PART 1
“If you open that door to send me back to that bastard, I swear to God I’ll throw myself out into the street and not come back alive. »
That was the first sentence that came out of Valeria’s shattered lips at 1:00 in the morning. She was standing in the downpour in front of her mother’s house in Puebla, her blouse in tatters, her lip split and 1 eye so swollen that it looked like someone had wiped out half of her face with blows.
Teresa Aguilar, her mother, looked at her paralyzed. For 25 years, Teresa had been a ministerial policeman. In his career he had entered houses where fear smelled of blood, he had seen women hiding under beds, children mute with terror, and men in tailored suits pretending to be white doves. He believed that nothing could break it anymore.
But that stormy night, seeing her own daughter holding her belly with both hands and trembling like a leaf, Teresa suddenly understood that a mother never retired from pain.
“Mom… “Don’t let me go back,” the young woman whispered before vanishing into her arms.
Teresa carried her as best she could to the living room. He double-locked the door, turned off the porch lights, and covered it with a thick blanket. Valeria did not shiver from the cold of the rain. He had marks on his forearms, old yellowish bruises hidden under the new ones, and a purple wound on his neck that looked like the exact mold of fingers squeezing furiously.
Rodrigo Montes, the son-in-law, had always been the “perfect man” for Puebla society. An elegant lawyer, with an educated voice, who drove a pickup truck of the year and lived in a luxury subdivision in Lomas de Angelópolis. She had that little smile of “I take care of my princess” that so dazzles families who do not know how to read the true signs of hell.
But it never happened to Teresa. It wasn’t mother-in-law’s instinct, it was a policeman’s fang.
Valeria had stopped visiting her alone months ago. She no longer answered messages if Rodrigo was around. She even stopped painting her nails red because the very unhappy man told her that she looked vulgar. When Teresa asked her if everything was okay, the girl always lowered her gaze.
“It’s just a little intense, Mom. He loves me too much,” he always said.
That morning, the former policewoman learned that Rodrigo’s love was in the form of a closed fist. While Teresa wiped her blood with gauze, Valeria’s cell phone began to vibrate on the coffee table. Ounce. Another. Then 10 times in a row. They were messages from him.
“Answer, ridiculous. »
“If you went screaming with your mother, the 2 of you will regret it. »
“Get back to the house before I come for you. »
“And you’d better not forget what you signed. »
That last line made Teresa’s blood run cold.
“What did you mean for that unfortunate man, Valeria? » he asked to know.
The young woman opened the only eye that was not closed because of the swelling and began to cry silently.
“I don’t know, mom… they were a lot of papers. He joked at me saying that it was things from the SAT, from the house, that to help me have a good credit history… I trusted him. »
Teresa felt the rage burn her throat, but her training took over. Rage only breaks doors; Intelligence destroys monsters.
He went to his room, took out his old expert box: camera, latex gloves, transparent bags and his expired license plate. He photographed every breath of his daughter. He put the bloody clothes in the bags. He took screenshots of the messages. He then picked Valeria up to fly her to the hospital.
Halfway down an empty avenue, Valeria let out a heartbreaking scream that broke the silence and folded over on her belly.
“Mom…My baby!” » she sobbed, staining the seat with blood.
Teresa braked so abruptly that they were almost taken away by a taxi. He looked at her terrified. She was pale, drenched in cold sweat. She didn’t know her daughter was pregnant.
And as she sped full throttle to the emergency room, her heart shattered, the former police officer understood that the blows that night were just the tip of the iceberg. He couldn’t believe the magnitude of the nightmare he was about to discover.
PART 2
At the hospital, Teresa did not ask permission to enter. He walked through the emergency doors with Valeria in his arms, screaming in a voice that made 2 nurses immediately run with a stretcher.
Perhaps her plaque was already expired, but Teresa retained that imposing authority of Mexican women who have seen too many tragedies start with a “surely it wasn’t that bad. » The young woman was taken for a check-up and the former policewoman was left alone in the hallway, staring at the closed door with her hands stained with her own daughter’s blood.
