Chapter 6 - The Unholy AllianceIn a private, high-security penthouse overlooking the exclusive neighborhood of Polanco, Doña Leonor Velasco stood by a glass liquor cabinet, pouring two fingers of single-malt scotch. Her hands were no longer trembling. The fury of her expulsion from the mansion had crystallized into a sharp, calculating malice.
Sitting on the low leather sofa across from her was Javier Mendoza, the younger brother of the Mendoza Cartel’s supreme leader. He was forty, elegant in a tailored gray suit, but his knuckles were scarred and his eyes carried the dead, vacuous look of a natural predator.
"Your strike team failed, Javier," Leonor said, her voice dripping with aristocratic disdain as she handed him the glass. "Nicolás is still breathing, and the child is safe in the vault."
Javier took a slow sip, his lips curling into a dry smile. "Your son has built a fortress, Doña Leonor. But a fortress only works if everyone inside wants to stay. We didn't expect the public clinic nurse to be so... resourceful. My man’s nose is shattered in three places from a piece of corporate marble."
"The nurse is a temporary irritation," Leonor said, pacing the room. "She is the reason Nicolás saw through the textile treatments. She stripped away everything I built to make that child dependent on me. As long as she is in that house, Nicolás will look for alternative ways to handle his life. He will think he doesn't need the old structure. He will think he doesn't need me."
Javier set his glass down with a soft click. "Then we remove the nurse. But more importantly, we remove the boy. If Nicolás loses his heir, his focus splits. The board of Velasco International will panic if they see him compromised by a domestic crisis. That is when my family takes the shipping routes in Veracruz."
Leonor stopped pacing. Her face hardened, the last vestiges of grandmotherly instinct burning away under the heat of her ambition. "I want the child handled carefully. He is still a Velasco. But the nurse... do whatever you want with her. Dump her body in the canal for all I care."
"And what about Valeria?" Javier asked, his eyes narrowing. "She is the weak link. She was never meant for this life."
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"Valeria will do exactly what she is told if she thinks it will save her son," Leonor said coldly. "She is a Serrano. Her family has always been currency to be traded. I will contact her myself. When the time comes, she will open the door from the inside."
Javier stood up, smoothing his tie. "We strike again within the week. This time, we don't use a hammer, Doña Leonor. We use a scalpel."
