PART 2
Before opening that napkin, I thought about everything that came after the surgery.
My recovery took nine weeks. I couldn’t lift anything, I couldn’t drive, and climbing the stairs in my building felt like breaking myself all over again. The association put me on unpaid leave. Between appointments, tests, medications, and a trip to the ER for a fever, I ended up drowning in debt. I was selling things to make ends meet while Paola basked in the praise on social media.
Her charity gala was featured in Monterrey business magazines. She posed with a huge check, smiling as if she had given something of her own. The money wasn’t even for my expenses or my dad’s recovery; it went to a foundation, but the company got a massive tax deduction, and Paola came out as the hero of the year.
In the sixth week, I received an envelope with no return address. Inside was a check from my dad and a note: “Forgive me. I can’t help you anymore for now without raising suspicion.”
Suspicion.
That’s why, when I felt the napkin in my hands during that dinner, my blood ran cold. I opened it under the table, hidden between my purse and my trembling legs.
The handwriting was my dad’s.
Medical power of attorney in your name. Signed September 16.
Life insurance: 45 million pesos. You are the sole beneficiary.
51% of the voting shares of Sánchez Medical Supplies. Signed before a notary.
They don’t know anything.
Sorry for taking so long. I’ve seen you.
I had to read it three times. I looked up. My dad met my gaze and barely nodded. My mom was still smiling like a queen of the show. Paola was dabbing away fake tears with a cloth napkin.
I put the note away. I finished dinner without saying a word.
When I got to the parking lot, I locked myself in my car and started to cry. Just then, my phone rang. It was my dad.
“Did you read it?”
“Yes. Why did you give it to me in secret?”
“Because I needed you to see with your own eyes what they’re capable of,” he said, his voice hoarse. “If I had told you before, you would have kept justifying them. You had to see how they erased you with a smile to understand that you were never crazy.”
I felt something inside me finally settle.
