“Mother!” he cried out.
Doña Maria slowly raised her head, and it took him several seconds to recognize her face.
“Shawn?” she asked weakly.
He ran towards the bars in shock.
His mother was extremely thin, and Don Joseph could barely sit up on the floor.
Shawn took Maria’s hand through the bars and asked, “Who did this to you?”
His father closed his eyes in pain. “Your sister did this.”
For almost four months Brenda had kept them locked up.
It all started after she returned from a neighboring city, where a clothing business had failed and she had accumulated debts exceeding fifty thousand dollars.
At first she said she had returned to take care of her parents.
Then she began to manage the money that Shawn sent every month.
She then convinced Don Joseph to sign a power of attorney, arguing that it was necessary to carry out medical and banking procedures.
When the elderly couple discovered that Brenda was withdrawing large amounts and wanted to stop it, the threats began.
The situation exploded when she tried to convince them to sign the sale of the house and four acres inherited from her grandfather.
Don Joseph refused firmely.
Two nights later Brenda locked them up in the cellar.
“She told us that no one was asking about us,” Doña Maria whispered gently. “She said you were too busy to come back.”
Shawn felt those words pierce his heart because there was something painfully true in them.
