Chapter 8 - TO BREAK A MONSTER
While the criminal network behind the fake mortgage collapsed, Ricardo and his mother were hiding in a small, damp rented apartment on the outer edges of the city.
Without money, without access to the Aranda accounts, and facing multiple lawsuits, Ricardo had resorted to drinking heavily every night. Brenda had abandoned him two days after the eviction, taking her baby and leaving him alone with the bitter, complaining Elvira.
"You ruined us, Ricardo!" Elvira shrieked, pacing the tiny, linoleum-floored kitchen. "You let that woman take everything! The house, the company, the money! We have nothing left!"
"Shut up, Mom!" Ricardo yelled back, slamming his glass onto the formica table. "You're the one who told me to keep Mateo outside! You said Mariana would never come back! You said we were safe!"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The cheap wooden door of their apartment was suddenly kicked off its hinges.
Four uniformed police officers and a state prosecutor stepped into the cramped room, holding a stacks of criminal arrest warrants.
"Ricardo Aranda and Doña Elvira Aranda?" the prosecutor asked sharply.
Elvira shrank back against the sink, trembling. "What... what is this now?"
"You are both under arrest," the prosecutor declared, pulling out pair of steel handcuffs. "Charges include aggravated child abuse, unlawful imprisonment, criminal neglect, financial fraud, and obstruction of justice."
"Child abuse?" Elvira stammered, her voice high and panicked. "That boy was mine! I was disciplining my grandson!"
The prosecutor looked at the elderly woman with profound disgust. "We have six minutes of high-definition video recovered from your son's phone showing the boy chained to a concrete post while you ate dinner inside. The judge has denied bail."
As the officers clicked the cold metal cuffs around Ricardo's and Elvira's wrists, Ricardo began to weep hysterically.
"It was her!" Ricardo screamed, pointing a trembling finger at his mother. "She made me do it! She hated Mariana! She hated Mateo! I was just following her orders!"
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"You cowardly dog!" Elvira shrieked, trying to kick her own son as the officers dragged them out into the hallway. "I gave you everything! I made you head of that house!"
Neighbors gathered in the dingy hallway, pulling out their phones to record the embarrassing arrest of the fallen family. As they were thrown into the back of separate police vans, Ricardo looked up at the grey sky, realizing that his life of luxury, pride, and cruelty was finally ending in total ruin.
