Chapter 3 - The Threat She Thought Would Win
“Do you really think I’ll sign?” I asked.
Renata laughed softly.
“Of course you will.”
She stepped closer, careful not to let dirty water touch her shoes.
“Because if you don’t, I start the process to have your mother declared mentally unfit. I have doctors. I have witnesses. I have enough money to prove she can’t care for herself.”
My mother closed her eyes.
I felt her fingers clutch my sleeve.
For months, Renata had been building this.
The comments at dinner about my mother forgetting small things.
The fake concern in front of friends.
The way she corrected Doña Carmen loudly when guests were present.
The private threats I had not yet understood.
I had thought Renata wanted control of me.
Now I saw the larger plan.
She wanted legal control of everything.
The company.
The house.
My mother’s future.
My silence.
“Look at me, Alejandro,” she said. “You don’t know how to live unless someone tells you what to do.”
She expected that to break me.
A year ago, maybe it would have.
But three weeks earlier, my mother had called me from the patio at midnight. She had not spoken. I only heard breathing, then Renata’s voice in the background, low and cruel.
The next morning, I called my lawyer.
By that afternoon, a security technician installed a hidden camera above the patio door, disguised as a smoke detector.
Renata never looked up.
People who believe they own the room rarely check the ceiling.
Now, as she threatened my mother again, I lifted my eyes toward the small device.
A tiny red light blinked.
May you like
Renata followed my gaze.
For the first time, uncertainty crossed her face.
