Chapter 14 - The First Fracture
The drive back to San Pedro was silent, but the air inside the car was electric with a dangerous, triumphant energy. We had drawn first blood against the dynasty, but I knew my mother too well to believe she would simply retreat.
By Friday morning, the retaliation began, but it wasn't the direct attack we expected. My mother didn't touch Rodrigo's permits or my father's shop—she went after the community itself.
A sleek, black town car parked at the entrance of our neighborhood street. Men in tailored suits began surveying the small park where the local children played, measuring the distance from the white-washed walls to the main avenue. Within hours, the neighbors were in a panic. An official notice from the municipal development board had been pinned to the community center door: The San Pedro district was being rezoned for high-density commercial use. The small homes, including my parents' house, were subject to eminent domain to make way for a luxury shopping corridor connected to the Aranda Group’s new development.
"They're going to bulldoze the neighborhood," my father said, his hands shaking as he held the notice in his workshop, surrounded by the smell of sawdust and varnish. "They're offering us pennies for the land, Daniela. We’ve lived here for forty years. This is where your grandmother settled when she came from Veracruz."
"It's an eviction by proxy," Rodrigo hissed, his fist slamming into the wooden workbench. "She wants to force you to come begging for that trust fund to save your parents' home."
I stood by the window, watching Lucía throw a ball for Toby in the small yard. The bright yellow dress my mother had embroidered was catching the light. This small patch of green grass was the only place my daughter had ever felt safe, the only place where she could run without the weight of a fake legacy crushing her chest.
"They think they can rezone us out of existence because they control the municipal council," I said, a cold, calculated plan forming in my mind. "But a rezoning requires a public consultation and an environmental impact report. And because the Aranda Group is a publicly traded company, any conflict of interest involving a board member’s immediate family must be disclosed to the Securities Commission."
I turned to Rodrigo. "Who is the lead architect the city hired for the commercial corridor project?"
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Rodrigo blinked, then a slow, sharp smile spread across his face. "It’s Mateo Silva. He’s an old friend from the university. He hates corporate monopolies. He only took the municipal contract because he thought it was for public transit improvement."
"Call him," I said. "Tell him it’s time to look at the actual environmental blueprints the Aranda Group submitted. Let's see how much the public likes the fact that a billionaire family is destroying a historic working-class neighborhood to build a luxury parking garage for their wealthy friends."
