Chapter 8 - The Desperate Gamble
Locked in a temporary holding cell while her lawyer fought for a brief respite, Mariana felt the walls closing in. The system she had trusted, the career she had built with sweat and blood, was being weaponized against her by two parasites who couldn't bear the thought of losing control over her life.
At 4:00 PM, her defense attorney, a sharp corporate litigator named Alejandro Garza, slid into the visitation booth opposite her. He looked exhausted, his tie loosened around his collar.
"Mariana, we are in deep trouble," Garza said without preamble. "The judge is conservative, and the digital paper trail points directly to your corporate workstation. Unless we can produce physical, undeniable proof that Raúl or Elvira accessed your secure terminal from an outside IP address, the warrant for your formal arrest will be executed tonight."
"Where is Raúl?" Mariana demanded, her eyes flashing with fierce determination. "He has to be hiding somewhere in Querétaro with his mother."
"According to our private investigators, they aren't hiding," Garza replied grimly. "They’re at a notary public's office downtown right now, attempting to file an emergency injunction against your property transfer under the pretext that you are currently an incarcerated criminal under federal investigation. If that injunction goes through, they take the house."
Mariana slammed her cuffed hands against the glass divider. "Not while I'm breathing! Listen to me, Alejandro. Raúl isn't smart enough to orchestrate an offshore shell company. He doesn't even know how to use a VPN. Elvira did it. And she kept physical records—she's paranoid. She keeps a paper backup ledger in a safety deposit box at the downtown branch of Banco Central."
"A safety deposit box?" Garza raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?"
"Because three years ago, she accidentally left her bank key on our kitchen island, and I saw the registry receipt," Mariana said rapidly. "We need to get into that box before they file the injunction."
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"Mariana, accessing a third-party safety deposit box without a warrant is entirely illegal," Garza warned. "If we get caught, we go to prison."
"Then don't get caught," Mariana replied with a chilling, absolute calm. "Use my corporate security clearance. Hack the bank's digital access portal. Find that ledger. Because if you don't, everything I worked for—everything I built to protect my daughter—dies today."
