Chapter 5 - The Ambush at Iztacalco
Sterling’s face turned purple with rage. “You ignorant, arrogant little maid!” he snarled, taking a step toward her. “You think Tariq is your savior? He wants the land just as much as I do! He’s using you!”
Before Sterling could move any closer, Tariq’s lead bodyguard stepped between them, his hand resting visibly under his coat jacket.
“Get out of my suite, Sterling,” Tariq ordered softly, his eyes flashing with lethal calm. “Before I have you removed for corporate extortion.”
Sterling backed away, pointing a finger at Lucía. “You made a grave mistake today, Lucía. You think you’re safe in this fancy hotel? Let’s see how brave you are when your little world turns to ash.”
He turned on his heel and stormed out of the suite, slamming the heavy wooden doors behind him.
Lucía felt her knees buckle slightly, but Tariq was at her side in an instant, steadying her arm with surprising gentleness.
“He’s desperate, Lucía,” Tariq said. “He knows that if the court validates your seal, his development firm will go bankrupt within a month due to loan defaults.”
“He knows where we live,” Lucía whispered, terror striking her heart as she looked at Daniel. “Our apartment... my grandmother’s papers... everything is still there.”
“We will go get your things immediately,” Tariq said. “My security team will escort us.”
Thirty minutes later, three heavy black SUVs cut through the pouring rain, navigating away from the polished glass towers of Paseo de la Reforma and heading east toward the dense, tangled streets of Iztacalco.
The rain was coming down in sheets now, turning the streets into murky rivers. As the convoy turned down the narrow alleyway where Lucía’s modest apartment building stood, she saw red emergency lights flashing through the gray downpour.
Lucía’s heart plummeted into her stomach.
“No... no, please God, no,” she sobbed, pushing open the SUV door before the vehicle had even come to a complete stop.
Her apartment building was surrounded by fire trucks. Black smoke was pouring out of the third-floor windows—the exact floor where her tiny home was located. Neighbors were gathered under plastic tarps, watching as firefighters wrestled with heavy water hoses.
Lucía ran through the mud, ignoring Tariq’s guards who called out for her to stop. She reached the police tape, her dress getting soaked within seconds.
“Ma’am, stay back!” a police officer yelled, holding her by the shoulders.
“My home!” Lucía screamed, tears mixing with the freezing rain on her face. “My home is on fire!”
A neighbor, Doña Rosa, ran over, wrapping a wet blanket around Lucía’s shoulders. “Lucía! Thank God you weren't inside! Two men in dark raincoats came up the stairs ten minutes ago! They broke your door down, and then... then the windows exploded!”
Lucía fell to her knees in the wet gravel. The fire wasn't an accident. Sterling had sent his men to burn the original documents, to destroy any physical evidence of her lineage, to erase her from existence before the courts could hear her case.
Daniel ran over, wrapping his arms tightly around his mother’s neck, weeping against her shoulder.
Tariq walked up behind them, his dark coat soaked through, his face set in stone as he watched the flames gutting the third floor. He knelt beside Lucía in the mud, completely unbothered by the rain or the dirt.
“He destroyed everything,” Lucía wept, looking up at him with broken eyes. “My grandmother’s letters... the photos... everything is gone.”
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Tariq reached into his inner jacket pocket and pulled out a sleek, water-resistant leather folder. He opened it, revealing the silver medallion Lucía had left on his desk earlier that morning, along with high-resolution digital scans of her seal.
“He burned wood and paper, Lucía,” Tariq said, his voice steady as iron. “But he cannot burn the blood in your veins. And he cannot burn the law. Today, Roberto Sterling declared war. Tomorrow, we end him.”
