I went cold.
She wasn’t just irresponsible.
It was fraud.
When I hung up, the first thing I did was call my parents and ask them to come over that same afternoon. Mariana came with them, furious, convinced that they were finally going to force me to back down. But when she walked in and saw the documents laid out on the dining room table, her expression changed.
“What is this?” she asked.
“The truth,” I replied.
My father picked up one of the papers and began to read. My mother put a hand to her chest when she saw her forged signature. Diego stayed by my side, silent.
“Tell me this isn’t true,” my father said, looking at Mariana.
She stammered.
“I… I was going to fix it later.”
“Fix what?” I shouted for the first time. “Using Mom? Forging documents? Dragging me into a debt without even asking me?”
Mariana burst into tears, but no one moved to comfort her.
“I was desperate,” she sobbed. “You never understand how I feel. Olivia has always had everything. You always help her, you always admire her…”
My mother interrupted her in a voice I had never heard from her before.
