Chapter 4 - THE DARK FLOOR
The emergency lights did not come on.
For one impossible second, the sixth-floor service corridor became completely black.
Lucía gasped.
Alejandro reached toward the sound of her breathing.
“Lucía, stay where you are.”
“I am here.”
A cart crashed somewhere down the hall.
Then footsteps moved fast through the darkness.
Not one person.
Two.
Maybe three.
Ernesto shouted.
“Security!”
Someone struck him.
He grunted and fell.
Alejandro moved toward Lucía’s voice.
A hand grabbed his jacket from behind.
He twisted, drove his elbow backward, and felt it connect with someone’s ribs.
A man cursed.
Lucía screamed.
“Alejandro!”
He lunged forward.
His hand found fabric.
A sleeve.
Then Lucía’s arm.
He pulled her toward him.
“Behind me.”
The darkness smelled of cleaning chemicals and sweat.
A phone screen flashed for half a second near the service stairwell.
Alejandro saw a masked face.
Then the light vanished.
The man rushed them.
Alejandro shoved a housekeeping cart sideways.
Metal slammed into knees.
Someone fell hard.
Lucía cried out again.
Not from fear this time.
From pain.
Alejandro’s blood turned to ice.
“What happened?”
“My stomach.”
He reached for her.
She was bent forward.
The emergency lights suddenly flickered on.
The corridor appeared in dim red.
Ernesto was on the floor holding his mouth.
One masked man limped toward the stairs.
Another had already disappeared.
Alejandro started after them.
Lucía grabbed his sleeve.
“No.”
Her face was gray.
A dark wet patch spread across the lower part of her uniform.
Alejandro stopped breathing.
“Is that blood?”
Lucía looked down.
Her eyes widened.
“Yes.”
Everything else ceased to matter.
Alejandro lifted her before she could protest.
“Put me down.”
“No.”
“I can walk.”
“You are bleeding.”
“Do not carry me like this.”
“I am not asking.”
Her face tightened.
“Still the same Alejandro.”
He looked at her.
“No.”
His voice broke.
“I am trying very hard not to be.”
Ernesto pushed himself upright.
“I will call an ambulance.”
“Use the freight elevator.”
“It is shut down.”
“Then open it.”
“The power failure triggered the lock.”
Alejandro looked toward the stairs.
Six floors.
Lucía was bleeding.
He did not hesitate.
He carried her into the stairwell.
By the fourth floor, his arms were shaking.
Lucía whispered.
“You can put me down.”
“No.”
“You will drop me.”
“No.”
“You always were stubborn.”
The sentence sounded dangerously close to the woman he remembered.
His throat tightened.
“At least complain about something useful.”
She almost smiled.
Then another wave of pain hit.
Her fingers dug into his shoulder.
“Alejandro.”
“I know.”
“No, listen.”
“I am listening.”
“If something happens to the baby, do not let your mother near me.”
He stopped on the landing.
“I swear.”
“Not her.”
“I swear.”
“Not Mateo.”
“I swear.”
“And not Valeria.”
Alejandro’s eyes narrowed.
“Why Valeria?”
Lucía closed her eyes.
“Because I saw her once before tonight.”
His grip tightened.
“Where?”
“Outside Mateo’s office.”
“When?”
“Three days before I disappeared.”
Alejandro felt something inside him collapse.
Valeria had told him they first met four months ago at a charity auction.
She had been lying from the beginning.
They reached the ground floor.
Hotel security met them near the loading dock.
An ambulance arrived seven minutes later.
Alejandro climbed in beside Lucía.
She tried to object.
The paramedic stopped her.
“He is family?”
Lucía looked at Alejandro.
The question hung between them.
Finally she said.
“Technically.”
The ambulance doors closed.
Alejandro sat near her feet while paramedics checked the baby’s heartbeat.
A rapid thumping filled the small space.
His eyes burned.
“That is the baby?”
One paramedic nodded.
