“Oh, my sweet girl! Come in! Nobody meant to hurt you. It was all just a joke!”
Sofia stepped back and raised one hand.
“Don’t touch me.”
Mariana spoke from the sofa.
“Gosh, Sofia, don’t be so dramatic! It was just a little walk!”
Sofia didn’t argue.
She pulled a USB drive from her pocket and connected it to the large screen where the family had prepared its presentation for Altavista.
The video began.
“Strangers don’t get rides in my SUV.”
Then Mariana’s laughter filled the room.
Then Javier’s silence.
Teresa’s face turned pale.
“It was harmless hazing!”
Sofia opened the next file.
A screenshot of the family group chat filled the seventy-five-inch screen.
A message from Teresa, sent that morning, read:
**“Today we teach the city girl who’s in charge. I’m going to make her walk from the bus terminal just to knock her off her high horse.”**
The room erupted.
“You recorded that?!” Teresa screamed at Mariana.
“You told me to!” Mariana shouted back.
Relatives immediately started distancing themselves.
An aunt who had written “leave her outside” earlier was suddenly calling the behavior “an absolute disgrace.”
Javier reached for Sofia’s arm.
