Chapter 36 - The ExtractionThe interior of Clínica San Miguel was cold, sterile, and terrifyingly quiet.
Renata was escorted to a heavily secured wing by the furious Clinic Director. When they unlocked the door to Room 402, Renata stepped inside and her heart broke.
Sitting by a barred window was Camila Del Rio. She was thin, her eyes vacant from years of heavy, forced medication. But beneath the fog of the sedatives, there was a desperate, flickering light.
"Camila?" Renata asked softly, kneeling beside her chair.
Camila slowly turned her head. "Are you... one of my father's new doctors?"
"No," Renata said, taking the young woman's trembling hands. "My name is Renata Garza. I am a lawyer. And I am here to take you home."
Tears instantly welled in Camila’s eyes.
The Clinic Director stepped forward. "This interview is over. You cannot take her. Hector Del Rio holds full medical conservatorship!"
Renata stood up, her aura instantly transforming from gentle to lethal. She pulled a secondary folder from her briefcase and slammed it onto the table.
"An emergency habeas corpus injunction, signed by a Supreme Court Justice thirty minutes ago, temporarily suspending Hector Del Rio's conservatorship pending an investigation into severe medical malpractice."
"That’s impossible!" the Director sputtered. "No judge would sign that against Del Rio!"
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"I didn't use a local judge," Renata smiled coldly. "I used a federal justice whose daughter I saved from an abusive marriage three years ago. The favor has been called in. Release her into my custody, or I will have the federal police dismantle this clinic brick by brick."
Ten minutes later, Camila was wrapped in a warm coat, walking out the front doors into the flashing lights of the press, leaning entirely on Renata for support.
