Chapter 3 - Trapped in the Golden Cage
Inside the luxurious living room of the Salcedo estate, panic had turned into absolute madness.
The floor was littered with shattered wine glasses, torn documents, and open suitcases. High-end crystal chandeliers cast light on Rodrigo Salcedo, who was frantically yelling into his satellite phone, his face red, his tie undone.
"I don't care how much it costs, Jorge!" Rodrigo screamed into the receiver. "Get us a charter boat to international waters! I'll pay you five million dollars cash!"
He listened for two seconds before the line went dead.
"Dammit!" Rodrigo roared, throwing his phone against the marble wall, where it shattered into pieces. "He hung up! The coward hung up on me!"
Teresa Salcedo sat on the velvet sofa, her face pale as chalk, her pearl necklace trembling against her neck. She was staring at her tablet, where her social media accounts had been flooded with hundreds of thousands of death threats and messages of disgust.
"Rodrigo..." Teresa whimpered, her voice cracking. "My charities... my high-society club... they canceled my memberships. My friends... no one is answering my calls. They're calling me a monster on national television!"
"Shut up about your useless social club, Teresa!" Rodrigo barked, pacing the room like a caged animal. "We are looking at twenty-five years in federal prison! Do you understand that?!"
In the corner, Claudia—the bride-to-be whose engagement party had started this entire nightmare—was hysterically sobbing into her hands. Her ring, a five-carat diamond, sat abandoned on the glass coffee table.
"My wedding..." Claudia wailed. "Matías’s family just called... his father canceled the engagement! They called off the merger! They said the Dupont family will not tie their name to a family of attempted child murderers!"
"We can fix this!" Teresa cried, standing up and grabbing her husband’s arm. "Rodrigo, you know the governor! You funded his campaign! Call him! Make him suppress the video! Tell him it was AI-generated!"
"The governor turned off his phone two hours ago, Teresa!" Rodrigo shouted, shoving her hand off his arm. "The video was verified by federal forensic experts! Everyone saw you push the boy! Why did you have to push him in front of the stern camera?!"
"You told me to get rid of them!" Teresa screamed back, her elegant mask completely slipping to reveal her vicious, ugly nature. "You said Nico was a bastard child who would ruin Claudia’s match with the Dupont family! You told me one less child wouldn't sink us!"
"I told you to handle it quietly!" Rodrigo yelled. "Not throw them overboard in the middle of a party with fifty witnesses!"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The heavy mahogany front doors of the mansion shook under a violent pounding.
Through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, red and blue strobe lights flashed violently against the manicured gardens. Loudspeakers echoed across the courtyard:
"THIS IS THE FEDERAL POLICE. RODRIGO SALCEDO, TERESA SALCEDO, AND CLAUDIA SALCEDO, STEP OUTSIDE WITH YOUR HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEADS. THE PREMISES ARE COMPLETELY SURROUNDED."
Claudia let out a terrified shriek, collapsing onto the rug. Teresa buried her face in her hands, weeping hysterically.
Rodrigo stood in the center of the room, his chest heaving, his eyes wide with horror as he looked at the iron front door. For sixty years, his money had made him invincible. His last name had bought him immunity, respect, and power.
Now, his last name was a curse.
The iron doors were breached with a heavy hydraulic ram. Federal agents poured into the foyer, weapons raised, taking positions around the room.
"Down on the floor! Now!" Director Vargas ordered, stepping into the living room.
Rodrigo Salcedo slowly dropped to his knees, his hands trembling as an officer shoved his face against the polished floor, pulling his arms behind his back.
CLICK.
The cold steel handcuffs snapped around his wrists.
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As Rodrigo lay on the floor, looking at his weeping wife and hysterical daughter being cuffed beside him, he saw a tablet lying on the rug right in front of his face.
On the screen, a live news broadcast showed Mariana walking out of the Sayulita hospital, holding Nico in her arms, surrounded by federal guards and a cheering crowd of supporters. She looked straight into a news camera—strong, unbroken, and free.
