The line disconnected.
Silence returned to the sitting area. Mateo looked up carefully. "Should I inform the capital house that you won't be visiting yet?"
"Yes."
"And Madam Catalina?"
Santiago's eyes shifted once more toward the closed doors. "Tell her Daniella's resting."
Mateo nodded, but inwardly he understood the shift that had already taken place. Santiago Torres Mendoza had begun rearranging the movements of an entire empire around one sleeping woman behind those doors.
-------
The Ybarra estate stood beneath a gray afternoon sky, wrapped in a silence so heavy it felt deliberate.
Black vehicles lined the long stone driveway in unbroken rows, their polished surfaces reflecting the muted light. Armed security stood at measured intervals throughout the property—not overtly aggressive, but unmistakable. Every arriving guest understood precisely whose house this was.
