Chapter 14: Enrique Rivera Cruza de Bando

Rodrigo arrived with him without warning, as one brings a loaded weapon: carefully and without explanations until there is no other option. Enrique Rivera had Fernando's eyes—that dark green that the family used as a calling card—but he had them different: sunken, with dark circles from a transatlantic flight and something that Sofía recognized immediately because she had seen it in her own mirror: the face of someone who had just understood that the ship where she was born always had a hole.

"Carmela called me," he said from the threshold, without greeting. «He told me that Fernando had moved funds from the trust.

What he didn't tell me is how much." He placed a thick manila envelope on the kitchen table. Ana opened it before Sofía could extend her hand: account statements, five years old, letterhead from the bank in Luxembourg where the Riveras kept what they didn't want to see in Mexico.

Rodrigo stood behind both women and turned the pages in silence, pointing with his index finger to the columns marked in yellow. Fernando had emptied three million two hundred thousand dollars in fractional transfers.

Isabela signed as attorney-in-fact. Iván Salcedo appeared as the final beneficiary under a company name registered in Delaware that had existed for eighteen months and had no real assets.

"Neither Carmela nor I authorize any of this," Enrique said. He had sat down without anyone inviting him.

«I am a member of the board. My signature had to appear.

It doesn't appear." Sofia looked at him. Calculation.

“What do you want in return?” Enrique didn't blink. «That my name does not appear in the criminal complaint.

Only Fernando. Only Isabella.

Only Salcedo." It was a dirty deal. He was also the only one who completed the file.

Rodrigo cleared his throat. Ana left the papers on the table with a precision that was equivalent to a verdict.

Sofía folded the envelope, put it under her arm and replied: «You have until tomorrow at eight for your lawyer to speak with Rodrigo's lawyer. If at one minute past eight we do not have confirmation, the documents arrive at the Prosecutor's Office with your name included.» Enrique opened his mouth.

He closed it. He nodded.

When he came out, Rodrigo closed the door and looked at Sofía with an expression that she couldn't quite read. Ana did read it: it was respect, mixed with something similar to fear.

Sofia put the envelope on the table and said nothing. Out on the street, Enrique's car turned on its headlights and didn't move for three full minutes, as if its owner was still deciding which side of the dashboard he had crossed to.

Sin at the Top

Sin at the Top