“Dad, did you sign that?”
Don Ernesto shook his head slowly.
“No.”
Lucia intervened.
“Of course you signed it! We talked about it months ago. »
The old man looked at her.
“No, Lucía.”
“YOU’RE CONFUSED!”
“I’m not confused.”
She turned to Javier.
“See? One day he says one thing and the next day another. »
Javier put the document on the work surface.
“Elena examines the originals.”
The name of the lawyer provoked an immediate reaction.
Lucía purses her lips.
« Elena Robles ? »
“Yes.”
“This woman is manipulating your father.”
Don Ernesto spoke from his chair.
“It was your husband who decided to come back. Elena simply showed him what I couldn’t show him myself. »
Javier looked at his father.
“Since when has all this been happening?”
The old man took a long time to answer.
“For many months.”
“Why didn’t you tell me anything?”
“I tried.”
These three words hit Javier hard.
He remembered the dropped calls.
Messages to which he had not responded.
Promises that are always postponed.
“Dad… »
“Every time I tried to explain something to you, Lucía would say I was tired or disoriented.”
Javier closed his eyes.
“I should have listened to you.”
Lucía let out a nervous laugh.
“It’s absurd. You’re making me a criminal just because I’m trying to take care of a tough old man. »
Don Ernesto looked at his daughter-in-law.
“Take care of me?”
She avoided his gaze.
“Yes.”
“Is that what you call depriving me of a phone? To open my mail? To forbid me to see my friends? »
Lucia gets up.
“I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING FOR YOUR GOOD!”
The old man pointed to the metal bowl.
“That too?”
No one spoke.
For a few seconds, all that was heard was the humming of the refrigerator.
Finally, Javier asked:
“What else do you have to tell me, Dad?”
Don Ernesto took a deep breath.
“In my room, there is a wooden box under the cupboard.”
Lucia is a fig.
“You don’t have to go upstairs,” she says quickly. I can go and get it. »
Ernesto shook his head.
“No.”
Then he looked at his son.
“I want you to go.”
Javier walked up the stairs.
Lucía tried to follow him.
But he stopped.
“Stay here.”
« Javier… »
“I said, ‘Stay here.'”
For the first time, Lucía understood that she had lost control of the situation.
CHAPTER 9. THE MERCEDES BOX
Don Ernesto’s room kept many memories of his wife.
On the chest of drawers was a photograph of a smiling Mercedes, taken during a holiday in Asturias.
On the bedside table lay a small porcelain lamp that she had bought at a flea market.
Javier contemplated these objects with unexpected sadness.
It had been months since he had entered this room.
He crouched down in front of the cupboard.
He found a dark wooden box.
It was closed by a small padlock.
Don Ernesto had told him where the key was: behind a photo frame.
Javier opened the box.
Inside were several envelopes, a USB key, medical documents and a small digital recorder.
He also discovered a letter written by his father.
A date appeared at the top of the page.
It was three weeks ago.
“For Javier, if one day he stops listening to me.”
The man felt his throat tighten.
He opened the envelope.
The letter began as follows:
“My son,
I never imagined I would have to write to you to prove that I still know who I am.
I don’t lose my memory.
I know perfectly well that your mother died five years ago.
I know you were born on October 14th.
I know that we bought this house with the money of forty years of work.
And I know that Lucía wants you to believe that I am no longer able to decide for myself. »
Javier had to interrupt his reading.
The letter went on to detail the dates, conversations, and changes that had occurred in the old man’s life.
It mentioned Víctor’s visits.
The documents they had tried to get him to sign.
And the calls made to Elena.
At the end, a sentence upset him:
“If you read this letter after you have seen me suffer, please do not condemn yourself to live forever in guilt. But I ask you never again to confuse the silence of an elderly person with the absence of suffering. »
Javier dropped the letter on his knees.
For the first time since his mother’s death, he wept without trying to restrain himself.
Then he opened the medical reports.
Two independent experts had examined Don Ernesto in recent months.
