Chapter 18 - Echoes in the Concrete
Deep within the reinforced walls of the federal maximum-security prison, the heavy steel door of Cell 402 slid open with a metallic groan.
Adrián Salgado sat on the edge of his narrow bunk, his hair completely gray, his face weathered by years of institutional isolation. He no longer owned a suit, a car, or a name that commanded respect. To the guards and inmates alike, he was simply a ghost of a man who had traded everything for a fleeting illusion of grandeur.
He reached under his thin mattress and pulled out a crumpled, yellowed photograph—a picture of Camila in her blue dress, holding the glitter-covered medal she had made for him seven years ago.
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It was the only thing he had left of the world he had destroyed.
Outside the high prison window, beyond the razor wire and concrete guard towers, the sun was setting over the Valley of Mexico, casting a brilliant, golden glow across a city that had long since forgotten he ever existed.
