He tries again.
“You are not neutral.”
“Correct. I am her mother.”
A murmur moves through the courtroom.
You continue before he can stop you.
“But evidence is neutral. The recording is neutral. The medical photographs are neutral. The bank transfers are neutral. Your client’s messages about controlling my daughter are neutral. My love for her does not make his violence imaginary.”
The attorney sits down sooner than expected.
Hortensia testifies against advice.
Of course she does.
Like Vivian. Like Patricia. Like every controlling matriarch who mistakes courtroom attention for social power.
She wears gray silk and speaks of family values. She says Ariadna was careless, dramatic, cold, ungrateful, obsessed with her career, disrespectful to Mauricio. She says a wife must understand how to keep a home. She says she applauded at dinner because she was nervous.
The prosecutor plays the recording.
“A clumsy wife needs correction.”
Hortensia’s face tightens.
He asks, “What correction did you believe Ariadna needed?”
She does not answer.
He asks, “Did you help Mauricio access Ariadna’s inheritance?”
“No.”
He shows bank records tied to her apartment.
She claims she did not know.
He shows emails.
She says she misunderstood.
He shows messages from the burner phone.
Her mask finally cracks.
