“Mr. Mateo,” the lawyer began, his voice impeccable and devoid of any emotion, “your father asked us to be present at the residence today. Not to witness your move, as you mistakenly assumed, but to formalize the execution of the final clauses of the family trust and the delivery of the corresponding evidence to the Attorney General’s Office.”
### The Fall of the House of Cards
The air in the room suddenly became thick, heavy, almost impossible to breathe. Mateo felt his palms sweat and a dull throbbing began to pound in his ears.
-Of
“What trust are you talking about?” interrupted Mateo’s wife, desperately trying to regain control of the conversation. “Mateo is the only legitimate heir. The house is in his name through the transfer that was signed last month. We have the digital deeds drawn up by our notary. This property legally belongs to us!”
Attorney Mendoza didn’t even bother to look directly at the woman; his attention remained fixed on Mateo, whose eyes were reading with growing panic the headings of the open document on the table.
“The transfer of rights that you manipulated into your father signing last month, ma’am,” Mendoza said with icy coldness, “was signed under the assumption that it corresponded to the renewal of the property’s insurance policies. However, what you didn’t know is that this mansion, as well as eighty percent of the shares of the corporate group, did not
They were in the name of Don Aurelio as an individual for more than five years.
The lawyer pointed to one of the high-resolution screens lined up on the desk. It displayed the organizational chart of a non-profit social and educational development foundation, legally registered under the name of Mateo’s deceased mother.
“The entire property belongs to the Doña Elena Permanent Trust,” Mendoza continued. “Don Aurelio was merely acting as executor for life with usufruct rights. No signature, no fraudulent notarized document, and no transfer maneuver carried out by you or your advisors is valid. Legally, Mateo, you have not acquired a house; you have committed attempted misappropriation and falsification of a public document.”
Mateo took two false steps backward, stumbling slightly on the edge of the rug. He looked at his father, desperately seeking the understanding gaze of the man who had taken him away.
He had forgiven thousands of times in the past, the father’s gaze that always gave in to his whims when he was a child.
But in Don Aurelio’s eyes there was no longer room for weakness.
“Dad…” Mateo managed to say, his voice breaking into a high, trembling note. “Dad, this is a misunderstanding. She… we just wanted to make sure the house was protected, that it was safe.”
“Don’t call me that, Mateo,” the old man replied, cutting off his son’s words like a guillotine. “You’ve used that name for years only when you needed me to sign a check, when you needed to pay off the debts of your shell companies, or when you wanted to finance the lifestyle your pride couldn’t sustain.”
Colonel Ramirez took a step forward, placing his hands, covered with white gloves, on the back of the folder.
“There’s something else, Mr. Mateo,” the Colonel interjected, his deep voice imposing an almost inquisitorial calm in the room. “The reason for my presence isn’t solely the civil litigation over the property. For the past four months, the Economic Crimes Division has been tracing the flight of capital from the trust’s master account.”
Mateo’s wife let out a muffled gasp of surprise and put her hands to her mouth.
“You and your wife,” the Colonel continued, “did not only attempt to seize this residence. By using cloned bank credentials and forging your father’s digital signature, you diverted more than two million dollars to offshore accounts in the name of a shell company registered in the Cayman Islands.”
The entire process was recorded, registered, and monitored in real time from this same command center that his father installed with our collaboration.
Chapter 4
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The Colonel pointed towards one of the secondary screens.
It displayed a high-definition video, dated three weeks prior. The image clearly showed Mateo’s wife in Don Aurelio’s personal office, taking advantage of the old man’s absence to photograph the bank security tokens and accounting books stored in the safe with her mobile phone.
The woman’s face went completely pale. She backed away toward the wall of the hallway, looking for an exit that no longer existed, as two uniformed police officers had just silently taken up positions in the corridor’s entrance.
“No… that’s not true… That’s an invasion of our privacy!” she shouted hysterically. “Mateo, do something! Tell them it’s your house! Tell them your father’s crazy!”
