Chapter 4 - The Confrontation
The sun was dipping below the horizon when Alejandro walked through the front door of their home, loosening his tie with an exhausted sigh. He looked tired, his shoulders slumped, carrying the heavy, nervous aura of a man walking a tightrope over an active volcano.
"Honey? I'm home," Alejandro called out, tossing his keys onto the entry console table.
Mariana was waiting for him at the dining room table. She hadn't turned on the overhead chandelier; only a single amber desk lamp cast a long, dramatic shadow across the polished mahogany surface. Resting neatly in the center of the table was a thick manila folder stamped with the seal of the State Attorney General’s Office.
"Alex," Mariana said softly. "You're late."
Alejandro stopped midway into the room, his eyes darting toward the folder. A nervous twitch fluttered at the corner of his left eye. "Oh. Traffic on Avenida López Mateos was a nightmare. What's all this?"
"Sit down, Alejandro," Mariana instructed, her tone devoid of warmth.
He swallowed hard, forcing an awkward, defensive smile as he pulled out a chair opposite her. "Come on, Mariana, don't use that tone. Did something happen with Camila?"
"Camila is upstairs doing her homework," Mariana replied evenly. She slid the manila folder across the table toward him. "Open it."
With trembling fingers, Alejandro untied the cotton string and flipped the cover open. The top document was a full-color 8x10 still photograph of his mother handing a thick yellow envelope and a brass key to Víctor Robles inside Plaza Galerías. Beneath it lay sworn federal affidavits, bank audit trails linking his crypto debts to Ernesto Luján’s holding company, and a certified copy of the failed break-in report from that very morning.
The color drained entirely from Alejandro’s face. He looked like he had just been struck by lightning.
"M-Mariana... where... where did you get this?" he stammered, his voice cracking violently. "This is... this is a setup. Someone is trying to frame my mother!"
"Your mother was caught on camera paying a violent criminal fifty thousand pesos to break into our home, steal our property deeds, and forge my signature so you could sell our house behind my back to pay off your illegal gambling debts," Mariana stated, each word dropping like a lead weight onto the table.
Alejandro bolted upright, knocking his chair backward. "That’s insane! You don't understand, Mariana! Ernesto threatened me! They were going to break my legs, burn my office down! I had no choice!"
"You always had a choice, Alejandro," a cold, authoritative voice echoed from the shadowed hallway.
Both turned sharply.
Paulina stepped out from the shadows near the foyer, her arms crossed over her chest, her eyes blazing with absolute disgust as she stared at her brother.
"I heard everything through the speakerphone, little brother," Paulina said, stepping into the dim light. "You sold out your wife. You sold out your daughter’s home. You traded our family name to a thug like Ernesto Luján just to cover your worthless skin."
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Alejandro stared at his sister, then back at Mariana. The pathetic facade of a loving husband and father melted away, exposing the desperate, cornered coward beneath. "You can't do this to me! If the cops arrest Mom and me, my career is over! I'll go to prison!"
"Then you should have thought about that before you gave your mother the key," Mariana said coldly, standing up from the table. She picked up her phone and tapped the screen. "The municipal police are waiting outside the front gate right now. You can pack a small bag, Alejandro. You won't be sleeping here tonight."
