Chapter 4 - Elena Chooses the One Step That Hurts Everyone
By Thursday morning, Rebecca had enough to recommend a formal title-fraud notice.
Filing it would make any lender extremely cautious about touching the Canyon Road property.
It would also almost certainly eliminate it from Mateo’s refinancing options for months.
Elena understood the cost.
Ruiz Development could enter restructuring.
Employees could lose bonuses, hours, perhaps jobs.
Mateo’s business might survive.
It might not.
Rebecca did not pretend the decision was clean.
“You are not obligated to risk your home to protect his company.”
“I know.”
“Knowing and feeling are different.”
Elena signed the notice.
She also authorized Rebecca to send the forged deed to the title insurer and Mesa First for authentication review.
Mateo arrived at Teresa’s house that evening.
Teresa refused to let him inside.
Elena went onto the covered porch instead.
Mateo looked exhausted.
“You filed it.”
“Yes.”
“Mesa First is out.”
Elena felt the guilt before she could stop it.
Mateo saw.
“You can still reverse this.”
“By giving you my house?”
“By letting me collateralize it for twelve months.”
“You forged a transfer deed.”
“Because you wouldn’t even discuss the loan.”
Elena stared at him.
“You never asked.”
Mateo rubbed both hands over his face.
“I knew what you’d say.”
“Then you knew you didn’t have consent.”
He looked away.
For eleven years Mateo had been charming, impatient, ambitious, and almost pathologically convinced that problems became easier if decisions were made quickly.
Elena had once admired that.
She now saw the other side.
Consent slowed him down.
So did disclosure.
He had started treating both as obstacles.
“Why did Clara prepare the deed before anyone asked me?” Elena said.
Mateo’s face tightened.
“She said lenders wanted clean title.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“She told me a temporary transfer into the collateral LLC was standard.”
“With my forged signature?”
Mateo looked at the ground.
“She said you could ratify it at closing.”
Elena almost laughed.
“That isn’t how signatures work.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew it then.”
He didn’t argue.
That mattered.
Elena changed direction.
“What does Sangre Capital get Friday?”
Mateo looked at her.
“What?”
“You told me to ask Clara why the deadline mattered.”
He hesitated.
“They can take control of the Taos project subsidiaries.”
“Only those?”
Mateo did not answer.
Elena felt the shape of the omission.
“Mateo.”
“They have an option.”
“For what?”
“A conversion right.”
“Into the parent company?”
His silence was enough.
Sangre Capital had not merely loaned Mateo money.
If Friday arrived without repayment, the lender could convert part of the distressed debt into an equity stake in Ruiz Development itself.
“How much?”
Mateo’s answer was almost inaudible.
“Thirty-five percent.”
Elena understood why he was desperate.
Then she understood something worse.
Clara had negotiated the Sangre Capital loan.
Clara had negotiated the conversion right.
Clara had found the refinance that required Elena’s house.
Clara had prepared the forged deed.
Every road led through the same adviser.
Elena looked at Mateo.
“Have you ever asked who owns Sangre Capital?”
Mateo frowned.
“It’s a private fund.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
May you like
Mateo’s expression changed.
For the first time, Elena saw that he had never asked either.
