Chapter 2 - THE CHAMPAGNE THEY BROUGHT TO MY HOSPITAL ROOM
Four days later, Daniel entered my hospital room carrying champagne.
Teresa followed with three crystal glasses and the satisfied expression of a woman arriving at a victory dinner.
Rafael came last.
He carried a folded document packet.
My leg was immobilized in a cast. Bruises darkened my hands and shoulder. The hospital had already documented the injuries, but the Mendozas believed time and family pressure would transform facts into confusion.
Teresa placed the champagne on the bedside table.
“We decided to forgive your little outburst.”
“My outburst?”
“You fell,” Rafael said. “Then you became hysterical and blamed everyone.”
Daniel closed the door.
He leaned against it casually, blocking the exit exactly as he had in the garage.
“Sign the statement,” he said.
Rafael placed the papers on my blanket.
The first page declared that I had entered the garage uninvited.
The second said I became emotionally unstable after discovering innocent accounting errors.
The third stated that my injuries resulted from an accidental fall.
The final page withdrew every allegation against Mendoza Construction.
“And if I refuse?”
Teresa smiled.
“Your bank already knows you accessed confidential records for personal reasons. Daniel has witnesses who will say you threatened the family.”
Daniel lifted the champagne bottle.
“We can solve this quietly.”
I looked at the three of them.
They had spent four days building a story.
They still did not realize mine had been recorded in real time.
“You burned the evidence,” I said.
Rafael laughed.
“Exactly.”
“That is not what I meant.”
All three phones began ringing at once.
Daniel checked his screen first.
His smile collapsed.
Teresa’s hand shook so violently that the champagne bottle slipped from her fingers and struck the carpet.
Rafael stared at his phone without answering.
“What is it?” Teresa demanded.
Daniel turned toward his father.
“The bank froze the company accounts.”
Rafael answered his own call.
A man spoke loudly enough for me to hear:
“Mr. Mendoza, this is regarding twenty-seven disputed loan files and an emergency preservation order.”
Teresa finally answered hers.
Her expression changed from anger to confusion.
“What do you mean, Mrs. Bell is alive?”
I looked at her sharply.
Mrs. Bell was an eighty-one-year-old homeowner whose application contained a forged signature and a false claim that she had authorized a seventy-thousand-dollar renovation.
The Mendoza records listed her as deceased.
She was not.
Someone had falsified her death to accelerate collection against her property.
Before Teresa could ask another question, two police officers appeared silently in the hospital doorway.
Detective Marcus Reed stood behind them.
Daniel stepped away from the door.
Rafael folded the papers quickly.
Teresa attempted to recover the champagne.
I reached beneath my hospital gown and lifted the small security pendant.
Its red indicator blinked once.
“I already chose,” I said.
Marcus entered and looked at the documents on my bed.
“Before anyone leaves,” he said, “we need to discuss why this family brought a false statement to an injured witness.”
Daniel pointed at me.
“She’s manipulating this.”
Marcus remained calm.
“Then you will appreciate the recording.”
He placed a tablet on the table.
The garage audio began playing.
Teresa’s voice filled the room:
Stamp on her hand. She can’t leave with those papers.
Her face turned white.
But Marcus did not stop the recording there.
A second voice appeared after the ambulance had left.
Rafael’s.
Move the Bell file tonight. If Isabel wakes up, the old woman becomes our biggest problem.
May you like
The room went silent.
Cliffhanger: The Mendozas had attacked me over financial fraud—but the name on the recording revealed they were also hiding an elderly woman whose house they had already tried to take.**
