Chapter 4 - The Poison in the Family TreeTab Four through Tab Eight laid bare the domestic reality that Doña Elvira had orchestrated for a decade.
The courtroom screens flickered to life, projecting digitized text messages, email threads, and audio transcripts that Esteban Lira had meticulously gathered. The room listened in stunned silence as Doña Elvira’s cultured, haughty voice echoed through the speakers: "Remember your place, Claudia. Without my son, you are nothing more than an Iztapalapa nurse’s daughter scrubbing floors. Be grateful he even looks at you."
Another audio clip played—this one from Julián, recorded during a late-night argument in their kitchen: "If you ever tell anyone about the lab funding, or if you try to leave, I'll make sure your mother's cancer treatments are cut off. I control the hospital boards, Claudia. I can make her medicine disappear overnight."
At the mention of her mother, Claudia’s eyes flashed with cold fury. That was the exact moment she had stopped crying years ago. That was the exact moment she had stopped trying to save a marriage and started building an exit strategy.
Doña Elvira shrank back into her seat, her face flushed with humiliation as heads turned to stare at her with undisguised disgust. The facade of the elegant, charitable matriarch of Lomas de Chapultepec had disintegrated completely.
Renata clutched her designer handbag like a shield. She realized with sudden, terrifying clarity that Julián was not a wealthy, untouchable king; he was a sinking ship, and she was tied to the mast.
—I didn't know... —Renata whispered loudly, her voice trembling as she tried to distance herself. —Julián told me she was crazy. He said she abandoned the company voluntarily!
Claudia turned her head slightly, looking at Renata with a gaze so piercing that the younger woman shrank back, biting her lower lip until it bled.
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—You didn't care what he told you, Renata, as long as my credit cards paid for your boutique dresses and your weekend getaways in Valle de Bravo —Claudia said softly, her voice carrying effortlessly across the silent room.
Renata opened her mouth to retort, but no words came out.
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