Chapter 25
Chapter 25: The Empty Cage
When Senator Vargas returned to his Las Lomas mansion at 1:00 AM, slightly intoxicated and high on the adrenaline of his political success, he expected to find his wife cowering in her bedroom.
Instead, he found the front door unlocked. The security guards were gone.
"Isabella?!" he roared, his voice echoing off the marble walls. He took the stairs two at a time, bursting into the master bedroom. Empty. He sprinted down the hall to Leo’s room. Empty. The boy’s favorite stuffed animal was gone from the bed.
Alejandro’s face twisted in sheer, uncontrollable rage. He smashed a crystal lamp off a side table, sending glass flying across the expensive rug.
Then, he saw it.
Sitting perfectly centered on the massive kitchen island downstairs was a single, thick, cream-colored cardstock. Alejandro walked over, his breathing ragged, and picked it up.
It was a business card.
Vanguardia Legal. Renata Garza, Principal Attorney.
Flipped over, there was a handwritten note on the back in elegant, sweeping ink:
You no longer have a wife. You no longer have a son. And by tomorrow morning, you will no longer have a career. Run.
Alejandro pulled out his phone, his hands shaking with fury, and dialed a number he reserved only for emergencies.
"Julian," Alejandro barked into the phone as soon as it was answered. "We have a problem. Someone just took my wife and my son. A lawyer named Renata Garza."
There was a long, dead silence on the other end of the line.
May you like
"Renata?" Julian’s voice finally came through, sounding genuinely shocked. "That’s impossible."
"Fix it!" Alejandro screamed. "She has the offshore files!"
