Chapter 5 - The War Council of the Board
By 9:00 AM on Monday, the media circus outside the Aranda Tower had reached a fever pitch. The headlines of El Universal and Milenio were identical: THE MATRIARCH RETURNS: THE SEBASTIÁN ARANDA HOAX EXPOSED. The stock price of Aranda Logistics had opened with a catastrophic twenty-two percent drop in pre-market trading, triggering an automatic regulatory freeze on the Mexican Stock Exchange.
Inside the grand boardroom on the 34th floor, the twelve members of the board of directors sat in dead silence. These were men and women who controlled the industrial transport of northern Mexico—billionaires, former cabinet secretaries, and representatives from global investment funds. At the center of the table sat Arthur Kensington’s personal representative in Latin America, a cold, sharp-faced British director named Lord Alistair Croft.
The double doors swung open, and Sebastián entered, followed by Inés and Licenciada Montiel. Inés wore a tailored dark green suit, her emerald earrings catching the light, the gold hummingbird necklace resting prominently over her silk blouse. She didn't look like a woman who had spent the last three years in a dirt ravine; she looked like the emperor who had built the room they were sitting in.
"This meeting is called to order," Sebastián announced, taking his place at the podium. "We are here to vote on the immediate restructuring of the executive committee and the formal termination of the proposed merger with Kensington Group."
Lord Croft leaned forward, his hands flat on the mahogany table, his British accent sharp despite his perfect Spanish. "Mr. Aranda, with all due respect to your family's dramatic domestic resolution, the market is currently in freefall. The Kensington Group holds a legal contract for thirty-five percent of the voting shares, signed by Mauro Aranda under a valid power of attorney. You cannot simply vote us out because your mother has returned from the dead."
"The contract is an instrument of fraud, Lord Croft," Licenciada Montiel said, sliding a thick blue folder onto the table in front of him. "We have just filed a formal derivative action with the Federal District Court. This file contains the complete transaction history of Aegis Shipping, including the twelve-million-peso payment to the medical examiner who faked the identification of Valeria Mendoza’s remains."
Lord Croft didn't blink. "Aegis Shipping is an independent operational vehicle. You have no direct link to the Kensington board."
"We have your signature, Alistair," Inés said, her voice dropping into the room like a block of ice. She leaned forward, her green eyes boring into his face. "Four years ago, when Mauro brought the second amendment of the trust to the clinic in Lerma, you were standing in the hallway. I saw your reflection in the observation window. You weren't just an investor buying into a logistics network; you were the one who provided the private security detail that kept me inside that facility after the federal raid."
The room went completely silent. The other board members looked between Inés and Lord Croft, the political calculation shifting in their eyes with every second.
"As of 8:00 AM this morning," Sebastián continued, pulling up a series of financial ledgers on the main screen, "the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) has frozen all domestic operational accounts linked to Kensington Group in Mexico due to suspected links to asset laundering and corporate kidnapping. If this board does not vote to terminate the merger within the next ten minutes, the Ministry of Infrastructure will cancel our federal customs concessions for the entire northern border."
Lord Croft stood up slowly, his face turning an ugly shade of gray. He looked at the other directors, but no one met his eye. Even his closest allies on the committee were now looking down at their tablets, realizing that the Kensington name had become a financial suicide pact.
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"This is an illegal expropriation," Croft hissed, grabbing his leather briefcase. "Our legal team in London will bring this before the international arbitration tribunals."
"Let them file, Alistair," Sebastián said as the electronic voting lights on the panel began to change from blue to green, one by one. "But by the time they get a hearing date, your Mexican subsidiaries will have been liquidated to pay for Valeria Mendoza’s funeral."
