Chapter 5 - THE UNRAVELING OF FAMILYInside the Santa Catarina Women's Detention Facility, the air was cold and smelled of floor cleaner.
Estela sat behind the thick acrylic partition, wearing a dull gray jumpsuit. Her hair was unwashed, her manicured nails broken and dirty. Across from her sat Ernesto, who had been brought from the male holding block in handcuffs.
"She ruined us, Ernesto!" Estela wept, slamming her palms against the divider. "Our own daughter! She put you in chains! She cancelled our house! She left us with nothing!"
Ernesto stared at the floor, looking ten years older. "She didn't put us here, Estela. We put ourselves here. We sold her out to Rodrigo the day we let him buy our silence."
"He was paying our bills!" Estela shrieked. "He bought you your boat! He paid for my trips to Europe! What kind of child destroys her parents over money?!"
"It wasn't over money, Estela," a calm voice rang out from the doorway.
Lucía walked into the visitation room, accompanied by a guard. She sat down on the stool opposite her parents.
Estela immediately leaned against the partition, her face twisting into a desperate mask of motherly affection.
"Lucía! My baby!" Estela cried out. "Thank God you came! Tell the officers it was a misunderstanding! Tell them Rodrigo forced us to sign those papers! You know your father is sick! He can't survive in here!"
Lucía looked at her mother through the glass. There was no hatred in Lucía's eyes—only a hollow, empty void.
"I didn't come to get you out, Estela," Lucía said quietly. "I came to deliver your legal notices."
Lucía slid two packets of papers under the small tray slot.
"The first document is a formal revocation of power of attorney," Lucía explained. "You no longer have access to any family trusts, accounts, or real estate. The villa in Olinalá has been seized by the federal government to satisfy the tax fraud judgments."
"You... you took our house?!" Ernesto gasped, looking up in shock.
"It was never your house, Father. It was bought with stolen money," Lucía said. "The second document is an affidavit detailing your direct involvement in Rodrigo’s money laundering scheme for the last four years. I submitted it to the Prosecutor General this morning."
Estela screamed, beating her fists against the plastic shield. "You monster! I gave birth to you! I gave you life!"
"And you tried to trade that life for a house in Valle Poniente," Lucía countered, her voice unfaltering. "You signed my name to an insurance policy that paid out upon my death. You knew Rodrigo was beating me. You saw the bruises on my arms at Christmas. You saw the scar on my lip at Thanksgiving. And what did you say to me, Mother?"
Lucía leaned closer to the glass.
"'Don't drag us into your drama.'"
Estela froze, the words choking in her throat.
"You told me to go back to him and work it out like a grown woman," Lucía whispered. "Well, I am working it out."
Lucía stood up and adjusted her blazer.
"Lucía, wait! Please!" Ernesto sobbed, reaching through the tray slot with his trembling, cuffed hands. "We're your family!"
Lucía stopped at the door, turning her head slightly.
"Family doesn't put a price tag on your life," she said. "Enjoy your trial."
As she stepped out of the prison block, the heavy metal doors slammed shut behind her with a deafening thud.
Lucía took a deep breath of the cool morning air. But as she reached her car, Valeria walked up with an urgent expression on her face.
"Lucía," Valeria said, holding up a tablet. "We have a problem. Rodrigo’s bail hearing was just moved up by a high-court judge who was paid off. He just posted bail."
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Lucía’s eyes narrowed. "Where is he now?"
"He was just released," Valeria said grimly. "And his phone's GPS signal just pinged... two blocks from your private penthouse."
