Chapter 6 - The Broken ClanCatchphrase Hook: "When the money stops flowing, the rats start eating each other."
That evening, inside the dimly lit living room of the Salazar residence in Atlixco, total chaos had broken out.
The power had been shut off two hours ago. Candles flickered on the wooden dining table, casting long, eerie shadows across the walls. The house was stifling hot without air conditioning.
Don Armando was sitting in an armchair, drinking heavily from a bottle of cheap tequila. "My truck is gone, Elvira! Repossessed! In front of the entire neighborhood! People were filming it on their phones!"
"Shut up, Armando!" Elvira yelled, her hair tangled, her eyes wildly bloodshot. "Do you think I care about your truck? My son is lying in a cold municipal morgue like a stray dog! And that witch has frozen all our accounts!"
Iván burst through the front door, sweat dripping down his face. "It's over! It's all over!"
"What happened?" Elvira demanded, rushing toward him.
"I went to the bank to withdraw cash from the Inversiones Altavista corporate account!" Iván shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "The teller told me the account has been frozen by order of the State Supreme Court! A freeze order placed by Mariana’s attorney!"
Don Armando slammed his glass down, shattering it on the tile floor. "What?! The Cholula land account is frozen? That was our payout! Rodrigo promised us we would each get $500,000 USD when the commercial development deal closed next month!"
"Rodrigo was a fool who left a trail of paper three miles long!" Iván screamed, turning on his mother. "This is your fault, Mom! You told him to keep pushing her! You told him to drag Camila into his life and push Mariana into a corner!"
"Don't you dare raise your voice to me!" Elvira shrieked, slapping Iván across the face. "I did everything to build this family’s wealth! You lived off Mariana’s money for five years! You drove the cars she paid for! You went on vacations she funded! You were happy to take her money when she was blind!"
"Well, she isn't blind anymore!" Iván roared, rubbing his cheek. "She’s coming for everything! Licenciado Ramos told me on the phone ten minutes ago that she's filing criminal embezzlement charges against us! We’re going to prison, Mom! Prison!"
Suddenly, a loud knock echoed through the dark house.
The family froze in terror.
Iván crept toward the window and peeked through the blinds. Standing on the porch, under the flickering streetlights, were two men in dark suits holding legal envelopes, accompanied by two uniformed police officers.
"It's the process servers," Iván whispered, his voice trembling. "They have police with them."
Don Armando collapsed back into his chair, putting his head in his hands, weeping openly. "We're ruined... We have no money for lawyers... no money for food... no money to bury my boy..."
Elvira stood in the center of the dark room, listening to the heavy pounding on her door. The grand illusion of the Salazar family—their prestige, their arrogance, their fake nobility—had crumbled into dust.
She grabbed her phone with shaking hands and dialed Mariana’s number.
It rang once. Twice. Three times.
Then, Mariana’s calm, poised voice answered. "Speak."
"Mariana..." Elvira sobbed, dropping her pride entirely, her voice reduced to a desperate, pathetic whimper. "Please... I am begging you on my knees. Do whatever you want with the land... take the money... take everything. Just pay for Rodrigo’s burial. Don't let them put my son in a mass grave. Please... as a mother..."
Mariana was silent for a long moment. When she finally spoke, her tone was as smooth and unyielding as granite.
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"You should have thought about Rodrigo’s dignity before you helped him betray the woman who fed you, Elvira," Mariana said quietly. "He is your son. You figure out how to bury him."
The line went dead.
