Chapter 4 - The Brunch Confrontation
At 1:00 PM, while I was sitting in my office going over the termination notices, my phone began to buzz furiously on the desk.
The caller ID displayed: Beatriz Moretti.
I let it ring until it went to voicemail. Ten seconds later, it rang again. This time it was my father-in-law, Guillermo. I let that go to voicemail too.
Finally, at 1:15 PM, my office line rang. I picked up the receiver.
"Elena Vance's office."
"Elena! What on earth is the meaning of this?!" Beatriz's shrill, panicked voice exploded through the speaker. All her soft, honeyed, champagne-swilling composure from the night before had completely vanished.
"Hello, Beatriz," I said smoothly, leaning back in my chair. "I see you've received the formal correspondence from my firm."
"Correspondence?!" she gasped, sounding as if she were Hyperventilating. "Your secretary just emailed Guillermo an official notice stating that Vance & Associates is terminating all legal representation for Moretti Logistics! Effective immediately! Do you have any idea what tomorrow's deadline is?!"
"I am well aware of tomorrow's deadline, Beatriz," I replied calmly. "The El Marqués acquisition requires a lead partner's signature on the environmental compliance affidavit. Since I am no longer your lead partner, I cannot sign."
"You can't do this!" she shrieked. "This is family business! Guillermo is in tears! Andrés is sitting right here, completely distraught! We are in the middle of Sunday brunch!"
"How lovely," I remarked dryly. "How is Table 3 treating everyone today? Is Valeria sitting next to Andrés again?"
The line went dead quiet for three long seconds.
When Beatriz spoke again, her voice had dropped the panic, replaced by a cold, venomous hiss. "Is this what this is about? You are destroying a multi-million-dollar family business expansion because of a seating arrangement at a wedding?!"
"No, Beatriz," I corrected her, my tone dropping into the deadly register I used when closing a prosecution. "I am ending a business relationship because your family treats my professional expertise as a free entitlement while treating my personal presence as an embarrassment. You spent four years reminding me that I am not 'part of the family.' So, I decided to take your advice. I am no longer family. I am an independent corporate entity. And as an independent corporate entity, I choose not to do business with you."
"Andrés!" I heard Beatriz yell in the background. "Talk to your wife! She's lost her mind!"
The phone rustled, and Andrés's breathless, panicked voice came through the line. "Elena? Elena, please, tell me this is a joke. My dad's blood pressure is through the roof. If we lose the El Marqués land deal, the firm loses three years of capital buildup!"
"Then I suggest your father hire another law firm immediately, Andrés," I said. "Though, as a professional courtesy, I should inform you that no top-tier firm in Querétaro will take on an environmental affidavit review with less than twenty-four hours' notice. Not without a retainer three times higher than what I was charging you."
"Elena, please, I am begging you," Andrés pleaded, his voice cracking. "My mother made a mistake last night! She admits it! She's willing to apologize!"
"I don't want her apology, Andrés," I said coldly. "An apology given under financial extortion isn't regret; it's self-preservation. And frankly, you should have fought for me last night when it cost you nothing. Instead, you're only fighting for me now because it's costing you everything."
"Elena—"
"I have a meeting, Andrés. Good luck with brunch."
I hung up the phone.
Two minutes later, Dana walked into my office, holding a fresh Manila folder. She looked both nervous and thrilled.
"Boss," Dana said, closing the door behind her. "The venue manager from Hacienda de las Flores just called. It seems Mrs. Beatriz Moretti hasn't paid the remaining balance of eighteen thousand dollars for the wedding catering and floral decor. She told them to bill it to the guarantor's account."
I looked at Dana. "Which is my line of credit."
"Exactly," Dana smiled grimly. "What do you want me to do?"
I pulled out a fresh sheet of firm letterhead and my pen. "Send an immediate stop-payment order to the venue. Inform them that the guarantor line has been frozen due to a breach of contract conditions regarding unauthorized floor plan alterations."
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Dana gasped, her eyes widening. "Elena... if the venue doesn't get paid by five PM today, they hold the legal right to impound the event decorations and file a public lien against the primary organizer's personal assets. That's Beatriz."
"Then Beatriz better hope Valeria's father's bank accepts walk-in loans on a Sunday," I said, signing the stop-payment order with a sharp flare of my pen.