A young doctor came out 40 minutes later.
“Mrs. Teresa, your daughter has internal bleeding and 2 cracked ribs. We need to put her in the emergency operating room,” said the doctor.
“And the baby?” » asked Teresa, with a lump in her throat that barely let her breathe.
The doctor looked down, unable to hold his eyes.
“She was 8 weeks pregnant. I feel it in my soul, ma’am. There is no heartbeat anymore. »
Teresa didn’t shed a single tear. Not because it didn’t hurt to the core, but because when a mother receives such a brutal blow, she first turns to stone so that the roof doesn’t fall on her calf.
While Valeria entered surgery, Teresa sat down in a plastic chair and took out her daughter’s cell phone. She knew the password: the birthday of her late husband, who died when Valeria was 12.
What he found diving into that device was a thousand times more twisted than text messages.
There were emails from banks, digital contracts and millionaire invoices in the name of “Consultoría Integral M&M”. There were notarial deeds where Valeria appeared as the legal representative and absolute owner of shady businesses that she had never mentioned. He found photos of his voter card, proof of address and documents with a signature that was a vile forgery.
That wretch wasn’t just using her as a punching bag. He was using it as a legal shield.
Teresa dialed the number of Octavio Rivas, an old commander of the Puebla Prosecutor’s Office who was now investigating financial crimes. He didn’t mean words.
“Octavio, I need you to thoroughly investigate a lawyer named Rodrigo Montes. I want to know about their companies, their accounts, their front men and their partners. And I need it fast,” he ordered in an iron voice.
“What fight did you get into, my Tere?” » he asked.
“He got into my daughter’s life. With that I tell you everything. »
Valeria woke up the next day, weak, channeled into the serum and with a dull look that seemed to apologize for still being alive. When Teresa, holding her hand tightly, gave her the news that she had lost the baby, the young woman squeezed the sheets so angrily that her knuckles turned white.
“That damn guy knew it, Mom,” she muttered in a broken voice.
Teresa felt the temperature in the room drop suddenly.
“What do you say, my love?” »
“I told him in the morning. I thought he was going to get excited. But he went crazy. She cried at me that it was ruining her plans, that I had been very inquisitive lately. He accused me of wanting to get me pregnant on purpose to tie him up and get pure wool out of him. »
He hugged her. And there, for the first time since she crawled to her door, Valeria cried her eyes out. Teresa also wanted to cry, but the phone vibrated in her pocket. It was Octavio.
“Hold on tight, Teresa. Rodrigo Montes doesn’t make a living from getting divorces,” the commander told him without anesthesia. “This office is pure facade. The guy is an operator of shell companies to entertain millions from construction companies and municipal campaigns. And there’s something much more serious. »
“Get to the point.”
“Valeria appears as the majority partner in 3 of these companies. If this bomb blows up the government, the first one they are going to put in prison is your daughter. He prepared her to carry the whole dead man. There are loans, land purchases and transfers signed in their name. »
Teresa closed her eyes, remembering the message: “Don’t forget what you signed. »
“And hold on, Tere,” Octavio added. “2 hours ago, your son-in-law presented himself to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. He drew up a report for the disappearance of his wife. He stated under oath that Valeria suffers from psychiatric disorders, that she stopped her medications and that she is a danger to herself.
At that moment, Teresa understood the macabre plan of the whole thing.
Rodrigo wanted to paint his daughter as a deranged, guilty, mythomaniac woman before she could open her mouth. He wanted the blows to go through “a fall”, abortion through “a tragedy of his instability” and millionaire frauds through “the madness of a sick woman”.
He returned to the room. Valeria slept with a protective hand on her already empty belly.
