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Not submissive.
Not defensive.
Familiar.
“Prepare,” she ordered. “If the dog reacts, nobody advances.”
The air thickened.
A safety catch clicked.
A radio hissed.
Valeria didn’t look away.
She took a single, deliberate step forward—slow, controlled, like a command given a thousand times before.
She wasn’t sure who was giving the orders anymore.
Because some bonds aren’t trained.
They’re remembered.
But the dog did not attack.
Instead, he turned his head toward Valeria with a look that wasn’t confusion. It was… offense. A warning. Then, with a decisiveness that made several people’s blood run cold, the German Shepherd positioned himself completely between Don Ernesto and the officers, paws firmly planted, back bristling.
“What…?” whispered an agent.
The dog did not obey. He clung even closer to Don Ernesto, as if covering him.
There was a second, barely a second, when everyone understood something terrifying: the threat wasn’t the old man. The threat was the truth they weren’t seeing.
Don Ernesto slowly raised his hands, palms open.
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