PART 3 – The Lockdown Begins
PART 3 – The Lockdown Begins
By morning, the Rivas mansion was surrounded.
Not police.
Not media.
Corporate enforcement teams.
Legal war doesn’t come with sirens.
It comes with silence.
Santiago was no longer allowed to leave the property.
Beatriz tried to call three senators.
None answered.
I sat in the same living room where I once begged not to be hurt.
Now I didn’t move.
My father stood beside me.
“They’re panicking,” he said quietly.
“Good,” I replied.
Santiago entered the room like a ghost.
He looked at me longer this time.
“You planned this from the beginning,” he said.
“No,” I answered. “I survived it from the beginning.”
He took a step closer.
“I loved you,” he said suddenly.
That word.
Loved.
It felt like a weapon thrown too late.
I shook my head.
“You loved control,” I said. “I was just the object you used for it.”
His face tightened.
“You think your father saving you makes you strong?”
My father stepped forward.
“No,” he said. “What makes her strong is that she stayed alive long enough for me to arrive.”
Silence again.
But different now.
May you like
Not fear.
Collapse.
