Chapter 4 - THE BETRAYAL IN CELL BLOCK BDown the hall in Holding Cell Block B, Iván Morales was sweating profusely under a scratchy wool blanket provided by the detention center. The cell was cramped, damp, and smelled of disinfectant and unwashed humanity.
The heavy iron door swung open, and a guard barked his name.
"Morales! Visitor. Room three."
Iván scrambled to his feet, thinking his high-priced lawyer had managed to work some magic, or perhaps Valeria had found a loophole. Instead, when he entered the Plexiglas-partitioned visiting booth, he found someone he never expected to see sitting behind the glass.
It wasn't a lawyer. It was Mateo Hernández, wearing a sharp, tailored three-piece suit that cost more than Iván earned in two years.
Iván picked up the heavy plastic telephone receiver, his hands trembling. He pressed it to his ear.
"Mateo? What are you doing here? Where is Valeria?" Iván hissed through the speaker. "Listen, whatever she told you, she's crazy! I was just a victim of her manipulation—"
Mateo didn't look angry. He looked calm, almost indifferent, as he lifted his receiver.
"She told me everything, Iván," Mateo said smoothly. "She told me how you two planned to buy a luxury villa in Los Cabos with Ernesto's money. She even gave the prosecutor the location of your secondary bank accounts in the Cayman Islands."
Iván’s face turned white as paper. "That lying bitch... I'll kill her."
"You won't have the chance," Mateo replied, a slight smirk playing at the corner of his lips. "Because those Cayman accounts? Ernesto’s legal team seized them this morning under civil asset forfeiture laws. Every cent you and Valeria stole, skimmed, or tried to launder has been recovered."
"You can't do that!" Iván shouted, slamming his fist against the glass partition. The guard outside took a threatening step forward, resting his hand on his baton. Iván lowered his voice, desperation creeping into his tone. "Mateo... listen to me. We are young men. We can make a deal. You control the factory now, right? You control the eighty-two million pesos. If you drop the charges against me, I'll walk away. I'll never bother you again."
Mateo leaned forward, resting his elbows on the metal counter.
"Iván, do you know what I was doing this time last week?" Mateo asked softly.
Iván blinked, caught off guard. "What?"
"I was working a double shift, scrubbing biohazard floors in the ICU for forty pesos an hour, wondering if the hospital machine keeping my fourteen-year-old sister alive would be shut off because we couldn't pay the bill," Mateo said, his eyes turning ice-cold. "And you and Valeria were sitting in a luxury penthouse, laughing about murdering a man who gave me a chance at a real life."
Mateo stood up, adjusting his cuffs.
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"My sister’s heart surgery was successfully completed this morning," Mateo said. "Paid for in full by Ernesto Salgado’s foundation. And you? You're going to spend the next twenty years reflecting on what happens when you try to steal from a man who is ten steps ahead of you."
Mateo hung up the phone, turned his back, and walked out of the room, leaving Iván screaming curses into an empty line.
