Chapter 6 - The Media Counterattack
By four o'clock that afternoon, the news of Mauricio and Marco's arrests hit the regional media like a ton of bricks.
However, money and influence do not go down without a nasty fight.
While Mauricio sat in a holding cell, his family's high-priced legal defense team immediately went to work in the court of public opinion. By six o'clock, a polished press release had been leaked to major news outlets across Querétaro, along with edited security footage from the wedding venue.
I sat at my kitchen table with Patricia and Daniela, watching the evening news broadcast.
The glamorous news anchor read the headline: “Tragedy Behind the Scandal: Elite Businessman Framed by Disgruntled In-Laws?”
On the screen, Mauricio's lead defense attorney, a slick man named Attorney Vega, stood outside the courthouse speaking to a swarm of microphones.
"My client, Mauricio Valdez, is a victim of a cruel, orchestrated smear campaign," Vega announced smoothly to the cameras. "The physical altercation mentioned in the police report was a tragic domestic accident that occurred hours before the wedding. Mr. Vance, the bride's father, used this private moment to fabricate false allegations of abuse and corporate theft after my client refused to fund his failing mechanical workshop."
"What?!" Patricia gasped, standing up from her chair. "They are lying on national television!"
The news broadcast displayed a photo of my workshop, along with old tax records that had been leaked.
"Furthermore," the news anchor continued, "unconfirmed reports suggest that Daniela Vance initiated unauthorized financial transfers herself before fabricating claims against Mr. Valdez to avoid prosecution. Social media remains heavily critical of the bride's father for interrupting the wedding ceremony..."
Daniela buried her face in her arms at the table. "It's starting all over again, Dad. Everyone believes them. Look at the comments online—they're calling you a blackmailer and calling me a gold-digger who tried to ruin a good family."
My phone rang. It was Hector.
"Leonardo, are you watching the news?" Hector asked, his voice tight.
"I am," I replied grimly. "They're turning the narrative completely around."
"That's Vega's specialty," Hector explained. "He creates enough public confusion and doubt so that when the bail hearing comes tomorrow morning, the judge will view this as a messy domestic dispute rather than a high-level corporate crime. If Mauricio gets released on bail tomorrow, he will use his remaining connections to tamper with the municipal inspection files and destroy the evidence at the construction site."
"How do we stop his bail?" I asked.
"We need the missing link," Hector said. "We have the bank records, but we don't have the physical proof of the municipal bribe. Mauricio didn't pay off the chief building inspector with a bank wire, Leonardo. People don't leave electronic trails for municipal corruption. He paid him in cash or untraceable physical assets."
I stared out the window toward my garage workshop.
"A secret worth nearly a million pesos," I murmured, recalling Mauricio's words to me at the wedding.
"What did you say?" Hector asked.
"When Mauricio threatened me at the wedding," I recalled sharply, "he said my family would have to explain a lot of things regarding the money. But when he came to my house later, he insisted the blow was about the missing nine hundred thousand pesos. Why would he say my family had to explain it?"
Daniela raised her head, her eyes wide. "Dad... three days before the wedding, Mauricio asked me to store two large leather equipment cases in your workshop's lockup storage room. He told me they contained specialized surveying tools for the new construction site and that his apartment didn't have climate control!"
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I stood up so fast my chair knocked against the wall.
"The workshop," I whispered.
