Chapter 5 - THE WRONG HOSPITAL
“Turn around.”
Alejandro’s voice was so sharp that the paramedic looked up immediately.
“We cannot just change destination without a medical reason.”
“I am giving you one.”
The paramedic glanced at Lucía.
She was pale, sweating, and clutching the side rail.
“What is the concern?”
Lucía answered.
“My husband’s family has influence at San Rafael.”
The word husband landed strangely between them.
Not tenderly.
Not angrily.
Simply as a legal fact that carried too much history.
The paramedic frowned.
“That does not automatically mean—”
“Please.”
Lucía’s voice cracked.
“I am asking you not to take me there.”
The paramedic looked at her monitor.
“The bleeding is not heavy right now, but we need obstetric evaluation immediately.”
Alejandro leaned forward.
“What is the next closest hospital with a neonatal unit?”
“Santa Elena Medical Center.”
“How far?”
“Eight more minutes.”
“Go there.”
The paramedic radioed the driver.
The ambulance changed direction.
Alejandro looked down at Valeria’s message again.
BECAUSE HE HIRED ME.
The words seemed impossible.
He had slept beside Valeria.
Taken her to dinners.
Introduced her to investors.
Allowed her into his home.
He had mistaken proximity for intimacy again.
Lucía watched his face.
“She admitted it?”
“Yes.”
“What exactly?”
“That Mateo hired her.”
Lucía closed her eyes.
“I knew it.”
“How?”
“I saw her outside his office.”
“That is not enough to know.”
“No.”
She opened her eyes.
“But I also heard him call her Vale.”
Alejandro looked at her.
“Vale?”
“He said, ‘Vale, not yet. Wait until he is ready.’”
Alejandro’s chest tightened.
Valeria had told him only her childhood friends called her Vale.
He remembered the charity auction where they supposedly met.
Mateo had insisted Alejandro attend.
Mateo had placed Valeria at the same table.
Mateo had laughed when Alejandro finally asked for her number.
He had orchestrated the meeting.
The realization was humiliating.
Lucía saw it.
“This is how they work.”
“How who works?”
“Your mother and Mateo.”
“You think they planned Valeria from the beginning?”
“I think your mother wanted a woman she could control beside you.”
Alejandro stared at the floor of the ambulance.
The pieces aligned too easily.
Elena had disliked Lucía from the first month of their marriage.
Not because Lucía was poor.
Elena could tolerate poverty when it came wrapped in obedience.
She disliked Lucía because Lucía asked questions.
Why were construction invoices being approved twice?
Why did family trusts own suppliers Alejandro had never heard of?
Why did Mateo attend every board meeting even when legal matters were not discussed?
Why did Elena treat company money like inheritance already distributed?
Alejandro had called Lucía suspicious.
He had told her to stop looking for enemies.
Now he wondered whether she had simply been the only person in the house looking at all.
The ambulance slowed.
Santa Elena Medical Center appeared through the rear windows.
Lucía squeezed the rail again.
A paramedic checked the monitor.
“Baby’s heartbeat is still reassuring.”
Alejandro breathed out.
Lucía did not.
“What?” he asked.
She looked at him.
“I don’t trust anyone you call.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t.”
She spoke quietly.
“I changed clinics twice after your mother found the first one.”
Alejandro’s jaw tightened.
“What did she do?”
“She did not need to do anything obvious.”
Lucía stared at the ceiling.
“A nurse suddenly knew my new address.”
“My appointments started getting canceled.”
“A receptionist told me someone from the Montero family office had requested my medical records.”
Alejandro’s hands curled into fists.
“Did they give them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you report it?”
“To whom?”
“Police.”
Lucía looked at him.
“You mean Commissioner Ortega?”
Alejandro knew the name.
Ortega attended his mother’s Christmas parties.
He felt sick.
The ambulance doors opened.
Nurses rushed Lucía toward obstetric triage.
Alejandro followed until a nurse stopped him at a set of doors.
“Family waits outside until assessment is complete.”
“I am her husband.”
Lucía turned from the bed.
“He can wait.”
The nurse nodded.
The doors closed between them.
Alejandro stood alone in a bright hallway smelling of antiseptic.
His phone rang.
Valeria.
He answered.
“Talk.”
She exhaled shakily.
“Are you at San Rafael?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Why?”
“Because Mateo called someone there after you left the hotel.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know?”
“I was sitting beside him when he did it.”
Alejandro went still.
“You are with Mateo now?”
“No.”
“Where are you?”
“In a taxi.”
“Going where?”
“Away from him.”
“You expect me to believe you suddenly changed sides?”
“No.”
Her answer surprised him.
“I expect you to hate me.”
“Good instinct.”
“Alejandro, listen to me before you hang up.”
He said nothing.
