Chapter 10: The Nursery Camera
Diego did not speak during the entire drive back to Mexico City.
The handwritten note remained on the passenger seat beside him.
The wrong baby left the hospital.
Those six words echoed relentlessly through his mind.
Nothing fit together anymore.
If Valentina was his daughter, why had Alejandro wanted another baby?
If there had been a second child, where was she now?
And what exactly had happened inside San Gabriel Hospital that night?
Detective Álvarez broke the silence.
"We're asking the wrong question."
Diego glanced at him.
"What do you mean?"
"We keep asking who Baby B was."
"And?"
"We should be asking..."
He paused.
"...who was supposed to leave that hospital?"
The investigation shifted back to San Gabriel Hospital.
This time, Detective Álvarez requested architectural records instead of medical files.
The hospital administrator looked puzzled.
"You need blueprints?"
"Yes."
"For what?"
"The security system."
An hour later, an aging maintenance supervisor joined them.
"There used to be cameras everywhere."
Diego looked up immediately.
"Everywhere?"
The man nodded.
"Hallways."
"Entrances."
"The maternity wing."
Diego's pulse quickened.
"What happened to the recordings?"
The supervisor scratched his chin.
"They were stored on magnetic tapes."
"Where are they now?"
"I honestly don't know."
"When was the system replaced?"
"About three and a half years ago."
"So the tapes should still exist."
The supervisor hesitated.
"Unless..."
"Unless what?"
"They were moved to the old maintenance warehouse."
The warehouse stood behind the abandoned east wing of the hospital.
Dust covered everything.
Shelves leaned under the weight of forgotten equipment.
Broken wheelchairs.
Old oxygen tanks.
Boxes filled with decades of paperwork.
The maintenance supervisor switched on a flashlight.
"We never throw anything away."
After nearly an hour of searching...
Detective Álvarez found a locked metal cabinet.
Inside rested dozens of VHS tapes.
Each carefully labeled by date.
Diego held his breath.
The supervisor compared the labels.
"There."
He pointed.
"The night you're looking for."
Tape:
Maternity Security – July 18
Exactly four years earlier.
Finding a VHS player proved more difficult than finding the tape itself.
Finally, an elderly technician produced one from storage.
The image flickered onto an old monitor.
Black and white.
No sound.
Just grainy surveillance footage.
Time stamp:
8:17 PM
A nurse wheeled Marisol through the hallway.
She appeared exhausted.
One hand rested protectively over her pregnant stomach.
Minutes later...
Alejandro Villaseñor arrived.
Even without audio, his commanding posture was unmistakable.
He entered Marisol's room.
Stayed for twelve minutes.
Then left.
Diego clenched his jaw.
Everything matched Lucía's testimony.
The recording continued.
9:41 PM
Another woman was rushed toward the delivery rooms.
Her face remained hidden beneath an oxygen mask.
She was also pregnant.
Detective Álvarez leaned closer.
"Pause."
The technician froze the frame.
The woman wore an expensive bracelet.
Diamond-encrusted.
Nothing like anything Marisol could have afforded.
"So Baby B's mother was wealthy," the detective murmured.
The tape resumed.
At 10:02 PM, both delivery room lights were illuminated.
Two women.
Giving birth at nearly the same time.
The recording skipped forward.
Then...
At 10:48 PM...
A nurse wheeled two bassinets toward the nursery.
Baby Reyes.
Baby...
The second name couldn't be read.
The image quality was too poor.
Diego leaned closer.
"Can we sharpen it?"
The technician shook his head.
"It's forty-year-old analog video."
"Four."
"What?"
"It's only four years old."
The technician smiled apologetically.
"Feels older."
Then everything changed.
At 11:13 PM, Alejandro returned.
He wasn't alone.
Ricardo Castillo walked beside him.
Neither man wore medical clothing.
They entered the nursery.
The nurses left.
The two men remained inside.
For nearly seven minutes.
When they finally exited...
Ricardo carried a sealed briefcase.
Alejandro carried nothing.
Detective Álvarez frowned.
"They weren't supposed to be in there."
"No."
"They had no medical authority."
Diego stared silently at the screen.
Something happened during those seven minutes.
Something no camera inside the nursery had captured.
The tape reached its final hour.
At 11:27 PM, Carmen Villaseñor appeared.
She hurried toward the nursery.
She looked frightened.
She entered.
Only one minute later...
She came running back out.
Not walking.
Running.
She was crying.
Diego froze the image.
His mother had never told him that part.
That evening, Diego returned to the mansion carrying a digital copy of the footage.
Carmen waited for him in Alejandro's study.
She immediately recognized the tape.
"You found it."
"You knew it existed."
She slowly nodded.
"I prayed no one ever would."
Diego placed the laptop before her.
"I need you to watch something."
He played the final minutes.
Carmen watched herself run from the nursery.
Tears immediately filled her eyes.
She buried her face in her hands.
"I remember..."
"What happened?"
"I wasn't supposed to see it."
"See what?"
She struggled to breathe.
"When I entered..."
Her voice trembled.
"...there was only one baby."
Diego frowned.
"The other bassinet..."
She looked at him.
"...was empty."
Silence filled the room.
"What do you mean empty?"
"I asked where the second baby was."
"And?"
"A nurse told me Mr. Villaseñor had ordered the child transferred."
"Transferred where?"
"No one would answer."
Diego stared at his mother.
"You never told anyone?"
"I tried."
"What happened?"
"Your father told me if I ever mentioned that night again..."
She stopped.
"...he would make sure I never saw you again."
Across town...
Marisol tucked Valentina into bed.
The little girl hugged her stuffed rabbit.
"Mama?"
"Yes?"
"Will nice man visit again?"
Marisol smiled softly.
"I think so."
Valentina closed her eyes.
"I like him."
"So do I."
The words escaped before Marisol realized what she had said.
She quietly kissed her daughter's forehead.
Outside the apartment...
A black sedan remained parked across the street.
Inside sat Ricardo Castillo.
He lowered his binoculars.
"They're still here."
The younger man beside him looked uneasy.
"Are we taking the child tonight?"
Ricardo shook his head.
"No."
"Then why are we watching?"
"Because Diego is finally asking the right questions."
He opened a folder resting on his lap.
Inside was an official Mexican birth certificate.
Not Valentina's.
Across the top appeared a name Diego had never heard before.
Isabella Serrano
Date of birth:
Exactly the same night.
Exactly the same hospital.
Exactly eleven minutes after Valentina.
Ricardo smiled coldly.
"There you are..."
He tapped the photograph of a little girl attached to the file.
"...Baby B."
The younger man looked confused.
"So she's alive."
"Yes."
"Does she know?"
Ricardo closed the folder.
"She believes she's the daughter of a middle-class schoolteacher in Puebla."
"And she's not?"
Ricardo looked out through the windshield toward the lights of Mexico City.
"No."
He paused.
"She's the child Alejandro Villaseñor spent four years trying to hide."
The younger man whispered,
"Then who are her real parents?"
Ricardo's smile disappeared.
"That..."
He started the engine.
"...is the one secret even Alejandro took to his grave."
As the sedan drove away into the night, neither man noticed another vehicle parked farther down the street.
Inside sat Detective Álvarez.
Camera in hand.
He quietly photographed Ricardo's license plate.
Then he smiled.
May you like
For the first time since the investigation began...
They had finally found the man who had been hiding in the shadows all along.
