Chapter 2 - The Man in the Photograph
Alejandro called Dr. Tomás Beltrán before he called anyone else.
Tomás answered on the second ring.
“Tell me you’re with Valeria.”
Alejandro’s stomach tightened.
“I am.”
“Then get her to a hospital.”
“Now.”
Alejandro looked at his wife.
“She said you examined her.”
“I did.”
“And I told her she needed observation.”
“She refused because she was terrified someone in that house would find out she had called me.”
Alejandro walked toward the window.
His mind was racing.
“What exactly happened?”
Tomás was silent for a moment.
Then he answered.
“She has bruising consistent with an impact.”
“She had mild bleeding.”
“She was having uterine contractions when I arrived.”
Alejandro closed his eyes.
“And the baby?”
“Heartbeat was strong.”
“But she is six months pregnant, Alejandro.”
“This is not something you gamble with.”
Alejandro looked back at Valeria.
She was watching him carefully.
Not hopefully.
Carefully.
As if she still did not know whether he would protect her or defend his family.
“Why were you leaving through the back door at two in the morning?”
Alejandro asked.
“Because Valeria begged me not to be seen.”
Tomás sounded irritated now.
“She believed your sister was watching the front entrance.”
Alejandro thought of Marcela’s blurry photograph.
A shadow leaving the back door.
Perfectly timed.
Perfectly framed.
“She knew you were here.”
Tomás paused.
“Apparently.”
Alejandro ended the call.
He walked to the closet and pulled out an overnight bag.
Valeria watched him.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking you to the hospital.”
Her face tightened.
“I don’t want Esther or Marcela knowing where I am.”
“They won’t.”
“Alejandro.”
He stopped.
Valeria’s voice trembled.
“You don’t understand.”
“They’re not just cruel.”
“They’re scared.”
“Of what?”
She looked at the memory card.
“What I found.”
Alejandro reached for it.
Valeria pulled it back.
“No.”
He stared at her.
“You still don’t trust me.”
“I trusted you for two years.”
“And every time your mother insulted me, you said she was traditional.”
“Every time Marcela humiliated me, you said she was jealous.”
“Every time I told you something was wrong, you told me I was reading too much into it.”
Alejandro lowered his hand.
He could not argue.
Valeria had not become secretive in three days.
He had trained her to expect disbelief.
A knock sounded at the bedroom door.
Then Marcela’s voice.
“Alejandro?”
Valeria’s entire body went rigid.
He noticed.
That reaction told him more than a hundred explanations.
Marcela knocked again.
“Is everything okay?”
Alejandro walked to the door.
Valeria whispered urgently.
“Don’t tell her we’re leaving.”
He looked at his wife.
Then at the door.
For the first time in his life, Alejandro Aranda deliberately lied to his sister.
“Everything’s fine.”
Marcela was quiet.
Then she said.
“Did you ask her about the man?”
Alejandro’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“And?”
He looked at Valeria.
“She gave me exactly what I needed.”
Marcela laughed softly.
“I knew it.”
Alejandro’s eyes turned cold.
“No.”
“You didn’t.”
He waited until Marcela’s footsteps faded.
Then he locked the door.
Twenty minutes later, Alejandro and Valeria left through the underground garage.
May you like
Neither of them knew Marcela was standing behind the curtain of the second-floor library.
Watching their car disappear.