“Mateo hired me four months ago to meet you.”
“You just said seven months.”
“I met him seven months ago.”
“Why?”
“Because he had used me for other work.”
“What kind of work?”
Valeria hesitated.
“Social work.”
“That means nothing.”
“It means I attended events, got close to people, learned what they knew, and reported back.”
“You were paid to sleep with me.”
“No.”
Alejandro laughed without humor.
“Do not insult me again tonight.”
“I was paid to become useful to you.”
“That sounds worse.”
“I know.”
“Why warn me about San Rafael?”
“Because Lucía is pregnant.”
“You knew that before tonight.”
A long silence followed.
“Yes.”
Alejandro shut his eyes.
“How long?”
“Since before I met you.”
His voice dropped.
“And you said nothing.”
“I was told the baby was not yours.”
“You believed Mateo?”
“I believed the documents he showed me.”
Alejandro looked through the glass doors toward the obstetric unit.
“Everyone believed documents.”
Valeria whispered.
“I am sorry.”
“Save it.”
“There is something else.”
“What?”
“Mateo was not trying to keep Lucía away only because of the money.”
“What else?”
Valeria lowered her voice.
“He was looking for a flash drive.”
Alejandro remembered Elena accusing Lucía of collecting documents.
“What is on it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is it?”
“If Mateo knew, Lucía would not still be alive.”
Alejandro’s entire body went cold.
Before he could respond, a nurse burst through the obstetric doors.
“Mr. Montero?”
He turned.
“What happened?”
“We need you to come with me.”
“Is the baby all right?”
The nurse hesitated.
“Your wife is asking for you.”
Alejandro ran through the doors.
Lucía lay on the bed connected to monitors.
A doctor stood beside her.
The bleeding had slowed.
The baby’s heartbeat remained strong.
Alejandro nearly collapsed with relief.
Then Lucía held up her phone.
A photograph had just arrived from an unknown number.
It showed the front door of the small apartment where she had been living.
The ambulance crew argued for less than thirty seconds before Alejandro forced the issue.
He did not threaten them with money.
He did not use his name.
He simply held up the syringe sealed inside a plastic specimen bag and asked one question.
"Would you take your pregnant wife to a hospital connected to this?"
The older paramedic looked at the partial label.
His expression changed.
He told the driver to divert.
Lucía lay strapped to the gurney, furious and frightened at the same time.
"You cannot control every road now because you're scared."
Alejandro sat beside her.
"I know."
The answer surprised her.
"Then stop acting like you can."
"Tell me what happened at San Rafael."
Lucía looked toward the ceiling.
The ambulance lights flashed red against her face.
"Three weeks after I left the house, I started bleeding."
Alejandro's hand closed around the edge of the bench.
"Why didn't you call me?"
She turned her head slowly.
"I did."
He stopped breathing.
"Six times."
"I never received those calls."
"I know that now."
"How?"
"Because your voicemail answered, but the recording had changed."
Alejandro frowned.
"Changed how?"
"It said your office would no longer accept communications from me and that all contact had to go through counsel."
He felt sick.
He had never recorded such a message.
"Who took you to the hospital?"
"A neighbor."
"And then?"
Lucía's face became expressionless.
That frightened him more than tears would have.
"A doctor told me the pregnancy was unstable."
"Was it?"
"No."
"How do you know?"
"Because the nurse who discharged me found me in the parking lot twenty minutes later."
Lucía swallowed.
"She said the doctor who examined me did not work there."
Alejandro stared at her.
"What?"
"He had used a borrowed coat and someone else's identification."
"Why?"
"I did not know."
She rubbed one thumb over the blanket.
"Then the nurse asked what medication he had given me."
Alejandro's voice dropped.
"What did he give you?"
"Nothing."
"Lucía."
"I refused the injection."
Her eyes met his.
"He told me it would calm uterine contractions."
Alejandro looked at the syringe in the evidence bag.
His blood went cold.
"Was it like this?"
Lucía stared at it for several seconds.
"Same size."
"Same cap?"
"Yes."
The older paramedic heard them.
He quietly moved the evidence bag farther away.
Alejandro asked the question he did not want answered.
"Why would anyone try to hurt the baby?"
Lucía's voice was barely audible.
"Maybe they weren't trying to hurt the baby."
"Then what?"
She placed one hand over her stomach.
"Maybe they were trying to make sure no one could prove when I became pregnant."
Alejandro understood immediately.
If the pregnancy ended early enough, documents could become stories.
Dates could become arguments.
Inheritance could become uncertainty.
And someone in his family had always cared far too much about inheritance.
The door was open.
Her belongings were scattered across the floor.
Someone had written three words on the wall in black paint.
WHERE IS IT?
Lucía looked at Alejandro.
May you like
“They know I talked.”
