Chapter 3 - Shadows of La Merced
The storm over Mexico City broke open as the sleek black SUV cut through the flooded streets toward the historic district of La Merced. Rain lashed against the bulletproof glass. Inside the dark cabin, the heater roared, but Alejandro felt colder than he had ever felt in his life.
Sofía sat wrapped in Alejandro’s tailored wool coat on the leather bench seat. She was clutching a warm sandwich and a cup of hot chocolate that Eusebio had quickly grabbed from the hotel kitchen. She ate with a frantic, heartbroken desperation, trying to savor every bite while shivering involuntarily.
Alejandro sat beside her, gently wiping dirt from her small, pale forehead with his linen handkerchief.
“Sofía, my sweet heart…” Alejandro whispered, his eyes red from restrained tears. “Did your mother ever tell you about me?”
Sofía swallowed a mouthful of bread and looked up with large, expressive eyes that were an exact match for his own. “Mommy talks about you every night, Daddy. She saved your photo from a newspaper clipping. She puts it under her pillow. She told me you were away building giant bridges and towers to keep the city safe, and that one day, when God allowed it, you would come back for us.”
Alejandro closed his eyes as a sob racked his heavy chest. For three years, he had spent his nights in a empty penthouse, drinking himself to sleep, believing his wife had traded his love for a cash settlement and another man. Meanwhile, Lucía had been keeping his memory alive in the minds of their hungry daughter, holding onto a wrinkled newspaper picture.
“We’re almost there, Don Alejandro,” Eusebio warned from the front seat, his face grim as he navigated narrow, unlit alleys piled high with wet cardboard and rotting vegetable crates.
The SUV ground to a halt outside a dilapidated four-story concrete building. The paint was peeling in large gray scales, and the front door hung off its rusted iron hinges. Rain slammed against the roof of the building, cascades of water pouring from broken gutters.
Alejandro stepped out into the pouring rain, carrying Sofía close under an umbrella held by Eusebio. They climbed a dark, narrow stairwell that reeked of damp mold and sewage. Sofía guided them to the very end of the third-floor corridor, stopping before a faded wooden door marked with the number 3B.
“Mommy!” Sofía called out, knocking gently with her small fist. “Mommy, I brought… I brought Daddy!”
Silence answered from inside.
Alejandro’s heart slammed against his ribs. “Lucía?” he called out, pushing his weight against the door. “Lucía, open the door! It’s Alejandro!”
No sound came from within except the steady, ominous trickle of dripping water.
Alejandro didn't wait. He stepped back and kicked the lock with all his strength. The frail wooden frame gave way with a loud crack, swinging open into the dark room.
The room was barely larger than Alejandro’s walk-in closet back home. A single bare lightbulb hung from a frayed wire, illuminating water dripping from a cracked ceiling into rusted tin cans placed across the floor. In the corner sat a narrow, metal-frame cot covered in damp blankets.
It was empty.
“Mommy?” Sofía whimpered, running inside and looking under the tiny table. “Where is Mommy?”
Alejandro rushed across the room. On the small wooden table sat a cold, half-empty cup of chamomile tea, a handwritten ledger of small debts, and a weathered picture of Alejandro and Lucía on their wedding day.
Suddenly, an elderly woman wearing a thick woolen shawl peered inside the broken doorway from the hall.
“Are you looking for Lucía?” the old woman asked softly, her eyes wide with shock at the sight of Alejandro’s expensive suit and the armed bodyguards standing in the hallway.
“Where is she?” Alejandro demanded, his voice desperate. “Where is my wife?”
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The old woman shook her head solemnly. “An hour ago… she collapsed on the stairs. She was coughing up blood, señor. Her fever was burning through her clothes. The neighbors called an emergency van. They took her to the public charity hospital down on Calle Victoria.”
Alejandro felt the world tilt beneath his feet.
