Chapter 7 - THE DOCUMENT WITH MY NAME ON IT
The document arrived on a Thursday.
Alejandra called me into her office without explaining why.
On the conference table sat a photocopy obtained from one of Ricardo’s commercial lenders.
It was titled:
PERSONAL SUPPORT AND LIQUIDITY UNDERTAKING.
Borrower: Mendoza Industrial Supply.
Supporting party: Mariana Salgado de Mendoza.
Commitment: up to seven million pesos.
At the bottom was my signature.
Except it wasn’t.
It looked like mine.
The shape was close.
The long final stroke on Salgado was there.
But I had not signed it.
A notarial acknowledgment was attached.
The notary seal belonged to an office I recognised.
Not because I had visited it recently.
Because Ricardo’s cousin Arturo sometimes used that office for corporate matters.
My stomach turned.
“If the lender believed this was valid?” I asked.
“They believed the company had committed family backing,” Alejandra said.
“Can they take my money?”
“Not simply because this paper exists. Especially if the signature is forged. But we need to challenge it immediately.”
We did.
Written denial.
Fraud notice.
Signature comparison.
Preservation demand to the notary.
The lender froze reliance on the undertaking pending investigation.
Within hours, Ricardo called me seventeen times.
Then he came to Alejandra’s office.
He wasn’t allowed past reception.
From outside the glass doors, I could see him arguing with security.
Finally Alejandra accepted one written message from him.
You are going to destroy hundreds of jobs because you’re angry about Daniela.
I read it twice.
He still thought the affair was the only reason I was leaving.
He still believed his fraud could hide behind my supposed jealousy.
Alejandra looked at me.
May you like
“Save that message.”
I did.
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