Chapter 11
I returned to Coyoacán late that afternoon, my mind racing with Karina’s thinly veiled threats. The construction site, which had been buzzing with life and heavy machinery just twenty-four hours earlier, was now completely abandoned. The yellow caution tape snapping in the wind felt like a mockery of our hard-won progress. Valentina was already there, waiting for me near the locked chain-link fence. The moment she saw the grim, tight expression on my face, she knew the prison visit had not gone as planned.
Before I could even explain what Karina had said, a loud, explosive crack echoed through the quiet neighborhood. We both jumped, instinctively ducking as a thick, billowing plume of black smoke suddenly erupted from the center of the property. Someone had bypassed the perimeter fence and thrown a makeshift incendiary device directly into the newly poured foundation trench, igniting the wooden framing and the stacked pallets of expensive construction materials.
"Get back!" I shouted to Valentina, pushing her behind the safety of my parked car as the flames began to lick aggressively at the dry grass nearby. I grabbed the heavy fire extinguisher from the trunk of my vehicle and sprinted toward the blaze, the intense heat radiating against my skin. I fought the fire frantically, choking on the thick, toxic smoke, sweeping the chemical foam back and forth until the flames finally hissed and died, leaving behind nothing but a charred, ruined mess of wood and melted plastic.
I dropped the empty extinguisher, coughing violently, my hands shaking from the adrenaline. Valentina ran over to me, her eyes wide with fear, pulling a clean handkerchief from her purse to wipe the black soot from my face. I hadn't realized I had burned the side of my left hand until she gently took it, her cool fingers pressing against the blistering, red skin.
"They aren't just trying to stop the construction legally, Alejandro," Valentina said, her voice trembling slightly but retaining its core of absolute strength. "This is a direct message. They want to completely terrify you into abandoning the project."
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"Karina warned me," I rasped, staring at the ruined foundation, the ashes swirling in the wind. "She said the Mendozas were just the muscle for someone much more powerful. Someone who sits in government offices. They are escalating the tactics because they know we won't surrender the property through the courts. We are at war again, Valentina. And this time, the enemy is completely invisible."
She carefully wrapped my burned hand in her handkerchief, looking up at me with fierce, unwavering determination. "Then we force them out of the shadows. We don't back down. Not after everything your family has survived." Her courage anchored me, reminding me exactly what we were fighting to protect.
