Chapter 4
I forwarded the email to Priya.
Then I called the lender's number from its public website, gave my name, and asked whether the message was genuine. It was. An application had been started, and a document bearing my name had been uploaded.
“I didn't sign anything,” I said.
The employee stopped discussing the application and told me how to make a formal report to their review team. I did it while Sofia sat beside me taking notes.
My hands shook when I finished.
“Mateo used your name,” Sofia said.
“I don't know what he submitted.”
“Whatever it is, they know you dispute it.”
I wanted to call him at once. Priya called me first.
“Preserve the email and any messages about the loan,” she said. “Bring them Monday. The lender's review should tell us what they received.”
“What if he already got money?”
“That's one of the questions we'll answer.”
I spent the weekend at Sofia's. Mateo left messages asking me to come home and talk. I replied once, telling him I would discuss finances through counsel until I understood the documents. He wrote back that I was turning a marriage into a lawsuit.
I didn't answer.
On Monday, Priya spread my records across her desk. She asked about the house, the restaurant, and what we'd agreed when Mateo started the business.
We had bought the house during our marriage. Mom had helped with the down payment before she died. Both our names were on the title. I didn't pretend otherwise.
Priya looked at the bank statements.
“The household transfers need to be accounted for,” she said. “So does any document bearing your signature. We'll request the records through the proper channels.”
“I want him to tell me the truth,” I said.
“You can ask him. It helps to know what you're asking about first.”
The lender sent a copy of the uploaded guarantee that afternoon. My signature appeared at the bottom.
It looked like mine from a distance. Up close, the final letters were wrong.
I remembered signing a delivery receipt on Mateo's tablet months earlier when restaurant equipment came to our garage. Had he copied my signature from that? I didn't know. I told Priya what I remembered without claiming more.
She helped me provide a statement to the lender. The application was paused while they investigated.
Mateo called as soon as he learned.
“You told them I forged it?”
“I told them I didn't sign it.”
“I was going to speak to you before anything went through.”
“Then why is my signature already on the page?”
He breathed into the phone for several seconds.
“The broker said we needed to submit the file to keep the offer open.”
“Who put my name on it?”
“I did.”
I held onto the edge of Priya's desk.
“Did you sign for me?”
“I used the signature you sent before. I thought you'd agree when I explained.”
I looked at Priya. She heard him through the speaker, though she didn't interrupt.
“You knew I had refused to put more money into the restaurant,” I said.
“I knew you wouldn't let me finish explaining.”
I ended the call.
The room felt too quiet.
Priya asked whether I wanted to sit for a minute. I shook my head.
“What happens now?”
“We give the lender that information and deal with any further requests. You also need to decide what you want from the marriage.”
I had been avoiding that question. Every new fact had pushed it back for another day.
“I can't go home to him,” I said.
“Then we'll make a plan for living apart while the financial questions are resolved.”
When I came out of Priya's office, Chloe was waiting near the elevators.
She rose when she saw me.
“Mateo said you hired a lawyer,” she said.
I stopped beside Sofia.
“Why are you here?”
“I need to tell you something.”
“Tell me now.”
Chloe glanced at the people passing us.
“Mateo said he and you were separated before we met. I believed him. The day you came home, I realized he'd lied.”
“You already said that.”
“I didn't tell you all of it.”
She opened her handbag and took out a folded page.
“Last month he asked me to invest in the restaurant. He showed me a plan that said your firm would guarantee the new loan.”
I looked at the page without taking it.
“I never agreed to that.”
“I know now. I loaned him my savings because he said both of you were behind the business.”
“How much?”
“Forty thousand.”
The amount matched Mateo's claim. It didn't explain why he'd paid her back from our account.
Chloe held out the page.
“He told me he'd borrowed against the house.”
I took it. At the bottom was a line listing the house as a possible source of security. Nothing on the page showed that any loan against it existed.
“I need to check this,” I said.
“Please do.”
She stepped aside to let us reach the elevator.
May you like
As the doors closed, I saw her standing alone with her handbag held against her chest.
I thought I had reached the worst part when I found her in my bedroom. The paper in my hand showed how much more Mateo had kept from both of us.
