Vicente, seeing his sister-in-law alive, tried to run into the alleyways, but two soldiers intercepted him, knocking him to the ground. Elena walked slowly toward her in-laws. Doña Consuelo stared at her, terrified.
“You cursed me for inheriting stones, mother-in-law,” Elena said, her voice so cold it chilled everyone present. She pulled a copy of the bank receipt from her pocket and threw it at the old woman’s chest. “Read what your son’s life is worth. Vicente was paid 500,000 pesos to cut the brakes on Mateo’s truck. You mocked me, abandoned me, and tried to burn me alive. But Mateo was smarter than all of you put together.”
Doña Consuelo read the paper. Her hands began to tremble uncontrollably. A heart-rending scream, filled with horror and guilt, escaped her throat. She lunged at Vicente, striking him in the face as he wept like a coward on the ground, begging for forgiveness as the federales handcuffed him. The image of the traitor being repudiated by his own mother was etched into the memory of the entire town.
The trial was a historic event that dominated national news.
With conclusive documentary evidence, the testimonies of 15 other peasant families whom Elena convinced to speak, and Vicente’s cowardly confession to reduce his sentence, the corrupt empire crumbled. Don Arturo was sentenced to 45 years in a maximum-security federal prison. Vicente received 30 years for fratricide.
The following spring brought a miracle to Cañón de las Ánimas. With the help of engineers Diego contacted, Elena brought heavy machinery onto her 12 hectares. Drilling beyond the old well, the rock fractured, releasing a torrent of crystal-clear, pure water that had been trapped underground. The aquifer not only transformed the arid landscape into a green and fertile valley, but legally, by virtue of being on her property, it made Elena the richest and most powerful woman in the region.
