Chapter 7: The Scholar’s Oath**
Heeding Mateo’s words, Aurelio threw himself into his education. He graduated top of his high school class and earned a full scholarship to study pre-law and public administration at Columbia University. Mateo paid for every living expense, but refused to let Aurelio visit his corporate headquarters.
"Keep your hands clean," Mateo wrote in a letter accompanying a gold graduation pen. "A spotless name is a weapon no bullet can pierce."
During his college years in New York, Aurelio watched from afar as news headlines chronicled Mateo Vance’s fierce corporate battles. Mateo was actively liquidating his gray-market assets, donating tens of millions to urban renewal programs, community clinics, and youth education foundations in the very neighborhoods he once controlled.
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He was starving the criminal syndicates of their territory not by bullets, but by replacing poverty with infrastructure. Dante Ramos grew desperate, his illicit revenues drying up as Mateo systematically choked out the underworld's influence through legitimate civic power.
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