Chapter 14 - The Grandmother's Plea
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Alejandro sat in his penthouse office, reviewing the final architectural drafts for a new commercial tower in Barcelona. His private, encrypted cell phone buzzed on the mahogany desk. Only five people in the world had this number.
He glanced at the screen. It was a restricted, institutional call from the Madrid Women’s Penitentiary.
Alejandro’s eyes narrowed into dark, dangerous slits. He picked up the phone, pressing it to his ear without saying a single word.
"Alejandro?" a raspy, desperate voice crackled through the terrible connection. "Alejandro, please, do not hang up!"
It was Carmen. The arrogant, cruel matriarch who had treated his daughter like a stray dog was now reduced to begging from a prison payphone.
"You have exactly thirty seconds before I trace this contraband call and have your solitary confinement extended," Alejandro said, his voice dropping to a terrifying, icy octave.
"Please!" Carmen sobbed, the sound pathetic and grating. "I am an old woman! I cannot survive in here! The guards are cruel, the cell is freezing. I am sick, Alejandro. Have some mercy. Tell the judge to drop the child abuse charges. I will sign whatever you want!"
Alejandro felt a dark, violent surge of protective fury rise in his chest.
"Mercy?" Alejandro whispered, his voice vibrating with absolute malice. "Did you show mercy when you forced an eight-year-old girl to scrub your marble floors until her hands bled? Did you show mercy when you locked her in a dark closet for crying?"
"She was disobedient! I was just teaching her discipline!" Carmen cried out, her inherent cruelty slipping through the facade of a victim.
"And now, Carmen, I am teaching you discipline," Alejandro stated coldly.
"Alejandro, please—"
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"Enjoy the cold," Alejandro interrupted. "You will die in that cell, Carmen. And no one will attend your funeral."
He pressed the red button, cutting the line completely. He blocked the institutional routing number, tossed the phone back onto the desk, and returned to his blueprints, leaving the ghost of his past to rot in the dark.
