Chapter 3: The Repo Man Arrives
By 10:15 AM, the atmosphere inside the mansion had turned completely frigid. The technical workers had finished their job and left, taking the main security servers with them. The grand house felt strange, silent, and disconnected from the digital world that usually controlled its temperature, lights, and music.
Alejandro sat in the dining room, surrounded by printed financial documents he had frantically pulled from his briefcase before his cloud access was deleted. His tie was loosened, his hair messy.
Carmela paced around the long mahogany table, her voice growing increasingly shrill. "There must be a loophole, Alejandro! Call your personal lawyer! Call Marcus! He knows corporate law!"
"Marcus works for the company, Mom!" Alejandro snapped, his patience completely gone. "Victoria hired Marcus six years ago. His loyalty is to the corporate entity, not to me! The moment HR sent out the notice of my suspension, Marcus blocked my number!"
"Then call the bank!" Carmela insisted, slamming her hand on the table. "You have the black card! We can just transfer the funds from the main account to a private bank before she freezes it!"
Alejandro looked at his mother with an expression of pure exhaustion. "The black card is a corporate expense account, Mom. It's not a personal checking account. It requires a dual authorization code from the CFO for any transaction over ten thousand dollars. And guess who the CFO reports to? Victoria."
Suddenly, a loud, metallic clanking sound echoed from the front driveway of the estate. It sounded like heavy machinery moving across the gravel.
Alejandro frowned, walking toward the grand floor-to-ceiling windows of the living room. Carmela followed closely behind him.
Outside, a massive, flatbed tow truck had parked directly behind Alejandro’s customized, midnight-black luxury SUV—a company vehicle worth over two hundred thousand dollars. Two men in neon vests were busy hooking heavy iron chains to the front axle of the vehicle.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing?!" Alejandro yelled, throwing the window open and shouting out into the driveway. "Get your hands off my car!"
One of the workers looked up, pulling a digital clipboard from his belt. "Alejandro Vance? We're from Precision Recovery Services. We received an automated corporate repossession order from Vance Enterprises Corporate Fleet Division at 9:45 AM. The vehicle’s lease has been terminated, and the corporate tracking system flagged it for immediate recovery."
"You can't do that! That's my personal vehicle!" Alejandro shouted, running out the front door into the hot morning air, his shoes clicking loudly on the gravel.
"According to the registration, sir, the vehicle is owned 100% by Vance Enterprises Group LLC," the worker replied smoothly, showing the digital document on his screen. "You are no longer an active employee of the firm, so the insurance coverage was cancelled exactly twenty minutes ago. We have to take it. Please remove any personal items from the cabin immediately, or they will be impounded at our main facility."
Carmela ran out behind her son, her expensive robe flapping in the wind. "This is carjacking! I’m calling the police right now!" She pulled out her own phone, but before she could dial, David, the security head, stepped out from the shade of the garage doors.
"Don't bother, Carmela," David said calmly. "The police have already been notified of the corporate audit. In fact, a team from the white-collar crime division is currently reviewing the company's internal transaction history regarding the Spanish real estate accounts. If I were you, I’d be more worried about your passport than your phone."
Carmela froze, her hand shaking as she lowered her device. "What... what did you say? White-collar crime?"
"Embezzlement is a serious felony, Carmela," Victoria’s voice drifted down from the balcony above the front door. She was leaning against the stone railing, watching the tow truck slowly lift Alejandro’s prized SUV onto the flatbed. "Three million dollars taken from the research and development budget to buy a luxury villa in Marbella for your mother. Did you really think my accounting team wouldn't notice the fake invoice entries for 'digital infrastructure consulting'?"
Alejandro looked up at his wife, his eyes filled with a mixture of terror and desperation. "Victoria, please... I did that for us! For our retirement! I wanted us to have a place away from the stress of the city!"
"No, Alejandro. You did it because your mother told you that a real man owns property in his own name, and you were too weak to admit that everything you had came from my hard work," Victoria said, her face expressionless. "The tow truck is just the first step. The house in Marbella has already been hit with a temporary international freeze order by our legal team. You won't be visiting Spain anytime soon."
With a loud hydraulic hiss, the tow truck finished securing the luxury SUV. The driver hopped into the cab, waved politely to Victoria, and drove down the long, winding driveway, leaving Alejandro and Carmela standing in the middle of the empty gravel path.
Alejandro looked down at his empty hands, the reality finally sinking into his chest. His job was gone. His status was gone. His car was gone.
"What do we do now, Alejandro?" Carmela whispered, her voice losing all of its former arrogance, replaced by a hollow, childlike fear.
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"We go inside," Alejandro muttered, his voice dead. "We go inside and we figure out a way to apologize to her before she takes everything else."
But as they turned back toward the grand entrance of the mansion, they saw David standing firmly in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, blocking the entrance.