That same night, Teresa took out of the closet her old navy blue jacket, the one she used to testify in trials. He reviewed the documents, prepared copies, called 3 former colleagues of his complete confidence and asked for something that out of pure pride he had never asked for in his life: help.
Because this time he wasn’t going to face a coward screaming in the street. He was going to bury him alive in prison, with evidence. And the very imbecile still believed that the most dangerous woman in this story was his daughter.
On the third day, Teresa showed up at Rodrigo’s residence in Lomas. Alone, without patrols and with the face of a dejected mother. He ranks the bell of that marble mansion that had been Valeria’s golden cage.
Rodrigo opened the door, perfectly combed, but feigning anguish.
“Teresa…blessed be God. I’m devastated. No one tells me where my Valeria is,” she said in a tearful voice.
Teresa forced a tired smile.
“Don’t worry. She’s alive. »
The guy’s expression changed a millisecond. There was no relief, there was panic.
“I need to see her right now,” he demanded. “She’s my wife. You know it’s not right in your head. »
Teresa pushed open the door and entered without asking permission.
“I know perfectly well how a woman gets when her husband’s animal kicks her to death with the child she is expecting. »
Rodrigo closed the door slowly. The mask fell off completely, revealing an arrogant and cold guy.
“I was careful with what you say in my house, ma’am,” he threatened.
“Oh yes? What are you going to do? Are you going to break my face too? »
The lawyer laughed full of contempt.
“You were a policeman, Teresa. You know that in this country without evidence you are nobody. Valeria signed everything. Companies are in your name. And if he opens his mouth, I sink him in a psychiatric hospital. I have judges and I have plenty of wool. »
Every word was a nail in his coffin. Teresa had her cell phone recording in her bag.
“And the baby, you wretch?” » he asked.
Rodrigo walked to his bar and poured himself a whiskey.
“That little one was a mistake. Valeria got haughty because she was pregnant, she wanted to check papers. She was no longer a docile dog. »
Teresa felt her blood boil.
“You murdered your own son. »
“Oh, don’t be dramatic. I wasn’t even born, he did me a favor,” he replied cynically.
Then, Teresa took out the cell phone and put it on the table, stopping the recording so that he could see the bright screen.
Rodrigo’s face ran out of blood.
“stupid old woman…”, he hissed.
He took a step to hit her, but before he raised his hand, the front door was blown to pieces.
“State Prosecutor’s Office!” Nobody moves! » a voice boomed.
Heavily armed agents and 2 experts with a search warrant entered. Rodrigo tried to run to his studio, but Octavio slammed him against the wall. They put the handcuffs on him while the “great lawyer” screamed that he knew the governor and that it was a persecution.
Teresa watched him fall without saying a word.
The experts opened the safe. They found false contracts, stamps, offshore accounts and stacks of documents with Valeria’s signature copied. And the most chilling thing: they found identifications of 2 other women used with the same modus operandi. Valeria was not the first, she was only the one who managed to escape alive.
Months later, Rodrigo was linked to the process for aggravated family violence, money laundering and fraud. His political partners betrayed him to save themselves. The arrogant man ended up in his audience dragging his feet, shaved, without an expensive watch and without anyone to defend him for love.
Valeria had a hard time healing. There were sleepless nights where she woke up drowning in sweat, days when she didn’t want to look in the mirror and whole afternoons touching her flat stomach. But blood is heavy. One day, she put on her red dress again. Another day, she drove alone through the city.
And months later, in front of a group of women in a community house in Cholula, she told her story in a firm voice.
“They made me believe that I was weak and that I was crazy,” she told them. “But I was never weak. I was trapped with a monster. »
Teresa listened to her from the back row, crying with pure pride.
Because in Mexico there are men who do not need bars to build prisons; they are satisfied with money, fear, guilt and families who prefer not to get involved.
But when a broken woman knocks on her mother’s door at 1:00 am and someone believes her without hesitation, that door becomes her freedom. And sometimes, when you mess with the wrong family, it becomes the end of the monster.
