Chapter 4 - THE MIDNIGHT RAID AND THE CORPSE IN THE BACKYARDDawn broke over Naucalpan, painting the sky in sickly shades of bruised purple and smoggy gray.
At 5:00 AM, the heavy oak front door of the Salgado household didn't just knock—it splintered under the coordinated force of a police battering ram.
"Policía! Federal investigation! Nobody move!"
Shouts echoed through the hallways as half a dozen tactical officers in full riot gear swarmed the living room. Ofelia stumbled out of her bedroom wrapped in a faded floral bathrobe, her hair standing up in wild gray tufts, screaming bloody murder.
"What is the meaning of this?! Who authorized this?! I demand to speak to the chief of police! Bruno! Bruno, wake up!"
Bruno tumbled out of his bedroom wearing only boxer shorts and a bewildered expression, his hands raised in the air as a massive officer shoved him against the faux-wood paneled wall.
"Hands behind your back! Bruno Salgado, you are under arrest for unlawful imprisonment, domestic assault, and endangering the life of a minor!" the officer barked, clicking cold steel handcuffs around his wrists with practiced efficiency.
"Mom! Mom, do something!" Bruno wailed, his tough-guy facade instantly evaporating into pathetic sobs.
Ofelia lunged forward, clawing at an officer's uniform. "You can't arrest my son! This is our house! We have rights! Where is Andrés?! Where is my son?!"
Stepping through the shattered front door, flanked by two detectives and a court-appointed bailiff, came Andrés.
He wasn't wearing his usual rumpled work clothes. He wore a sharp, charcoal-gray suit, his face completely devoid of emotion, his eyes as cold as arctic ice.
"He's right here, Mother," Andrés said, his voice cutting through the chaos like a razor blade.
Ofelia froze, dropping her hands. She stared at her firstborn, expecting him to rescue them, expecting him to apologize for the misunderstanding. Instead, Andrés pulled a thick manila folder from under his arm and tossed it onto the coffee table right next to the scattered baseball.
"What... what is this, Andrés?" Ofelia whispered, her voice finally losing its thunder.
"That," Andrés said smoothly, "is an emergency asset freeze on every bank account tied to my business and personal funds. It includes the forensic audit I ordered last night, proving that you and Bruno embezzled over four hundred thousand pesos from my corporate accounts over the past two years to pay off Bruno's gambling debts."
Bruno’s face went ghastly white. "You... you hacked our accounts? You spying piece of—"
"Quiet, criminal," the lead detective interrupted, shoving Bruno toward the exit.
"And that's not all," Andrés continued, stepping closer to his mother until she was forced to look up into his towering, unyielding frame. "The police aren't just here for the assault on Jimena. When the forensic team searches the property—including the old tool shed and the concrete slab in the backyard—they’re going to look into the 'disappearance' of our uncle's inheritance documents from ten years ago. Coincidentally, your signature was on those too, Mom."
Ofelia staggered backward, her knees buckling as she hit the sofa. For the first time in her life, Ofelia Salgado looked old, small, and utterly defeated.
May you like
"You're destroying your own family for a whore," she spat out venomously, her last desperate weapon.
"My family is currently resting in a hospital bed carrying my child," Andrés replied calmly, turning his back on her forever. "You stopped being my family the moment you locked her away."
