The mansion was silent.
For the first time since I had arrived, I could hear my own thoughts.
I opened my laptop and began going through five years of financial records.
At first, I expected to find careless spending.
Then I found something much worse.
There were luxury hotel bills.
Designer clothing.
Private dinners.
First-class flights.
Jewelry.
Expensive cars.
Payments to accounts I didn’t recognize.
Month after month, my mother had been spending money I had sent home for Elena and Julian.
But then I noticed something that made me sit upright.
There were transfers made under Elena’s name.
I opened one.
Then another.
Then another.
The accounts were not hers.
Someone had been using her identity.
I immediately called my financial manager.
“I need every transaction connected to these accounts.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
He promised to send everything to me by morning.
I closed the laptop.