## CHAPTER 12 — THE LOCKED MATERNITY WING
We had less than ten minutes before they reached the warehouse.
Daniel contacted a federal investigator who had assisted during Santiago’s trial.
A convoy met us beneath an overpass and moved us to a government safe location.
My father wanted me to leave the country with Mateo.
I refused.
Running would only give our enemies time to erase the truth.
The microfilm contained a partial address connected to Santa Aurelia Hospital.
The hospital building had been converted into a private medical research center, but one section remained sealed.
The old maternity wing.
Two days later, Daniel obtained a warrant allowing us to search it.
The hospital’s current owners protested until federal agents arrived.
The sealed wing was located beneath the renovated floors.
Its elevator required a mechanical key that the administrator claimed no longer existed.
Daniel found the key in her desk.
The elevator descended three levels.
When the doors opened, stale air rushed toward us.
The corridor beyond looked untouched.
Faded murals covered the walls.
Clouds.
Stars.
Smiling animals.
Small plastic nameplates remained attached to the nursery doors.
My father stopped moving.
“This is where I found you.”
I held Mateo closer.
We entered a records room filled with empty shelves.
Someone had removed most of the files.
But not all of them.
Behind a fallen cabinet, Daniel discovered a narrow door.
Inside were dozens of metal boxes labeled with dates.
My birthday appeared on one.
My father tried to open it.
The lock had been replaced.
Daniel broke it.
Inside was a cassette tape, three photographs, and a thin medical file.
The first photograph showed my mother lying in a hospital bed.
She looked exhausted but alive.
She was holding me.
Beside her stood Sofia.
The second photograph showed my father carrying me through a service entrance.
The third showed another woman watching from the corridor.
Beatriz.
She looked much younger, but her expression was unmistakable.
I opened the medical file.
My mother’s name had been crossed out.
Beatriz’s name had been written above it.
According to the altered document, Beatriz had given birth to me.
My stomach twisted.
“She tried to claim me as her child.”
My father shook his head.
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
Before he could explain, Daniel inserted the cassette into an old recorder found on the shelf.
A woman’s voice filled the room.
My mother’s voice.
“If Arturo hears this, tell him I was right. The program is real. Beatriz is not working alone.”
My father closed his eyes when she said his name.
The recording continued.
“They are placing children inside powerful families. Some are being used to redirect inheritances. Others are being raised under false identities.”
The tape hissed.
“I gave Sofia the registry. She promised to protect Subject B.”
I looked at my father.
“She called me Subject B.”
“She was using their language in case the tape was found.”
My mother’s breathing became uneven.
“If my daughter survives, do not tell her who I am until the second child is located.”
The tape stopped.
No one moved.
I rewound the final sentence and played it again.
Until the second child is located.
I looked at my father.
“What second child?”
He backed away from me.
“I never heard this recording.”
“Was I a twin?”
“I don’t know.”
“You knew something.”
He looked toward the dark corridor.
“The night Sofia called me, she said there were two bracelets.”
I remembered the label found in Mateo’s blanket.
Subject B.
“If I was Subject B…”
A light switched on at the end of the corridor.
A nursery window glowed behind the glass.
Inside stood the man in the gray coat.
He held a second infant bracelet against the window.
It was labeled:
SUBJECT A — FEMALE
May you like
Then he turned and disappeared into the darkness.
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