She tried to humiliate me in front of everyone at my baby shower with a disgusting “gift,” but when I told her, “You have one week to get out of that house,” the laughter died down and the scandal that changed my family began.

She lowered her eyes, but she didn’t deny it.

I opened the door.

“You have six days left.”

She stood still, as if only at that moment she understood that the game was over.

But what I discovered two days later changed everything again… and forced me to ask myself whether Mariana had only wanted to humiliate me, or whether she had been betraying me for much longer than I had imagined.

PART 3

Two days before the deadline was up, the notary who had handled the mortgage paperwork called me. His tone was strange, too careful.

“Mrs. Olivia, there is something you should know. We found unusual activity in the property’s earlier file.”

I felt a knot in my stomach.

He explained that, months before I bought the debt, Mariana had tried to use my mother’s name as a guarantor without her authorization. Not only that. She had also submitted false income documents and a forged letter claiming that I had agreed to cover the payments if she defaulted again.

I went cold.

She wasn’t just irresponsible.