Chapter 6 - The Audit of Souls
"You forged my signature to steal my past. I used my fortune to buy your future."
Within ten minutes, two police cruisers pulled up to the curb with their lights flashing. Arturo rushed over to them, desperate and manic.
"Officer! Thank God you're here!" Arturo cried. "This woman—she’s my mother, but she's having some sort of mental episode! She’s locked us out of our own home and hired private security to keep us out!"
The lead officer, a stern-faced man named Officer Ramirez, walked up to the gate. "Is this true, señora?"
Before Carmen could speak, a tall man in a sharp gray suit stepped out from the shadows of the porch. It was Licenciado Mendoza. He carried a leather briefcase, which he opened, pulling out a stack of legally sealed documents.
"Officer, my name is Licenciado Mendoza, legal representative for Doña Carmen Vargas," the lawyer said calmly, handing the documents through the gate to the policeman. "If you review these papers, you will see that my client is the sole owner of this property."
Arturo laughed hysterically. "That's a lie! I have the deed! The house is in my name!"
"It was in your name, Mr. Vargas," Mendoza corrected him, his voice echoing in the quiet street. "Until we discovered that you secured that deed through forgery and fraud. We have filed a criminal complaint with the federal prosecutor. Furthermore, the mortgage on this house went into default three months ago. My client, Doña Carmen, has purchased the debt from Banco Alfa. She is the primary lienholder. As of forty-eight hours ago, the foreclosure was finalized, and the deed was legally transferred back to her."
The officer reviewed the documents, his face hardening as he read the official court seals. He looked up at Arturo. "Sir, these documents are completely valid. Doña Carmen Vargas is the legal owner of this estate. You have no right to be here."
"No... no, no, no!" Paola screamed, grabbing the officer’s sleeve. "This is a mistake! She’s an old, poor widow! She doesn't have the money to buy a mortgage! She’s been living on our charity!"
"My charity?" Carmen spoke up, her voice cutting through Paola's screeching like a razor. "You fed me the scraps from your table, Paola. You made me clean your kitchen while you went out to expensive dinners. You took my keys 'for my safety' and left me at the airport with five hundred pesos and a lie about Chole being home. Did you really think I didn't know?"
Arturo looked at his mother, his eyes wide with horror and realization. "Mom... how? Where did you get this kind of money?"
"Your father, Vicente, was a brilliant man, Arturo," Carmen said, looking at her son with a mixture of pity and disgust. "He knew your weakness. He knew you were easily led astray by greed and vanity. He left me a fortune of fifteen million dollars, hidden in a private trust, to protect me from exactly what you just did."
Arturo felt the ground vanish beneath his feet. "Fifteen... million dollars?"
"Yes," Carmen said. "A fortune you could have shared in. A fortune that would have saved your failing business. But you were too impatient. Too greedy. You wanted to steal the house from beneath your own mother's feet rather than just ask for help."
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"Mom, please!" Arturo fell to his knees on the pavement, grasping the iron bars of the gate. Tears streamed down his face. "I'm sorry! I was desperate! My business is failing, the lenders are coming after me... I didn't know what else to do! Please, don't do this to me. I'm your son!"
"A son does not abandon his mother at an airport like a piece of unwanted luggage, Arturo," Carmen said coldly. "You threw me away. And now, I am simply returning the favor."
