Chapter 3 - The Gathering Storm
The next morning, Mariana began her covert investigation. She knew she couldn't trust anyone in her immediate circle. Her mother and brother were complicit, and Alejandro controlled the legal and financial threads of her life. She needed outside help, someone completely detached from the Vance family influence.
She reached out to Sarah Jenkins, a fierce, independent investigative journalist she had known during her university years. Sarah had spent the last decade exposing corporate corruption in Chicago, operating out of a cluttered, caffeine-fueled office in the Loop.
"Mariana Vance," Sarah said, leaning back in her chair as Mariana slipped into the office, locking the door behind her. "Or should I say, Mariana Rivera now? To what do I owe the honor? I didn't think billionaires mixed with low-rent journalists."
"I need your help, Sarah. And I need your absolute discretion," Mariana said, placing the manila folder Project Lazarus on the desk. "Seven years ago, my ex-husband Robert Velasquez was destroyed. I thought he was a criminal. It turns out he was a shield."
Sarah’s professional detachment melted away as she opened the folder. Inside were geological reports, internal memos from Vance Enterprises, and falsified bank statements. As Sarah read, her expression grew increasingly grim.
"Jesus, Mariana," Sarah whispered, looking up. "Do you know what this is? This isn't just a standard cover-up. The South Side development site—the one your family built a massive luxury residential complex over—was heavily contaminated with industrial carcinogenic waste. Your father’s company bought the land cheap, falsified the environmental clearance reports, and buried the toxic readings."
"And the fraud charges against Robert?" Mariana asked, her voice cracking.
"Pure fabrication," Sarah said, flipping through the bank records. "Look at the routing numbers. The money transferred into Robert’s account didn't come from the school endowment; it originated from an offshore shell corporation managed by none other than Alejandro Rivera. They framed him to invalidate his credibility in case he ever tried to blow the whistle, and they used the threat of your involvement to keep him quiet."
"What do you mean, my involvement?"
"Your father put your name on the deeds of the holding company that owned the contaminated land," Sarah explained gently. "Legally, if the EPA had prosecuted, you would have faced the same criminal liability as your father. Robert didn't just save your family's fortune; he took the bullet so you wouldn't go to prison."
Mariana sank into a chair, covering her face. The sheer weight of Robert’s love and sacrifice felt unbearable. While she had lived in luxury, cursing his name, he had been surviving on the streets, carrying the burden of a crime he never committed, all to keep her safe from the monsters who raised her.
"We can't just go to the police," Sarah warned, interrupting her thoughts. "Alejandro has deep ties with the District Attorney's office, and your brother Daniel handles the political payouts. If we leak this now, they’ll destroy the evidence and find a way to blame you, just like they planned seven years ago. We need ironclad proof of their ongoing corruption to take them down completely."
"What do we do?" Mariana asked, a new, fierce resolve hardening within her.
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"We find Robert," Sarah said. "He knows the details of the original extortion. He might have kept copies of the real environmental reports before they were altered. But you need to be careful, Mariana. If Alejandro realizes you’re digging into this, he won't just try to stop you—he’ll eliminate the threat."
Mariana left Sarah’s office with a burning purpose. She had to find Robert, apologize, and bring him back from the dead. But as she stepped onto the street, she noticed a black sedan idling across the intersection. The window was tinted, but she caught the glint of a camera lens tracking her movements. Alejandro’s watchers were closing in.
