Chapter 10 - The Signature
Digital experts examined the authorization.
Camila’s credentials had been used.
But from Rafael’s office.
Her electronic signature had been cloned.
For the first time, the evidence pointed directly toward him without depending on Salazar.
Rafael’s defense began collapsing.
But Valeria’s battle was no longer only legal.
She began rehabilitation.
It was brutal.
Years of restricted movement had weakened muscles, altered her gait, and damaged her confidence.
Some days she walked twenty steps.
Other days three.
Julián never told her she would definitely recover.
He simply appeared.
Sometimes with coffee.
Sometimes with a badly wrapped sandwich.
Sometimes with nothing except patience.
Their friendship deepened quietly.
Valeria learned he had nearly lost the garage twice.
Julián learned she hated being introduced as an heiress.
She liked old movies, terrible roadside coffee, and fixing small things with her hands because machines made sense in ways people often didn’t.
He taught her to change brake pads.
She taught him how to negotiate a commercial lease.
Neither noticed exactly when friendship became something more.
Camila did.
One afternoon, she found them laughing beneath a raised car.
For a moment she smiled.
Then guilt returned.
She approached Julián privately.
“I owe your family more than an apology.”
“You don’t owe me money.”
“I wasn’t offering money.”
“What, then?”
“The truth.”
She handed him an envelope.
Inside was a property deed.
His garage.
José had once owned part of the land through a cooperative.
After his death, the ownership had been fraudulently transferred.
Camila had recovered it.
Julián stared at the deed.
“My father owned this?”
“Part of it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I only confirmed it yesterday.”
He accepted the papers.
Not as charity.
As restitution.
That distinction mattered.
Meanwhile, Valeria’s rehabilitation improved.
One morning she walked across an entire therapy room with only a cane.
Camila cried silently.
Valeria saw her.
Their relationship remained wounded.
But wounds could heal differently from lies.
Then the prosecutor called.
Rafael had offered a deal.
He would confess to financial fraud.
But not the crash.
Not José’s death.
Not Valeria’s medical manipulation.
Valeria refused.
That evening, Julián returned to his garage.
A package waited beneath the door.
No return address.
Inside was José’s missing wristwatch.
Julián turned it over.
The back had been opened.
Inside was a memory card.
May you like
And when he inserted it into his computer, a video appeared.
José was sitting across from Rafael Serrano.
