Softly.
But enough to shatter everything.
“You did it… the day you decided I was worthless.”
The silence that followed was different from the others. It wasn’t awkward or tense. It was definitive. Like when you break something and know, without even touching it, that it can’t be fixed exactly the same way.
Camila didn’t sit down.
Her gaze flickered between the papers and my face, then between my face and the phones that were constantly buzzing on the table. Each incoming call seemed to take her breath away a little more.
“This… this is illegal…” he stammered. “You can’t do this…”
I looked at her calmly.
“What’s illegal… is what you did with that money.”
Her breathing quickened.
“I invested! I made that money grow!”
“With documents in my name,” I replied. “No contract. No refund. No clean record.”
Pause.
“Do you want me to continue?”
She remained silent.
Diego took a step toward me.
“Lucía… we can work this out,” he said, his voice no longer steady. “There’s no need to go this far.”
I slowly turned my head toward him.
“Arrange?”
A slight smile played on my lips. This wasn’t fun.
He lowered his eyes.
“I didn’t know you kept all this…”
“You never tried to find out anything,” I replied.
My stepmother intervened, agitated.
“Lucía, this is getting out of hand. We’re family, we can talk about this.”
I looked at her.
“Family?”
The word came out softly, but heavy with meaning.
“Family” is what you said when I gave you my money. “Family” is what you repeated every time I asked you questions. “Family” is what you used to silence me.
I took a step toward the table.
“Yesterday, we were family too… when they threw the soup at me.”
No one answered.
Because there was no answer.
My stepfather cleared his throat, visibly uncomfortable.
“There’s no need to blow one incident out of proportion…”
“It wasn’t an incident,” I interrupted. “It was the last time.”
Camila’s phone rang again.
He looked at her as if she were burning him.
He didn’t answer.
“They’re going to seize it…” she murmured. “If this keeps up…”
“It will keep up,” I said.
He looked up.
“What do you want?”
There it was.
Finally.
The right question.
I took a deep breath.
Not from stress.
Because of the closure.
“First,” I said. “My money. All my money. With interest.” ”
—I can’t pay for that now—
“Then sell,” I replied without hesitation. “Your real estate. Your cars. Everything you own.”
Her face contorted.
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