“Get out of my sight, you pathetic beggar.”

The shout cracked through the office like a whip. Forty employees froze mid-task as Julián Mena, regional manager of Altavista Group, publicly humiliated a woman standing near the auxiliary desk. Isabel Fuentes wore a faded black blazer and worn shoes that had clearly lived better days. Her face burned as pity and mockery pierced her from every direction.

“People like you shouldn’t even step into this building,” Julián continued, smiling with deliberate cruelty. “Altavista is a serious company—not a shelter for failures.”

Then he did something no one expected him to dare.

Julián walked calmly to the water dispenser, filled a cleaning bucket beside the photocopier, and returned. The office fell into a suffocating silence. Everyone sensed what was coming. No one moved.

“Let’s see if this helps you understand your place,” he murmured.

He dumped the bucket of icy water over Isabel.

Her blazer clung to her body. Water soaked her hair, filled her shoes, streamed down her face, mixing with tears she couldn’t stop. Forty people watched, horrified, as she stood trembling—yet somehow unbroken.

No one in that room knew they had just witnessed the most brutal humiliation inflicted on the most powerful woman in the building.

Three Hours Earlier