His penthouse had cost $200,000. He owned two luxury cars. He spent more on clothes in a month than his parents spent on food in a year. Sebastian, the struggling artist, turned out to have paintings that sold for exorbitant sums. One of his works had recently sold for $500,000. His modest apartment was worth over a million. He had more money in the bank than his parents had earned in their entire lives combined. And Gabriela, the architect, was a partner in a firm that handled multimillion-dollar projects.
Her house, the mansion where she had slammed the door in her parents’ faces, was worth two and a half million. She and her husband lived a life of absolute luxury. Neither of them needed the money from the sale of her parents’ house. They wanted it out of pure greed, out of avarice, but there was more to it. Marcos discovered something that neither Carmen nor Fernando knew. When Fernando had built his carpentry business decades earlier, it had been more successful than even he realized. The property where his workshop had been, which Fernando had sold when he retired at 65 for a mere 200,000 so he could retire comfortably.
It was now worth 5 million due to the area’s development. Fernando had sold the property to a developer who had offered him 200,000, claiming it was a fair price. Fernando, with no real estate experience and desperate to secure his retirement, had accepted, but the developer had swindled them badly. The property was worth at least 2 million. Even then, Marcos hired private investigators who discovered that the developer who had bought the property from Fernando had connections to Gabriela’s husband.
Eduardo, Gabriela’s husband, had known the true value of the property. He had helped his contact swindle Fernando and had likely received a commission for it. When Marcos showed this information to Carmen and Fernando, they were both devastated. Not only had their children abandoned them, but the son-in-law of one of them had actively participated in defrauding them years before. “Gabriela, does she know this?” Carmen asked, her voice trembling. “It’s hard to know for sure,” Marcos replied. “But I suspect she does, or at least she must have had her suspicions when she saw how much money her husband made that year.”
Fernando began to cry, deep sobs shaking his entire weakened body. “I worked 40 years in that workshop,” he said between sobs. “40 years building furniture, building a business, and they robbed me. My own family robbed me.” Carmen hugged him, crying herself. All this time they had thought they had retired with a modest but adequate nest egg. They hadn’t realized they had been swindled out of millions. But there’s more, Marcos said with a strange expression on his face. And this is where things get really interesting.
Marcos explained that he had hired a professional appraiser to evaluate the furniture Fernando had made throughout his career. Many of these pieces still existed in homes around the city and region. Fernando’s furniture, it turned out, was extraordinary. Not only was it very well made, but it also had a unique style that made it highly valuable to collectors. The appraiser explained that Fernando had been a master craftsman who hadn’t realized how talented he truly was. “Mr. Fernando,” Marcos said with a smile.
“His furniture is considered a collector’s item. There are people who would pay a fortune to own an original Fernando Ruiz piece. If we trace all the furniture he made and authenticate it, we’re talking about a collective value of more than 5 million dollars.” Fernando looked at Marcos incredulously. “That—that’s impossible. I only made furniture, tables, chairs, cabinets, nothing special.” “They were special,” Marcos insisted. “And they’re worth a fortune, but there’s a problem.” The problem was that many of those pieces had been sold or given away years before.
Tracking them all down would be difficult, if not impossible. However, Marcos had another idea. “I’ve spoken with several collectors and galleries,” Marcos explained. “They’re all interested in your work. If you could make a few more pieces, even with your current health, even if they’re smaller pieces, they would sell for tens of thousands of dollars each.” Carmen and Fernando could believe what they were hearing. For all these years they had lived thinking they were poor, that they had failed financially, that they had nothing to leave their children except a modest house.
And it turns out Fernando had been a master craftsman, whose work was worth millions. “But there’s something else you need to know,” Marcos said, his expression turning serious. “I found something in my research that’s going to change everything.” Marcos pulled out a folder full of documents. They were financial records, deeds, contracts. When Fernando sold his workshop 10 years ago, Marcos explained, the contract included a clause that no one noticed, a clause that said if the property was rezoned to high-value commercial land within 15 years of the sale, Fernando was entitled to an additional percentage of the value.
Fernando looked at the documents in confusion. “I never read
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