“Strong heartbeat.”
Alejandro turned his face away.
Lucía watched him.
He wiped his eyes before she could see too much.
His phone vibrated.
A message from Valeria appeared.
WHERE ARE YOU?
Then another.
YOUR MOTHER IS CALLING ME.
Then a third.
DO NOT LISTEN TO LUCÍA.
Alejandro stared at the screen.
He typed one sentence.
WHY DID YOU MEET MATEO SEVEN MONTHS AGO?
The typing indicator appeared.
Stopped.
Appeared again.
Stopped again.
Then Valeria called.
Alejandro declined it.
She called again.
He declined it again.
A final message arrived.
BECAUSE HE HIRED ME.
Alejandro’s blood went cold.
Before he could respond, Valeria sent one more message.
AND IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY, DO NOT TAKE LUCÍA TO SAN RAFAEL HOSPITAL.
Alejandro's first instinct in the darkness was to protect Lucía.
His second was to identify the threat.
He moved one arm around her shoulders and pushed her behind the heavy housekeeping cart.
"Stay down."
"Alejandro—"
"Please."
He had rarely used that word when giving orders.
Lucía heard the difference.
A metallic scrape came from the far end of the corridor.
Someone was moving slowly.
Not running.
Running would have meant panic.
This sounded deliberate.
Alejandro pulled out his phone.
No signal.
The emergency network had been jammed.
"Ernesto?"
No answer.
Lucía whispered.
"He was beside us."
Alejandro reached toward the floor and felt nothing.
Then his fingers touched fabric.
A sleeve.
He followed it to Ernesto's shoulder.
The manager was unconscious.
"He's down."
Lucía inhaled sharply.
"Is he breathing?"
Alejandro found a pulse.
"Yes."
Another sound came through the darkness.
A short electronic beep.
Lucía's hand seized Alejandro's wrist.
"The service door."
"What about it?"
"That is the access reader."
Someone had just entered from the employee stairwell.
Alejandro reached for the only weapon he could find.
A metal handle from the side of the cleaning cart.
He pulled hard until the loose bracket snapped free.
Lucía stared at him despite the darkness.
"You are going to fight someone with a towel rack?"
"Do you have a better suggestion?"
"Yes."
She reached beneath the cart and pulled out a heavy spray bottle.
"Industrial degreaser."
Despite everything, Alejandro almost laughed.
"Remind me never to make you angry."
Lucía's voice was flat.
"You already did."
The humor vanished.
Footsteps approached.
Alejandro raised the metal bar.
A shape moved near the corner.
Lucía suddenly sprayed the degreaser into the darkness.
A man cursed.
Alejandro lunged.
The metal bar struck an arm.
Something clattered across the tile.
A syringe.
Lucía saw it at the same moment he did.
The intruder shoved Alejandro into the wall and ran.
Alejandro chased him three steps before Lucía cried out.
He turned instantly.
She had bent forward, both arms around her belly.
"Lucía."
The intruder disappeared through the stairwell.
Alejandro chose without hesitation.
He went back to his wife.
"Look at me."
Her breathing was shallow.
"It's tightening."
"The baby?"
"My stomach."
Fear erased every other thought.
The lights flickered back on.
Ernesto lay unconscious beside the wall.
The syringe gleamed on the floor between them.
Alejandro picked it up with a towel.
A clear liquid filled half the chamber.
A printed pharmacy label had been peeled away, but one fragment remained.
SAN RAFA—
Lucía saw it.
Her face changed immediately.
"No."
"What?"
"That hospital."
Her voice shook.
"That is where they took me the first time."
Alejandro stared at her.
"The first time what?"
Lucía did not answer because a sudden wave of pain made her knees buckle.
Alejandro caught her before she hit the floor.
The paramedic leaned forward.
“We are three minutes from San Rafael.”
Alejandro looked at Lucía.
She had heard everything.
Her face went white.
May you like
“Tell them to turn around.”
