Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3 — The Sister's War
At 6:00 a.m. the next morning, the financial earth beneath the Aranda empire began to shake.
Santiago had not slept.
He had spent the entire night in his study, making phone calls to numbers that were not listed in any public directory.
He called his private investigators in Geneva.
He called his forensic accountants in New York.
He called the head of his personal security detail, a former cartel negotiator who answered on the first ring.
By dawn, the mansion was fortified.
Twelve armed men patrolled the perimeter of the Scottsdale estate.
The gates were locked. The security feeds were isolated.
Santiago poured his third cup of black coffee when his cell phone finally buzzed.
The caller ID displayed a blocked number.
He answered it and put it on speaker.
"You have made a massive mistake, Santiago," Renata’s voice hissed through the phone.
She sounded exhausted, but the venom in her tone was lethal.
"You have ten seconds to hang up before I trace this call," Santiago replied calmly.
"Trace it," Renata laughed. "I'm in a private jet halfway to the Cayman Islands."
Santiago stopped drinking his coffee.
"You locked me out of the Dallas accounts," Renata snarled.
"You froze my charity funds. Do you think I'm stupid?"
"Do you think I didn't prepare for the day that little rat might crawl out of the desert?"
Santiago leaned over his desk.
"You can't hide, Renata. The black briefcase is in my safe."
"I have the original transfer document. I have your signature."
"I have a confession of federal kidnapping and grand larceny."
"And I have the best lawyers in the country preparing the indictment."
Renata’s laughter echoed through the speaker. It was cold, metallic, and completely unhinged.
"Oh, little brother. You always were too emotional."
"That document is twenty-five years old. The statute of limitations for kidnapping has expired in Arizona."
"The doctor who signed it is dead."
"The Vargas family is dead."
"It's my word against the word of a poor Mexican girl wearing cheap sneakers."
"I will claim the document is a forgery. I will claim Marisol manipulated you into believing a fairy tale to steal my inheritance."
"And while you are busy fighting me in court, I am going to bleed Aranda Enterprises dry."
Santiago’s eyes narrowed. "What did you do?"
"I am still the Vice President of Operations, Santiago."
"I spent the last eight hours initiating emergency liquidation protocols."
"I sold the Napa vineyards to a shell corporation. I transferred the Bourbon label's distribution rights."
"By noon today, the board of directors will hold an emergency vote to remove you as CEO due to mental instability."
"They already think you've gone crazy, harboring a servant and claiming she's a ghost."
"You chose a dirty little maid over your own sister, Santiago."
"Now you get to lose everything."
The line went dead.
Santiago slowly lowered the phone.
The air in the study felt heavy.
Renata was a monster, but she was a brilliant, strategic monster.
She had spent her entire life mastering corporate warfare. She knew exactly how to cripple him.
If the board removed him, he would lose the resources he needed to protect Marisol and Doña Esperanza.
The door to the study opened quietly.
Santiago looked up.
Marisol stood in the doorway.
She was no longer wearing the faded cardigan.
She was wearing a perfectly tailored black silk dress.
It was one of Doña Esperanza's old dresses from the 1990s, carefully preserved in the cedar closets.
It fit Marisol flawlessly.
Her dark hair was pulled back. Her posture was perfectly straight.
She didn't look like a night assistant.
She looked like a queen.
"I heard the call," Marisol said, stepping into the room.
Her voice was calm. Unshaken.
"She thinks I am weak because I grew up in the dirt," Marisol continued.
"She doesn't know that dirt makes you hard."
"She doesn't know what it takes to break wild horses, Santiago."
Marisol walked to the desk and placed a heavy, leather-bound journal over Renata's printed financial threats.
"What is this?" Santiago asked.
"I didn't just brush Mother's hair for the past two weeks," Marisol said softly.
"When the Alzheimer's retreated, even for a few minutes, she talked."
"She knew what Renata was doing. She always knew."
"Mother couldn't stop it because her mind kept slipping away. So she wrote it down."
"Before I arrived, she hid this journal inside the lining of her wheelchair."
Santiago opened the journal.
His breath caught.
It wasn't a diary of memories.
It was a ledger.
Doña Esperanza had meticulously tracked every single illegal shell corporation Renata had created.
She had documented the account numbers. The passwords. The offshore banks.
"Renata didn't just steal my trust fund," Marisol said, her eyes flashing with Aranda fire.
"She stole from the company pension. She bribed federal judges in Dallas."
"She committed wire fraud on a global scale."
"The statute of limitations on kidnapping might be over."
"But the statute of limitations for federal racketeering and corporate fraud?"
Marisol smiled. It was the exact same predatory smile Santiago had.
"That is very much alive."
Santiago looked at his new sister.
The bloodline was undeniable.
May you like
"Get in the car, Sofia," Santiago said, standing up and grabbing his coat.
"We have a board meeting to crash."
