Chapter 13 - THE FALL
Mariana heard the call over the police radio.
“Officer down?”
“No.”
“Civilian over the edge!”
Her body went cold.
“Julian.”
She ran toward the building.
Police tried to stop her.
She fought through them.
“JULIAN!”
Four floors above, Mateo screamed.
Then someone shouted, “We’ve got him!”
Mariana looked up.
Julian hung from a steel reinforcement bar below the fourth-floor slab.
One hand.
Nothing below him but darkness.
Torres and two officers grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t let go!”
“I wasn’t planning to!”
They pulled him up.
The second Julian hit the concrete, Mateo charged.
He knocked one officer down.
Grabbed the dropped gun.
Patricia suddenly appeared near the stairwell.
“Arturo!”
Arturo turned.
She had followed police.
Mateo aimed at her.
Arturo moved without thinking.
He stepped in front of Patricia.
The gun fired.
Arturo dropped.
Patricia screamed.
Police tackled Mateo.
The weapon slid across the floor.
Mateo fought like an animal.
Kicking.
Punching.
Cursing.
Finally, four officers pinned him.
Julian crawled toward Arturo.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Patricia dropped to her knees.
“No.”
Arturo looked at her.
For the first time, he didn’t look slick.
Or arrogant.
Just afraid.
“I’m sorry.”
Patricia sobbed.
“For what?”
“Everything.”
Paramedics rushed in.
Arturo survived.
The bullet missed his heart.
But he was arrested from his hospital bed two days later.
Mateo was charged with attempted murder, extortion, conspiracy, fraud, kidnapping, and multiple offenses tied to his father’s old criminal network.
The ledgers triggered investigations across three states.
Police reopened Rafael Mendoza’s death.
And then came the hardest arrest.
Doña Eulalia.
Julian watched officers put handcuffs on his mother outside the mansion.
She looked twenty years older.
“Julian.”
He said nothing.
“I was scared.”
He looked at her.
“So was my son.”
She started crying.
“I’m still your mother.”
Julian nodded.
“And Mariana is still my wife.”
“Dieguito is still my son.”
“You forgot that first.”
Police put Eulalia in the car.
As it pulled away, Julian thought the nightmare was finally ending.
Then Torres walked toward him carrying a folder.
His face was serious.
“What now?”
Torres handed him the papers.
“We found something in your mother’s financial records.”
Julian opened the folder.
His name.
Mariana’s name.
Dieguito’s name.
A trust account.
Balance:
$1,927,440.
Julian stared.
May you like
“What is this?”
Torres said, “Looks like your father left more than a tape.”
