Chapter 5 - The Collapse of Trust
Renata Salgado stepped forward, her red lips twisting into a sneer as she looked me up and down. "So this is the broken little housewife Mauricio told us about. The one who thinks a slap gives her the right to interrupt a five-hundred-million-peso transaction. Security, why is this woman still breathing our air?"
Before the hotel guards could move, Elena Torres stepped into the light, a silver briefcase in her hand. She didn't look at Renata; she looked directly at Don Rogelio Salgado, the patriarch of the Salgado fortune, who was watching the scene from the center of the VIP circle.
"Don Rogelio," Elena said, her voice dropping into the room with the weight of a judicial sentence. "I suggest you read these before you allow your daughter to sign the master incorporation documents."
She opened the briefcase, pulling out a thick, bound folder bearing the gold-embossed seal of Serrano International Group. She walked past Alejandro, ignoring him completely, and handed the papers directly to the older businessman.
Rogelio Salgado frowned, his heavy eyebrows knitting together as he took the file. "Serrano? What does Ernesto Serrano have to do with this logistics merger?"
"Everything, Don Rogelio," I said, stepping into the center of the circle, the photographers' lights now firing frantically at me instead of the engaged couple. "Because Grupo Montiel didn't tell you that their main customs license for the Laredo port of entry was revoked by the federal tax authorities at 4:00 PM today. They simulated their liquidity reports by using forty-two million pesos stolen from their own minority shareholders—money that Alejandro wired to his mother’s private account in Florida."
"That’s a lie!" Alejandro shouted, his face turning an unearthly shade of white as he looked at Mauricio, who was frantically checking his phone. "Valeria is a disgruntled ex-wife with no corporate access! Rogelio, don't listen to this crazy woman!"
"It’s not a lie, Alejandro," Mauricio whispered, his voice trembling so violently he dropped his phone onto the carpet. "Sir... look at the market wire. Serrano Tech Ventures just acquired sixty-two percent of Banco Central’s outstanding debt portfolio. The bank just issued an immediate acceleration notice for our Santa Fe tower loan. We... we have to pay three hundred and forty million pesos by midnight, or the building goes into foreclosure."
Don Rogelio Salgado read the first three pages of the Serrano file, his face hardening until he looked like a statue of gray stone. He looked up, his gaze fixing on Alejandro with a cold, absolute disgust.
"You told me your liquidity was immaculate, Montiel," Rogelio said, his voice low and dangerous. "You told me your ex-wife was a quiet girl from the provinces who signed the separation without a fuss. You didn't tell me you were stealing corporate funds to buy your mother apartments while being hunted by Ernesto Serrano."
"Rogelio, please, we can restructure the terms!" Alejandro pleaded, reaching out toward the older man’s arm.
"Don't touch me," Rogelio snapped, stepping back. He turned to his daughter, pulling her hand away from Alejandro’s side. "Renata, take off the ring. The merger is dead. We are leaving."
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"Dad!" Renata cried, looking at the reporters who were now recording every second of her public humiliation. "Everyone is watching!"
"Let them watch," Rogelio said, walking toward the exit without looking back once. "I don't invest in men who are about to go to prison."
