Chapter 3 - The Frame-Up at Hospital General
Santiago sat motionless in his wheelchair, his knuckles turning pure white as his grip tightened on the armrests until the leather groaned.
Two years and seven months.
Nine hundred and forty days of staring at ceilings, being lifted into bath seats, watching competitors and relatives talk over his head as if he were already half-buried. Nine hundred and forty nights of being told by Tomás to drink his tonic and be patient with God's will.
"Why you, Julia?" Santiago asked, his voice low, steady, and terrifyingly calm. "Why did you lose your license at Hospital General?"
Julia looked down at her calloused fingers. A shadow of bitter memory crossed her features.
"Three years ago, I was the chief neurology resident overseeing the acute trauma ICU," Julia recounted softly. "A clinical trial was underway for an expensive experimental spinal neuro-regenerative drug sponsored by BioVance Therapeutics—a private holding firm based in Monterrey."
"BioVance," Santiago murmured, his eyes narrowing into razor slits. "That is one of my uncle Rogelio’s private pharmaceutical logistics subsidiaries."
"I noticed patients in the trial were deteriorating instead of recovering," Julia continued. "When I ran secret chromatographic assays on the sample vials, I discovered they were substituting cheap paralytic placebos to artificially manipulate recovery statistics and bill the public health insurance system for tens of millions of pesos. Dr. Tomás Luján was the principal investigator signing the trial ledgers."
She let out a dry, humorless breath.
"I took the evidence to the hospital disciplinary board. By the next morning, fifty grams of medical-grade fentanyl were 'discovered' planted inside my locker. Tomás signed a sworn affidavit claiming I was an unstable addict stealing controlled substances. My license was revoked, my apartment was foreclosed by legal fees, and the district attorney threatened to lock me away in Santa Martha Acatitla if I ever spoke the name Luján again."
Mateo Flores stepped forward from the doorway, holding a sealed black leather portfolio.
"Boss," Mateo said in a gravelly tone. "I pulled the corporate ownership registries on BioVance Therapeutics ten minutes ago."
May you like
Mateo opened the folder before Santiago.
"BioVance is owned forty percent by your uncle Rogelio Barrera, thirty percent by Dr. Tomás Luján... and thirty percent by an offshore trust whose primary beneficiary is Miss Camila Esquivel."
