Chapter 4 - The Predator's Desperation
While peace was taking root in Coyoacán, Antonio’s world had devolved into a waking nightmare.
Stripped of his position at the investment firm, blacklisted by every major financial institution in Mexico City, and facing formal federal investigations for white-collar fraud, Antonio had been forced to move out of his luxury Santa Fe penthouse and into a cramped, dismal studio apartment on the wrong side of town.
His phone was dead. His so-called friends had blocked his number. Even his parents, embarrassed by the public humiliation of the aborted wedding and the ensuing scandals, had refused to take his calls or wire him a single peso.
Desperation, however, is a dangerous catalyst for a narcissist.
Sitting at a sticky plastic table in a dingy neighborhood café, Antonio stared at a printed copy of a public birth registry he had illegally acquired through a corrupt contact at the civil registry office.
Father: Unacknowledged. Mother: Jisela Morales. Child: Mateo Morales.
Antonio’s eyes narrowed into slits of malicious calculation.
If he couldn't have his old life back through wealth, he would try to claw his way back through extortion and legal manipulation. He couldn't afford high-priced attorneys anymore, but he knew enough about family law to know that fathers had rights—or at least, rights that could be weaponized to make Jisela’s life miserable enough to force a settlement.
If he could file for joint custody, he could drag her through endless court battles. He could force her to negotiate. He could use the baby as a bargaining chip to squeeze money out of Don Fernando’s enemies or force Monica’s family to pay him off just to make him go away.
“She thinks she won,” Antonio muttered to himself, gripping the paper so hard his knuckles turned white. “She thinks she can destroy me and get away with it. That kid is my ticket back up.”
He pulled out a burner phone—the only device he had left—and dialed a shady family lawyer who specialized in dirty litigation.
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“Hello, Licenciado?” Antonio said, his voice dropping into a cold, transactional register. “I need to file an emergency petition for paternity establishment and custody rights in family court. We’re going to war.”
Little did Antonio know, the woman he thought he could intimidate had already built an impenetrable fortress, and she wasn't fighting alone anymore.
