Her lips had thinned and her body absolutely still in her silent fury when her family failed the simple task she had given them. Not one of them returned with Mariano and Dolores by the evening the first day as she had initially hoped, but she had given them three days to search and find them and even by the final evening they were still nowhere to be found. It irked her, the idea that her family was one of two things. One: incompetent. Or two: Knew where they were and had chosen intentionally to not bring them in.
Now, she must take matters further in her own hands. So, with anger in her heart, she called for her secret mercenary police force. If her own family would not do their duty as she asked them, she would call upon those who would do so swiftly and discretely. They were so good that she knew, even with her enhanced hearing, Dolores would not stand a chance. She was not a fighter nor a strategist like these men. Beyond their strength and numbers, they would lull her into a false sense of security, not hearing that she was being followed. It was by the end of the day that they returned with their prey in hand and the same confident smirks on their faces they wore when she met with them before breakfast that morning.
Tear tracks stained Dolores's cheeks, but she was unharmed beyond a cut above her right eye and almost imperceptible scrapes to her palms, even while being restrained with her hands bound in front of her. Mariano was another story. It was clear he had fought to protect them both. His white shirt was a bloody mess and Alma sighed at the thought that the foolish man would be in need of Julieta's healing food. She had not said a word to either of them, instead fixing them with her angriest glare. Dolores quivered under her eyes while Mariano was defiant. She would leave him suffer with his injuries for a few days before forcing Mariano to eat some of her daughter's cooking to heal his wounds.
Casita shifted under the demand of Alma Madrigal and new rooms were formed. Dolores was put away, locked inside a room. The door would open for no one without a key, the open slot for food being the only way to get anything in or out. Mariano was put in an identical room next to her, until she could speak with Senora Guzman. If she was not ready to discipline her son for his irresponsible and fool hearted actions to sabotage his impending marriage to Isabela, then that is where he would stay until they were wed. And Dolores? Well, she was going to be locked away indefinitely. It was clear she could not be trusted to accept punishment on her own and it must be otherwise enforced.
The whole town filled with gloomy gray clouds as she looked out from her balcony and Alma scowled, knowing her erratic daughter was the cause. She wondered if the girl would ever grow up and get control over herself. She had hoped, all those years ago, that marrying her off she would settle. Then when she had children, she had hoped the same. But no such luck was on her side, it would seem, and she had passed her rebellious attitude down to her children too. Alma thought she had kept it out of the two of them through thoroughly training them into their roles early on. It would seem she should have also applied more focus and training to her other grandchildren as well, for whatever parts they had played in this whole mess.