Chapter 3 - The Morning After
At 7:00 AM, I was already awake, showered, and dressed in a sharply tailored charcoal suit. My hair was pulled back into a sleek, flawless chignon. I looked every bit the senior partner of a top-tier law firm.
I walked down to the kitchen, where the quiet hum of the refrigerator was the only sound in the house. I poured myself a cup of black coffee and sat at the marble island.
A few minutes later, Andrés stumbled down the stairs, still wearing his wrinkled dress pants from the night before, his eyes bloodshot. He looked startled to see me fully dressed for work on a Sunday morning.
"Where are you going?" he asked, his voice raspy.
"To the office," I replied, taking a slow sip of coffee. "I have a filing to prepare for tomorrow morning."
"Elena, please, can we just sit down and talk about last night?" He walked over, trying to reach for my hand, but I calmly picked up my mug, shifting out of his reach. "I talked to my mother this morning. She called at six."
I raised an eyebrow. "Of course she did."
"She said she feels terrible," Andrés said, his tone desperate. "She said she had no idea you felt sidelined. She wants us to come over to the family estate for Sunday brunch today. Just us, my father, and Mateo and Lucía before they leave for their honeymoon. She wants to clear the air."
I almost laughed out loud. It was classic Beatriz playbook. Rule number one: when a boundary is enforced, immediately pivot to a 'reconciliation' environment where you hold home-field advantage, surrounded by witnesses, so the victim looks unreasonable if they don't accept a vague, non-apology.
"I won't be attending brunch," I said calmly.
"Elena, come on!" Andrés groaned, rubbing his face with both hands. "She’s extending an olive branch! If you don't show up, it's going to ruin Mateo's send-off! Do you really want to ruin my brother's day because your ego was hurt?"
There it was again. The inversion of blame.
"I’m not ruining anything," I said, placing my mug in the sink. "Mateo and Lucía already know why I left last night. In fact, Lucía texted me an hour ago to make sure I was okay. Unlike you, she actually possesses basic human empathy."
Andrés winced as if I had slapped him. "That's not fair."
"What isn't fair," I said, walking toward the front hall to pick up my briefcase, "is that you expect me to sit at a table with a woman who actively disrespects me, while you act as her co-conspirator. Tell your mother I said hello. And tell her to enjoy her brunch."
"Elena, wait!" he called out, following me to the front door. "What about us? What are we doing here?"
I turned at the threshold, looking back at him. "Right now, Andrés, I am evaluating my investments. And right now, this marriage is looking like a total loss."
Before he could respond, I closed the door, stepped into my car, and drove directly to Vance & Associates in downtown Querétaro.
My office on the twentieth floor was quiet on a Sunday. The floor-to-ceiling glass overlooked the aqueduct and the historic city center below. I sat at my executive desk and dialed Dana's private extension. She answered on the second ring.
"Morning, boss," Dana said, her voice sharp and alert. "I saw your texts last night. I take it the wedding was a corporate takeover attempt?"
"Something like that," I said, clicking open my firm's master ledger. "Dana, I need three things done immediately before noon."
"Shoot."
"First, I want a complete audit of the personal guarantee line I extended to the Moretti family for the Hacienda venue lease. I want to know if there are any outstanding balances or pending damage deposits."
"Got it," Dana noted. "Second?"
"Second, pull up the corporate registry for Moretti Logistics—my father-in-law's company. I want to check the shareholder agreement regarding external legal representation. They’ve been using our firm for their corporate filings on a discounted family retainer rate for three years."
"Consider it pulled," Dana replied, the sound of keyboard clicks echoing over the phone line. "And third?"
I leaned back in my leather chair, looking out at the morning sun hitting the ancient stone aqueduct.
"Third... draft a formal notice of retainer termination for Moretti Logistics. Effective immediately."
There was a brief silence on the other end of the line.
May you like
"Elena..." Dana said cautiously. "Terminating their retainer means their pending land-acquisitions contract for the new distribution center in El Marqués drops dead on the table. They need your signature on that environmental clearance by Tuesday, or they forfeit their two-million-dollar earnest deposit."
"I know," I said coldly. "If Beatriz wants to run her family like a private court where people can be erased from the table at her whim, she can find a new firm to handle her family's legal dirty work. Let's see how much Valeria's father's bank can help them when they don't have a lead attorney."
