Chapter 9 - The Federal Gavel of Justice
The boardroom erupted into an absolute, deafening roar of gasps, shouts, and clattering chairs.
Two elderly board directors leaped to their feet in sheer disbelief. Camila screamed, backing violently into the projection screen, knocking over her water glass.
Rogelio stood paralyzed, his jaw hanging open, his hands shaking so violently the proxy papers scattered across the floor.
"You... you're walking...?" Rogelio stammered, his voice reduced to a high, pathetic squeak. "That’s impossible! The doctors said—"
"You thought it was impossible because you paid Tomás thirty percent of BioVance to poison me every night for two years, Uncle," Santiago said.
Santiago took three slow, deliberate, powerful steps down the center carpet, his polished leather shoes striking the floor with the cadence of an approaching storm.
Julia Mendoza stepped to the podium, connecting her encrypted drive to the master presentation system.
The giant screens along the wall flickered to life, illuminating the room with certified forensic evidence:
The Mass Spectrometry Analysis: Chemical proof of Saxitoxin neurotoxin found in the unlabeled bottles prepared by Dr. Tomás Luján.
The Toluca Crash Blueprint: Signed confessions and wire transfer receipts proving Rogelio paid 300,000 pesos to sabotage the brakes on Santiago’s SUV.
The Offshore Embezzlement: Bank logs showing $41.8 million siphoned from Barrera Logistics into Panama shell accounts shared by Rogelio, Camila, and Tomás.
The Hospital General Exoneration: Complete documentary evidence proving Tomás framed Julia Mendoza three years ago to conceal their fraudulent clinical trials.
The room descended into utter pandemonium.
"You monstrous parasites!" the union leader roared from the front row.
Senior Special Agent Carlos Vega marched forward, pulling three sets of heavy steel handcuffs from his tactical vest.
"Rogelio Barrera, Camila Esquivel, Tomás Luján," Agent Vega announced with thunderous authority. "Under Federal Warrants 902 through 905, you are under arrest for Attempted Premeditated Homicide, Corporate Embezzlement, Conspiracy to Commit Transnational Fraud, and Aggravated False Testimony."
Two federal agents seized Rogelio, pinning his arms behind his back and snapping the iron cuffs shut around his wrists.
Camila collapsed onto her knees on the marble floorboards, sobbing hysterically, reaching out toward Santiago’s trousers: "Santiago! Please! Forgive me! Rogelio forced me! I loved you! I was trying to protect you!"
Santiago looked down at the woman who had handed him poison with a smile, his eyes filled with pristine, unshakeable disgust.
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"You never loved me, Camila," Santiago said softly. "You loved the silence of my chair."
As the three sobbing convicts were dragged out of the boardroom in chains before fifty flashing news cameras, the sixty board directors rose in a unanimous, thunderous standing ovation.
