Chapter 4: The Niece Who Knew Too Much
For three seconds, nobody moved.
Bianca stood halfway down the staircase, gripping the banister so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. Patricia stared at her as if the girl had just committed an unforgivable crime. Rosa, who had spent the morning insisting that everything was a private family matter, suddenly looked frightened.
I looked at Bianca.
“What do you mean, you were there when they copied it?””
Patricia stepped toward the stairs.
“Bianca is confused. She's been listening to conversations she doesn't understand.””
“No,” Bianca said.
It was barely more than a whisper.
Patricia stopped.
Bianca swallowed and tried again.
“No, Mom. I know what I saw.””
“Go to your room,” Patricia ordered.
“I don't want to.””
The words seemed to shock Patricia more than anything Bianca had said before.
She pointed toward the second floor.
“Now.””
Bianca looked at me, then at the document on the entryway table.
“They told me it was just paperwork,” she said.
“They said Gabriel would sign it eventually anyway, so it didn't matter if the date was wrong.””
Patricia's face flushed.
“That's enough!””
I raised one hand.
“Patricia, don't interrupt her.””
She turned on me.
“You are not going to take the word of a teenager over your own wife.””
“I'll take the word of whoever provides evidence.””
That answer silenced her.
I turned back to Bianca.
“Come downstairs, please. You can tell me what happened without anyone shouting at you.””
Bianca descended slowly. She stopped several feet away from her mother, keeping the staircase between them as though she wanted an escape route.
Rosa grabbed her handbag.
“This is ridiculous. We're leaving.””
“Not yet,” I said.
She glared at me.
“You cannot detain us in your house.””
“I'm not detaining anyone. But if someone has forged my signature on a property document, I intend to find out what happened before everybody walks away pretending nothing happened.””
Patricia laughed bitterly.
“You've become paranoid. Sofia tells you one dramatic story, and suddenly everyone in this family is a criminal.””
I looked at her.
“Your niece just said she witnessed my signature being copied.””
“She's lying.””
Bianca flinched.
I noticed the movement.
So did Patricia.
“You see?”” Patricia said, pointing at her niece.
“She can't even look me in the eye. She's always been a liar when she's afraid of getting caught.””
Bianca's lips trembled.
I had spent enough time around frightened people to recognize when someone was struggling to speak in front of the person they feared.
I pulled out a chair and placed it near the dining table.
“Bianca, sit down if you'd like.””
She looked at Patricia.
“Don't look at your mother for permission,” I said gently.
“You're allowed to speak.””
Bianca sat.
Patricia remained standing.
Rosa moved beside her daughter, placing a hand on her shoulder.
“Think carefully before you say anything,” Rosa told Bianca.
“Words can destroy families.””
Bianca looked at her grandmother.
“Keeping secrets destroyed this family first.””
Rosa's hand fell away.
I sat across from Bianca.
“Tell me about the document.””
She took a shaky breath.
“Four months ago, Mom asked me to stay home from school one afternoon. She said she needed help organizing some papers in the study.””
“What papers?””
“Your insurance documents. Bank statements. Property records. Things like that.””
I felt a knot form in my stomach.
“Why would she need your help?””
“She said I was good with computers.””
Patricia scoffed.
“She helped me scan documents. That's all.””
I didn't look at her.
“Go on, Bianca.””
Bianca rubbed her palms against her jeans.
“Mom had a folder with your signature on several papers. She said she needed to make a clean copy because the original was difficult to read.””
“What did you see?””
“She opened a document on the computer. Then she scanned one of your signatures from an old form and copied it onto the new page.””
Rosa's face had become almost gray.
Patricia shook her head.
“This is absurd. Bianca doesn't understand digital documents.””
Bianca looked up.
“I understand what you asked me to do.””
“What did I ask you to do?”” Patricia demanded.
“You asked me to remove the white background around the signature so it would look like it belonged on the new page.””
The room fell silent.
I could hear a car passing outside and the faint ticking of the kitchen clock.
I had trusted Patricia with household bills, insurance renewals, and countless administrative tasks because I spent so much time on the road. I had given her access to documents without imagining she might use them against me.
I turned to Bianca.
“Did you actually edit the signature?””
She lowered her head.
“Yes.””
The admission hurt in a different way.
“Why?””
“Mom said you had already agreed to give her part of the house. She said you kept forgetting things because you were always tired from driving. She told me this was just making the paperwork match what you'd promised.””
“Did you believe her?””
“I did at first.””
“And afterward?””
Bianca's eyes filled with tears.
“I saw her print the agreement. Then Grandma signed as a witness. I asked why you weren't there.””
Rosa suddenly stood.
