I stood.
“You have until tonight.”
His eyes widened.
“Tonight for what?”
“To collect your things.”
“You can’t kick me out.”
“Watch me.”
Margaret stepped forward.
“You are not going to destroy my son’s marriage.”
I looked at her.
“Your son destroyed his marriage.”
“He made mistakes.”
“Your son lied to me for eighteen months.”
“He was under pressure.”
“He stole from our household.”
“He was trying to help someone.”
“He lied to another woman about divorcing me.”
Margaret went silent.
Then I said the one thing that made her face change.
“And you helped him.”
She stared at me.
“You knew.”
She didn’t answer.
“You knew about the apartment.”
Silence.
“You knew he lost his job.”
Silence.
“You knew about the debt.”
Silence.
“You knew about Rachel.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
And then she whispered:
“He was going to fix everything.”
I stared at her.
“How?”
She looked at Nathan.
He closed his eyes.
I stepped closer.
“How was he going to fix everything?”
Margaret finally spoke.
“With the house.”
I felt the blood drain from my face.
“What about the house?”
She didn’t answer.
Nathan whispered:
“Mom…”
But it was too late.
I had already understood.
They weren’t trying to make me quit simply because they hated my career.
They needed me to keep working.
They needed my income.
But they also needed something else.
Something connected to the house.
I looked at Nathan.
“What were you planning to do?”
He shook his head.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie.”
“We weren’t going to do anything.”
“Then why did my mother say the house?”
Margaret started crying.
I ignored her.
I walked to the filing cabinet in the corner of the room.
I pulled out the property documents.
Then I noticed something.
A document I had never seen before.
It was a loan agreement.
My name was on it.
I froze.
“What is this?”
Nathan moved toward me.
“Give me that.”
I pulled it away.
“You used our house as collateral?”
“No.”
I read the document again.
The signature looked like mine.
But something was wrong.
The signature wasn’t mine.
Not exactly.
Someone had copied it.
My stomach turned.
I looked at Nathan.
“You forged my signature.”
His face went completely white.
Rachel stood up.
“What?”
Margaret covered her mouth.
I felt strangely calm.
Almost too calm.
“You forged my signature on a loan.”
Nathan shook his head.
“It wasn’t supposed to go through.”
“But it did.”
“I was going to pay it back.”
“With what?”
He had no answer.
I looked at the loan amount.
My heart stopped.
It was far larger than I expected.
Not thirty thousand.
Not fifty thousand.
Hundreds of thousands.
I read the number again.
Then again.
The room began to spin.
I sat down.
Nathan whispered:
“Sofia, please.”
I looked up.
“Who gave you this loan?”
He didn’t answer.
I looked at the company name.
It was unfamiliar.
But the address wasn’t.
I recognized it.
It was connected to someone I had met before.
