Complicado (Queen of the South, My Season 6)

Part 4 - It's Time To Recreate Yourself

"I looked for you", Chicho said with a grim expression and looked Kelly Anne in the eyes: "For a long time...as I feared Finch's goons had gotten to you at the motel...and when I couldn't find any trace...", his voice trailed off as he fell silent.

She let her face show the sadness that took over her and her hand gently covered his: "I'm sorry...the plan was risky and...ah..." she didn't finish and that gave him the opportunity to add: "I know...you couldn't involve everyone...or take everyone with you...I know...Teresa explained to me...and I had a girlfriend then...I wouldn't have followed you, guys."

She exhaled deeply. Chicho and her had gotten quite close since he had been assigned to be her guard right after she had found out she was pregnant. They had weathered several nasty situations together when the rest of the team had been in Berlin.

"But the important thing is that everything worked out...and James obviously got to you on time", to which she smiled and added: "I owe him my life...more than once...and my child's life...he is ...like a brother to me!"

"That's why you've come real fast, " Chicho smiled widely now: "...to ensure his skiing skills improve dramatically...right?"

"Yeah!" Kelly Anne smiled too and waived at the waiter for a coffee refill: "And to see if I can get Teresa to venture in the snow...and as she may have told you to go over the legal matters of Marcel's and your company's issues...ah...with the bank."

"Oh?" Chicho seemed surprised. "If la Jefa expressed an interest in our business...she must have only told Marcel!"

===

The land was contaminated, Marcel's lawyer in Bangkok, a man by the name of Dupont, had been advised. It had not passed the government inspections and as such no permits for construction could be issued. The lawyer had been on a call with Marcel, Chicho, Kelly Anne and Teresa for more than an hour providing details of his painstaking journey for information in that beautiful but corrupt country, a fact that sounded to Teresa like someone was talking about doing business in her homeland.

The land was not a site contaminated by improper handling of materials because it had never been developed, and there was no facility of any sort close to it that could have resulted in a release of hazardous wastes that would affect the piece of pristine land.

Dupont had engaged a consulting company to assist in the determination of the reasons and was himself convinced that it could only be toxic materials deposited as a result of mishandled natural disaster or an act of environmental terror. According to him only some developed countries tracked such contamination and very few actually provided funds for cleanup. Marcel's hope for an easy resolution to the permit issue, so that construction could commence, had quickly evaporated. The mood had been more despondent than ever. There was nothing positive that they could bring to the meeting with the Swiss bank.

===

"I have made enough mistakes in relation to Marcel and I need to do it right this time!" Teresa looked at Kelly Anne expectantly and waited for her friend to say something...anything.

It was clear Marcel and Chicho would need not only financial help to get out of the swamp this deal had put them in, and it all looked and sounded sketchy and risky. The preliminary dollar amounts that would be involved, if Teresa's ValCap venture fund was to jump in, were substantial, and her exposure could only get higher if the Swiss bank pulled out because of the actions of the Thai authorities. No one had even dared mention the other three properties, but they knew Marcel had sent an investigator to each place to dig and scout for information.

Teresa felt on edge because helping Marcel would be risky and she expected that it would only be right to make commitments once the whole family had been informed and had agreed. But her whole being sensed she had been presented with a chance to really redeem herself this time and she knew that she would have to try. So far it was only Kelly Anne who had heard the facts, hence Teresa was burning to hear her opinion.