrified expression, while Teresa appeared on the ground. She intended to publish the clip and claim that the elderly woman had tried to attack her during a crisis.
The security recording had preserved what she thought she would delete. At the hospital, Teresa was diagnosed with deep burns on her shoulder and chest. When she was able to speak, she recounted how she had discovered the forgery by recognizing the seal of a deceased notary. She had also found sedative pills mixed in with her vitamins and had requested a private appointment with Alejandro for the following morning. That's why she wrote a copy of the document on the back of the calendar and marked the date; she knew Renata went through her purse, but she never cleaned the kitchen.
Alejandro broke down, remembering how he had defended his wife for months. Every time Teresa noticed something strange, he asked her for patience to avoid conflict. The woman who had taught him to work since he was a child had risked her life trying to save him, while he mistook silence for peace. Then Mauricio called. He didn't know the police were listening and demanded that Alejandro destroy the file before Renata "got nervous and said irreparable things." Alejandro pretended not to understand.
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Mauricio replied that, once the documents were signed, they would sell the factory, transfer the money to an account in Texas, and leave Teresa in a nursing home. Then he added something worse: Renata had already done her part, and he had to do his. The call ended when an agent announced they had a warrant for his arrest. But before hanging up, Mauricio uttered a phrase that transformed the fraud into an even more brutal betrayal: the child Renata was expecting wasn't Alejandro's.
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