Chapter 6 - The Jailhouse StandoffThe video showed Ofelia sitting at a metal table in the prison visitation room, dressed in a yellow inmate jumpsuit. Her hair was unwashed, her makeup wiped away, her face haggard and hollow.
Beside her stood a public defender who looked completely exhausted.
The screen shifted to a live video call. Renata set her phone on her desk and accepted the incoming video link.
Ofelia’s frantic face appeared on the screen.
"Renata! Renata, listen to me!" Ofelia cried out, pressing her face close to the camera. "You have to drop the charges! You have to tell the prosecutor it was all a misunderstanding!"
"A misunderstanding, Ofelia?" Renata asked calmly, taking a sip of tea. "You sent a mob loan shark into my home to rob me."
"It was Prado! He forced me!" Ofelia lied desperately, tears streaming down her cheeks. "He threatened to hurt Mauricio! I only did it to protect my son! You loved Mauricio, didn't you? How can you destroy his life like this? He’s sitting in a lockup cell right now crying his eyes out!"
Renata chuckled softly—a dry, bitter sound. "Mauricio isn't crying because he lost me, Ofelia. He’s crying because he realized he has to go to work like a normal person and pay off his own debts."
"You heartless monster!" Ofelia screamed, banging her fists on the metal table. "We gave you a family! We welcomed you into the Salgado name!"
"The Salgado name is currently a national laughingstock," Renata replied coldly. "Did you see the news today, Ofelia? The video of you screaming while being dragged out of my apartment has over four million views on TikTok."
Ofelia gasped, her face turning pale as paper. "What...?"
"And it gets better," Renata continued, her voice dripping with ice. "My lawyer filed an injunction this morning. The court has placed a lien on your Providencia property. In sixty days, that house will be auctioned off by the state to pay for the financial fraud you attempted in my name."
"No! No! That's my husband's house! You can't take my home!" Ofelia shrieked, slamming her palms against the screen.
"I didn't take it, Ofelia. You gambled it away," Renata said. "And as for Mauricio... his employer at the logistics firm saw the news reports this morning. He was officially fired for gross moral misconduct."
"You ruined us!" Ofelia sobbed, falling forward onto the table. "You planned this! You knew from the beginning!"
"I didn't plan your greed, Ofelia," Renata said evenly. "You chose to bleed me dry. I simply defended myself. And as I told your son... I am very, very good at self-defense."
Renata reached out and tapped the red button, ending the call.
The silence that followed was glorious.
But Renata’s work wasn't finished yet. There was still one final piece of the puzzle that didn't make sense.
Why had Héctor Prado—a high-level criminal who usually operated in Mexico City—come all the way to Guadalajara for a small 2.5 million peso debt?
Renata opened her laptop and pulled up Prado’s seized financial records, which Captain Vargas had shared with her confidentially.
She began digging through the secondary transactions.
Ten minutes later, her eyes widened.
Prado hadn't come for Ofelia’s debt. Ofelia’s debt was just a pretext.
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Prado was working for someone else—someone who specifically wanted Renata's real estate property.
And that person's name on the deed transfers made Renata’s blood run cold.
