CHAPTER 2: THE THING UNDER THE BLANKET
Diego stumbled back from the bed, his breath caught violently in his chest.
Under the blanket, there wasn’t something violent or monstrous.
There was Mariana.
But not the Mariana he knew.
A thin medical tube ran from her arm, taped carefully against her skin. An IV line. A portable drip bag hung hidden beside the bed, partially covered by the folds of the blanket. Wires traced along her body, disappearing beneath the fabric, connecting to a small monitoring device she had been trying desperately to conceal.
Diego froze.
“Mariana…” His voice broke. “What… is this?”
Tears filled her eyes immediately.
“I didn’t want you to see,” she whispered.
His hands shook as he stepped closer, pulling the blanket further back. The truth became clearer with every inch: medical tape on her skin, a hospital bracelet around her wrist, and faint bruising from repeated injections.
“You’ve been going to the hospital,” Diego said slowly, as if the words were too heavy to fully form. “Behind my back?”
Mariana shook her head quickly.
“No. Not behind your back… I just didn’t tell you.”
“Why?” His voice cracked. “Why would you hide this from me?”
Her lips trembled.
“Because you already work too much,” she said. “Because every dollar matters. Because I heard you talking about overtime, about taking extra shifts… and I couldn’t let you stop. Not when the baby needs everything we can give.”
Diego stared at her, stunned.
She reached for his hand, weak but desperate.
“The doctor said I’m high-risk,” she continued. “Placenta complications. I can’t move much. I need monitoring… sometimes IV fluids when I get weak.”
His eyes dropped to the equipment again.
“How long?” he whispered. “How long has this been happening?”
“Weeks,” she admitted. “I come home when you’re at work. I remove it. I hide it. I lie back down before you return.”
Diego felt something inside him crack—not anger, but fear so deep it turned into pain.
“You thought you had to carry this alone?” he asked.
Mariana looked away.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
Silence filled the room, heavy and unbearable.
Then Diego slowly sat beside her on the bed, careful not to disturb the wires.
“You don’t get to protect me by disappearing from me,” he said quietly. “We’re supposed to carry this together.”
For the first time, Mariana broke completely. She buried her face in his shoulder, crying like she had been holding it in for months.
And Diego held her.
May you like
Not because everything was okay.
But because now he finally understood how close they had been to losing everything without ever seeing it coming.
