Chapter 4 - The Trade
My phone buzzed again. It was a text message from Rodrigo containing a single photograph: a copy of an old, official land deed and a signed bank transfer document from six years ago.
A second later, his call came through.
"You read the report, didn't you?" Rodrigo asked, his voice now flat and devoid of emotion.
"You monster," I whispered, tears of rage burning my eyes.
"You were harvesting her? For who, Rodrigo? Who were you selling her to?"
"Look at the document I sent you, Mom," he replied coolly.
"Six years ago, the ranch was completely bankrupt. We were going to lose everything you and Dad built. Then a private medical broker approached me. A wealthy international buyer needed perfectly matched, rare-type marrow and plasma to survive a chronic illness."
"Mariana..." I choked out.
"Mariana was a perfect genetic match," Rodrigo said.
"She agreed to the first procedure voluntarily to save our farm! The money saved the ranch, paid off your debts in Mexico, and kept us rich. But then she wanted to stop. She threatened to go to the police and expose the illegal clinic."
"So you locked her away," I said, the bitter truth choking me.
"You poisoned her mind so she couldn't remember, bound her, and kept harvesting her to keep the money flowing."
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"If I go down, Mom, the bank reclaims the ranch, the medical syndicate wipes out our family name, and Mariana gets dragged into court as an accomplice to an illegal medical trade," Rodrigo warned.
"Bring her home now. We destroy the hospital records, or everybody loses."
