Chapter 3 - THE RAT TRAPThe news of Sebastián’s outburst in the ICU spread like wildfire through the hospital corridors. Within an hour, Renata had leveraged her connections to have private, armed security personnel—paid for out of Daniela’s secret off-shore account—stationed outside the room. Sebastián was escorted off the premises by hospital guards, but Daniela knew this was only a momentary pause in the war.
By 2:00 AM, the door clicked open again. This time, it wasn't Sebastián.
Patricia and Eduardo Ortega—Daniela’s mother and father—hurried into the room. Patricia was wearing a designer mink coat, her face pale with frantic desperation, while Eduardo looked disheveled, his eyes bloodshot and trembling with rage.
“Are you out of your mind?!” Eduardo roared, slamming his fist onto the foot of Daniela’s bed, making her wince as pain shot through her ribs. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done to us, you ungrateful brat?!”
“Eduardo, calm down,” Patricia pleaded weakly, though her eyes were glued to Daniela with venomous disgust. “Daniela... how could you cancel the mortgage guarantee? The bank took our 950,000 pesos! That was our dream home! Our retirement!”
Daniela looked at her parents. She felt no affection, no nostalgic warmth—only disgust.
“Where did you get that 950,000 pesos, Dad?” Daniela asked calmly, staring straight into her father’s eyes.
Eduardo stiffened. “That’s none of your business! It was our savings! Our hard-earned money!”
“Savings?” Daniela laughed softly, a terrifying sound. “You haven’t worked a real job in five years, Dad. Mom hasn’t done anything except shop in Guadalajara’s high-end boutiques. You got that money from Inversiones Altamira. You got it from Sebastián.”
Patricia gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. Eduardo’s face turned from red to an ash-gray pale.
“You... you don't know what you’re talking about,” Eduardo stammered, stepping back.
“I know everything,” Daniela declared, her voice rising with lethal clarity. “I know Sebastián paid you 250,000 pesos every quarter. I know he paid you extra every single time he beat me badly enough to put me in the hospital. You sold my suffering. You bought your designer clothes, your country club memberships, and your luxury trips with the blood he drew from my body!”
“It wasn't like that!” Patricia burst out crying, dropping all pretense. “He told us you were unstable! He said you were hurting yourself to get attention! He gave us that money to help cover the family’s stress! We did it for you, Daniela!”
“You did it for yourselves!” Daniela barked, the strength in her voice surprising even Renata, who stood quietly in the corner recording every single word on her phone. “You watched your daughter bleed and took a bribe to tell her to stay with her abuser! You’re not my parents. You’re human traffickers who sold your own blood!”
Eduardo realized the cover was entirely blown. The sniveling, desperate father vanished, replaced by a bitter, cruel old man.
“Listen to me, you arrogant little fool,” Eduardo sneered, stepping closer and bending over her bed. “You think you’re so smart? Sebastián holds all the power in this city. He controls the bank accounts, he controls the political connections, and he holds the deeds to everything we own. If he falls, we fall! And if we fall, I will make sure everyone in this city knows you’re a bitter, crazy woman who destroyed her own family!”
“You’ve already destroyed yourselves,” Daniela replied, her voice dropping to a icy whisper. “Renata, show them.”
Renata stepped forward and pressed play on her phone.
A crisp audio recording filled the room—it was Eduardo’s voice from twenty minutes ago, caught on the wiretap Daniela had authorized Renata to place on her father’s phone line three days prior.
“If Sebastián doesn't transfer the remaining 5 million pesos by tomorrow,” Eduardo’s recorded voice boomed through the speaker, “I’m going to tell the press that he forced us to cover up Daniela’s hospital visits! I want my money, Sebastián, or I’ll ruin you both!”
Eduardo froze, his mouth hanging open in complete shock.
“Extortion is a federal crime, Dad,” Daniela said with a chilling smile. “And that recording, along with the full paper trail of Sebastián’s payoffs to you, has already been sent to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.”
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Patricia collapsed onto a chair, sobbing uncontrollably. “Daniela, please! We’re your mother and father! You can’t put us in prison!”
“Watch me,” Daniela said. “Get out.”
