Chapter 7: What the Law Does
Grace Foley called Thursday morning.
"Garvey gave a voluntary statement yesterday," she said.
"He retained counsel Tuesday evening.
His attorney approached us Wednesday.
He's cooperating."
"What did he give them?"
"Documentation of every instruction he received from your brother.
Emails, text messages, a paper trail going back twenty-six months.
Rafael contacted him through a mutual acquaintance originally — someone in a real estate investment group Rafael had been involved with.
The group collapsed.
Your brother had borrowed against his own assets and needed a recovery." A pause.
"The plan was to transfer the Sugar Land property into the LLC gradually, refinance it, and use the equity to cover what he'd lost."
"And Mama's savings?"
"Garvey says Rafael told him the withdrawals were authorized by your mother under the power of attorney.
He claims he didn't know about the circumstances of how the POA was obtained." Her tone made clear what she thought of that claim.
"We'll let the investigation determine how much Garvey actually knew.
But his cooperation is real.
He's giving us everything."
"And Pruett?
The doctor?"
"The medical board opened a review yesterday.
Dr.
Pruett's assessment of Cora Mendoza has been flagged as potentially retaliatory in nature — filed on behalf of a third party rather than out of genuine clinical concern.
His license is under active review while the board investigates."
I was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee I'd forgotten to drink.
"Rafael," I said.
"What happens to him?"
"We've issued a target notice.
He has thirty days to retain counsel and respond before we move to formal charges.
The charges will include elder financial exploitation, fraudulent use of a power of attorney, and financial fraud in connection with the property filings." Grace paused.
"Ms.
Villanueva, the $180,000 in withdrawals — do you want to pursue civil recovery alongside the criminal proceeding?"
"Yes."
"Then speak to your attorney about filing a parallel civil suit.
The criminal case will move first, but the civil case preserves your mother's right to recover those funds regardless of the criminal outcome."
"I'll call Mika today."
"One more thing." I heard papers shifting on her end.
"Daniel Mendoza came in yesterday with the original signed declarations from Cora.
Both of them.
Witnessed and notarized at the time she made the recordings." A pause.
"She was thorough."
"She always was," I said.
After I hung up, I sat with the quiet for a moment.
Outside, the yard was bright and still, the kind of Sugar Land morning I had paid for but rarely seen.
A mockingbird was doing something complicated in the oak tree near the fence.
Mama came in from the hall.
"Anything?" she said.
"He cooperated.
Garvey gave them everything."
She pulled a chair out and sat across from me.
"And Rafael?"
"Thirty days to get a lawyer.
Then formal charges."
She looked at her hands on the table.
"I used to wonder, when you were both small, which of you would need me more when you grew up." She looked up.
"I got that very wrong."
"You raised us the same."
"Yes," she said.
"And I spent forty years wondering why that wasn't enough." She reached across and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, the exact gesture from when I was nine years old.
"It was enough, mija.
The problem was never you."
Mika arrived at noon with the civil filing paperwork.
We sat at the dining room table — Mika, Mama, and I — and Mama signed her own name in her own hand on the documents authorizing recovery of her funds.
She read every page before she signed.
Mika watched her do it without saying a word, and when Mama set the pen down, Mika looked at me with an expression I understood: this woman is fine.
She always was.
Rafael's attorney contacted Mika the following Monday.
The call was short.
"His client would like to discuss a resolution," the attorney said.
"A full acknowledgment of liability, an agreement to repay the $180,000 from personal assets and settlement of the civil matter outside of court, in exchange for a conversation with the DA about reduced charges."
Mika relayed it to me.
I relayed it to Grace.
"His cooperation will factor into the charging decision," Grace said.
"But he doesn't get to negotiate the charges away.
Elder financial exploitation in Texas carries a mandatory minimum.
A guilty plea with cooperation may reduce his sentence, but he will be charged."
"Tell his attorney that," I said.
Mika called back an hour later.
"His attorney has indicated his client will cooperate fully with the DA's investigation and will not contest the civil recovery.
He's asking only that you allow his client to speak to your mother before the formal charges are filed."
I looked across the table at Mama.
She had been listening.
"No," she said before I could answer.
I told Mika.
May you like
"Tell them no," I said.
"And tell them we'll see them in court."
