Chapter 4 - THE TRAP IS SET
I burst through the front doors of Teresa's mansion just as Alejandro came charging down the hallway, wiping water from his eyes.
I scrambled into my car, locked the doors, and slammed my foot on the accelerator. Tires screeched against the driveway as I sped out of the gated community, leaving Alejandro standing under the streetlights, screaming my name into the night air.
My hands shook against the steering wheel, but a feeling of intense, exhilarating liberation washed over me. I had them. On tape, clear as day, Teresa had admitted to the financial theft, the forged inheritance waiver, and the true ownership of Inmobiliaria Vanguardia.
Ten minutes later, I arrived at Claudia’s office downtown. We plugged the digital recorder into her desktop computer and played the file back.
Teresa’s loud, arrogant voice echoed clearly through the office speakers: “Prove it! A judge will never take the word of an unemployed housewife over a state-certified notary! That six hundred thousand pesos? Consider it back-pay...”
Claudia slapped her desk in triumph. "This is golden, Valeria! With this admission, any criminal judge will issue a temporary freeze order on Inmobiliaria Vanguardia's bank accounts and suspend Licenciado Vargas's notary license pending a full fraud investigation!"
"How fast can we freeze the accounts?" I asked.
"I can file an emergency petition with the State Prosecutor’s Financial Crimes Unit by eight tomorrow morning," Claudia said, typing furiously on her laptop. "By noon tomorrow, every single peso in Teresa's and Mónica's shell company will be completely locked."
"What about the factory?" I asked. "Don Ernesto told me the workers are still on strike, and Alejandro has a massive delivery contract with the Alsuper retail chain due next week. If he misses that deadline, the contract penalties will bankrupt Empaques Rivera entirely."
Claudia looked up at me, a sharp smile curling on her lips. "That brings us to Phase Two of our plan. Alejandro is desperate for cash. Since his shell company accounts will be frozen by noon, he won't be able to pay the striking workers or buy raw materials to finish that order."
"Which means he'll be forced to sell the only remaining asset he thinks he fully controls," I realized. "The commercial land under the factory."
"Exactly," Claudia nodded. "And tomorrow morning, an international investment firm called Gómez & Associates will contact Alejandro, offering to purchase the factory land for thirty million pesos in cash—enough to pay off his debts and leave the country with Mónica."
"Who is Gómez & Associates?" I asked.
Claudia handed me a sleek corporate profile bound in leather. "It’s a newly formed asset recovery group funded entirely by Don Ernesto, several prominent former shareholders who were cheated by the Rivera family, and your mother’s remaining trust fund."
I looked at the documents, amazed. "So I’m going to buy my father's land back from my own husband without him knowing I'm the buyer?"
"Precisely," Claudia smirked. "And the contract of sale contains a mandatory clause requiring Alejandro to guarantee under penalty of fraud that the land has no competing inheritance claims or forged title waivers. The second he signs his name to sell the land, he locks his own prison cell from the inside."
The next morning at 10:00 AM, Alejandro sat in his chaotic corporate office at Empaques Rivera. Outside his window, dozens of striking workers held picket signs, chanting for their unpaid wages.
Suddenly, his secretary Mónica burst into his office without knocking, her face pale, holding her smartphone with trembling hands.
"Alejandro! Something is wrong!" Mónica panicked, thrusting her phone at him. "I just tried to transfer fifty thousand pesos from the Inmobiliaria Vanguardia account to pay for my new car, and the bank rejected it! The system says the account has been placed under a judicial freeze by the State Attorney General!"
Alejandro leaped out of his chair, grabbing his hair in pure terror. "What?! How is that possible?!"
"I called your mother!" Mónica cried. "She said Valeria recorded her last night! The police visited Notary Vargas’s office an hour ago with a search warrant!"
Before Alejandro could process the news, his desk phone rang.
He picked it up with a shaking hand. "Hello?"
"Señor Alejandro Rivera?" a smooth, professional male voice spoke through the speaker. "My name is Licenciado Carlos Mendoza, representing Gómez & Associates International. We understand your company is currently facing liquid operational strain, and we are prepared to make you an immediate, all-cash offer of thirty-five million pesos to purchase the five hectares of real estate beneath your factory."
Alejandro’s eyes widened with desperate, greedy relief. He looked at Mónica, a sick smile spreading across his face.
"Thirty-five million in cash?" Alejandro asked, his voice trembling with greed. "How fast can you close the deal?"
"We can meet at the central registry office at three o'clock this afternoon," the representative replied. "Bring your corporate seal and the title ownership deeds."
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Alejandro slammed the phone down and pulled Mónica into a passionate kiss. "We’re saved! We take the cash, leave my mother to handle the legal mess, and fly straight to Cancún tonight!"
Little did he know, he was walking straight into the deadliest trap ever laid.
