Chapter 10 - The Arrest at Dawn
Police arrested Teresa before sunrise.
She was found at a hotel near the airport with cash, jewelry, and a one-way ticket to Madrid.
She claimed she was taking a vacation.
No one believed her.
Mariela was arrested two hours later.
News cameras surrounded her home.
She covered her face with a handbag while reporters shouted questions.
“Did you deliberately burn your niece?”
“Why did your family erase the security footage?”
“Did your mother attempt to poison the child?”
Mariela stopped beside the police car.
She turned toward the cameras.
“My sister-in-law planned all of this.”
Even her attorney looked surprised.
“She’s been trying to destroy my family for years.”
A reporter shouted, “The video shows you throwing the coffee.”
“It was edited.”
“You looked directly at the camera.”
“I didn’t know it was there.”
The officer guided her into the vehicle.
She kicked the door before sitting down.
Ricardo was harder to find.
His car was abandoned near the office.
His phone was discovered beneath a highway overpass.
His passport remained at home.
Lucía believed he was still in Jalisco.
Daniel believed his father would come for the server copy.
“He won’t run without knowing what we have,” Daniel said.
We had moved into a protected apartment arranged by the prosecutor’s office.
The windows didn’t open.
There were two officers downstairs.
I still checked the locks every ten minutes.
The video had spread across social media.
Millions of people had watched Sofia scream.
Strangers sent prayers.
Others sent threats to Mariela.
Some accused me of exploiting my daughter.
I stopped reading comments.
Daniel didn’t.
At three in the morning, I found him sitting in the kitchen with his phone.
“They’re saying I knew,” he whispered.
“Some people say anything.”
“They’re not completely wrong.”
I sat across from him.
“You didn’t know she would burn Sofia.”
“No.”
“But I knew they hated her.”
The words stayed between us.
He continued.
“My mother refused to hold Sofia when she was born.”
I remembered.
“She said she was tired.”
“She wasn’t.”
“I know.”
“My father left her name off the family Christmas card.”
“I know.”
“Mariela called her ‘Camila’s daughter’ instead of my niece.”
“I know.”
Daniel looked sick.
“I let every little thing pass.”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
No excuses.
That mattered.
Not enough.
But it mattered.
The prosecutor charged Mariela with aggravated assault against a minor.
Teresa faced evidence tampering, threats, unlawful entry, and attempted poisoning.
Ricardo was charged with assaulting Daniel and obstructing justice.
Then Lucía brought us another file from the company server.
It showed a woman standing in Ricardo’s courtyard four years earlier.
She was holding a baby.
Teresa shouted at her.
Ricardo grabbed the woman’s arm and dragged her out of camera view.
The baby started crying.
The file ended.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“Who is she?”
Lucía placed a missing-person report on the table.
The woman’s name was Valeria Cruz.
May you like
She had disappeared the same night the recording was made.
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