“That is enough. We are leaving.””
“Sit down, Rosa,” I said.
“How dare you speak to me like that?””
“Then answer one question. Did you witness me signing this document?””
Her lips parted.
Patricia spoke before she could answer.
“Of course she did. I told you we signed it together.””
I looked directly at Rosa.
“Did you see me sign it?””
Rosa looked at the paper.
Then at Patricia.
“No,” she whispered.
Patricia spun toward her mother.
“Mother!””
Rosa's voice rose defensively.
“You told me it had already been agreed upon!””
“And you signed as a witness!””
“Because you said it was legitimate!””
“You knew what you were doing!””
The two women stared at each other.
In that moment, I understood something important.
They weren't united by loyalty.
They were united by the belief that I would never ask them to explain themselves.
I took the document from the table and placed it inside a clear folder.
“I'm keeping this.””
Patricia stepped forward.
“You cannot take my paperwork.””
“It has my name and a signature that appears to have been copied from another document. My lawyer will determine what happens next.””
She reached for the folder.
I pulled it away.
“Don't touch me,” I said.
For the first time, my voice was loud enough to make everyone fall silent.
Patricia stared at me.
Then her expression changed. Her anger disappeared beneath a mask of injured innocence.
“Gabriel, please. You're frightening everyone. I made a mistake with the paperwork, perhaps, but I did it because I wanted to protect this family.””
“From what?””
“From uncertainty. From the possibility that something could happen to you on the road.””
I almost laughed.
“You forged my signature to protect me?””
“I didn't forge anything!””
Bianca began to cry.
“You told me to copy it!””
Patricia pointed at her niece.
“Because I thought you were smart enough to understand that this was a family arrangement!””
“No,” Bianca said.
“You told me to do it because you didn't want Uncle Gabriel to know.””
Patricia looked as though she might slap her.
I stepped between them.
“That's enough. Nobody is touching anyone in this house.””
Bianca covered her face with both hands.
I turned to her.
“Did you keep any copies of the original files?””
She slowly lowered her hands.
“I think so.””
“Where?””
“On my laptop. I saved them because I was scared.””
“Why were you scared?””
She looked toward the stairs.
“Because after the document was printed, Mom and Grandma started talking about Sofia.””
My stomach tightened.
“What about her?””
Bianca hesitated.
Then she looked directly at Patricia.
“They said Sofia would have to sign something, too.””
I felt the blood drain from my face.
“What would she have to sign?””
“I don't know exactly. Mom said it was a form that would prove you couldn't take back what you'd agreed to. Grandma said Sofia's name had to be included because she would eventually inherit the house.””
Patricia lunged toward Bianca again.
“You ungrateful little—”
“Stop!”” I shouted.
She froze.
I pointed toward the living room.
“Sit down. All of you. Nobody is leaving until I understand what you mean by that.””
Patricia stared at me in disbelief.
“You can't order me around.””
“No. But I can ask questions in the house I own, and you can decide whether you want to answer them.””
For a moment, I thought she would continue arguing.
Instead, she sat.
Rosa followed.
Bianca remained standing.
“Uncle Gabriel,” she said, “there's another reason Mom wanted Sofia out of the way.””
I waited.
“She said Sofia was the only person who could make the whole plan fall apart.””
“Why?””
Bianca looked toward the ceiling, toward the room where my daughter was waiting.
“Because Sofia found something before anyone else did.””
“What did she find?””
Bianca's voice dropped to a whisper.
“The original property deed.””
I stared at her.
“What about it?””
“Mom thought it was missing. But Sofia found it in your study, inside an old folder with your father's papers.””
That folder had been in the study for years. It contained documents I rarely touched, including records from before my first marriage.
“Did Sofia tell Patricia she found it?””
Bianca nodded.
“That's when everything got worse.””
I turned toward the staircase.
Sofia had known more than she had told me.
And the cruelty I had witnessed in the laundry room might not have been random punishment, jealousy, or a bitter stepmother's resentment.
It might have been a deliberate attempt to silence the one person who could expose a much larger scheme.
I called upstairs.
“Sofia, sweetheart? Can you come down for a moment?””
There was no answer.
I climbed the stairs.
My bedroom door was open, but the room was empty.
The bathroom was empty, too.
Then I noticed the small window at the end of the hallway standing open.
A cold draft moved the curtain.
On my bed lay Sofia's phone.
Beside it was a folded piece of paper with three words written in her handwriting.
*Dad, don't trust Bianca.*
I turned toward the staircase.
From downstairs, Bianca screamed.
May you like
And when I reached the bottom step, the front door was standing open.
Sofia was gone.
