Chapter 3 - ROOM 814
Sebastián pushed the chair harder beneath the handle.
The door opened only a few inches.
A man’s voice came from the hallway.
“Mr. Alcázar, step away from the door.”
Sebastián recognized Dr. Esteban Mena.
Mena had supervised Valeria’s pregnancy from the beginning.
He had repeatedly told Sebastián that Valeria was anxious, irrational, and emotionally unstable.
Now he stood outside with two nurses and three security officers.
“We need to transfer your wife,” Mena said.
“She is in active labor.”
“She requires psychiatric observation.”
“She requires a delivery room.”
Mena lowered his voice.
“Your mother has medical authority.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
Sebastián held up the folder.
“These signatures are forged.”
Rebeca stepped into view.
“Sebastián, you are frightened.”
Her tone was gentle.
“You are not thinking clearly.”
He almost laughed.
She had used the same words whenever Valeria challenged her.
“You prepared custody documents before my daughter was born.”
“We prepared protection.”
“For whom?”
“For the Alcázar family.”
Valeria cried out behind him.
Sebastián turned.
Her hands gripped the sheets.
Mariana pressed the emergency button, but no one responded.
The hospital system had been disabled inside the room.
Sebastián removed a metal oxygen stand and wedged it beneath the door handle.
Then he called the public emergency number.
“My wife is in labor at Hospital San Gabriel,” he said.
“The hospital staff are refusing treatment and attempting an unauthorized transfer.”
Mena’s face changed when he heard the call.
“You are making a serious mistake.”
Sebastián looked through the window.
“No.”
He remembered every time Valeria had begged him to listen.
“This is the first mistake I’m refusing to make.”
A nurse near the back stepped away from Mena.
Her name tag read ANA TORRES.
She looked frightened.
Then she slipped something through the gap beneath the door.
It was a folded piece of paper.
Mariana picked it up.
Three words were written inside.
ELEVATOR B.
MIDNIGHT TRANSFER.
Sebastián checked the clock.
It was eleven forty-three.
Seventeen minutes remained.
Rebeca noticed the paper.
“Ana,” she said quietly.
The nurse went pale.
Mena grabbed Ana’s arm.
She pulled away.
“I won’t help you do this.”
The officers turned toward her.
Before anyone could stop her, Ana ran down the corridor.
Rebeca looked back at Sebastián.
“You have no idea what you have placed in danger.”
Sebastián held her gaze.
“You’re right.”
He looked at Valeria.
“But I’m finally beginning to understand who placed it there.”
Sirens became audible outside the hospital.
May you like
And Octavio quietly disappeared from the hallway.
---
