Chapter 2 - THE SHADOW UNDER THE ROOF
I led my mother to her bedroom,
the one at the back of the house,
where the smell of jasmine usually brought her peace.
Her hands were still wet,
reddened by the harsh lye Renata forced her to use.
I took a dry towel,
kneeling before the woman who had sacrificed her youth for mine.
"Forgive me, mamá,"
I whispered,
my voice cracking like dry earth.
She didn't look at me,
not at first.
"She is your wife, Alejandro,"
she murmured,
"the world will judge you if you leave her."
I dried her fingers one by one,
feeling the calluses of a lifetime of honest labor.
"The world has not seen what I have seen,"
I replied.
Outside the door,
the click of Renata’s high heels echoed,
sharp,
predatory,
rhythmic.
She stopped in the hallway,
shadowing the threshold.
"Are you done with the theatrics?"
Renata asked,
her voice dripping with synthetic boredom.
I didn't turn around.
"Get out of this wing of the house, Renata."
She laughed,
a sound like cold silver coins hitting a floor.
"Enjoy your little moment of rebellion,"
she sneered,
"but remember the notary is coming at ten in the morning."
"The documents are already drafted."
"Full control, Alejandro."
"Or your mother spends her twilight years in a ward for the forgotten."
I felt my mother flinch under my touch.
"Go to sleep, mamá,"
I said,
ignoring the poison behind me.
I walked out of the room,
passing Renata without making eye contact.
I went straight to my study,
locking the door behind me.
I opened my laptop,
the screen illuminating the darkness of the room.
I logged into the encrypted server,
the one linked to the small device disguised as a smoke detector.
There she was on the screen,
recorded just twenty minutes ago.
I watched her grab my mother's hair.
I watched her sneer.
I watched her face twist into the mask of a demon.
It was all there,
every frame,
every word,
every vibration of her cruelty.
Renata thought she was the architect of my ruin.
She thought she had mapped out my every weakness.
She forgot that I am the son of a woman who taught me how to survive storms.
I forwarded the latest clip to my attorney,
Esteban.
My phone buzzed almost instantly.
"This is enough to bury her, Alejandro,"
the message read.
"Does she suspect anything?"
I looked at the door,
hearing her humming a lullaby in the kitchen,
mocking the very idea of family.
"She suspects nothing,"
I typed back.
"She thinks I am a coward."
"Good,"
Esteban replied.
"Let her keep that delusion until the morning."
I sat in the dark for hours,
watching the red light on the smoke detector blink in the patio.
It was the heartbeat of my revenge.
It was the silent witness to six years of silent suffering.
Renata had spent years trying to turn this house into my prison.
Tomorrow,
May you like
it would become her courtroom.
And I would be the one to hand down the sentence.
