Chapter 4: The Morning He Turned His Phone Back On
Mateo didn't leave the club until nearly four in the morning.
He was still laughing when he climbed into the back of his car, Valeria's perfume on his jacket, a half-empty bottle of mezcal in his hand.
He told his driver to take him to Valeria's apartment, not home.
He always went to Valeria's after a night like this.
He turned his phone off airplane mode somewhere on the highway.
The screen exploded.
Seventeen missed calls from Camila.
Two from a number he didn't recognize.
One from Rodrigo — Alejandro's assistant, which made no sense.
And a voicemail from a private hospital he had never heard of.
He stared at the screen.
Then he played the voicemail.
*"This message is for Mateo Salazar.
This is the administrative line at Clínica Vidal.
We are calling regarding a patient admitted in the early hours of this morning.
Please contact us at your earliest convenience."*
Mateo felt the first cold thread of something move through him.
He called Camila's phone.
It rang twice.
Then a man answered.
"Mateo." The voice was flat.
Familiar.
Impossible.
Mateo went very still.
"Alejandro."
"You should come to the hospital," Alejandro said.
"Clínica Vidal, on Avenida Constitución.
You know where that is."
"Why do you have my wife's phone?
What's going on?
Where is Camila?"
"She's here.
She's alive.
Your daughter is also alive."
The word hit him like a physical thing.
*Daughter.*
"What happened?"
"She fell down the stairs at the mansion last night," Alejandro said.
"Around eleven.
She called you seventeen times.
You didn't answer."
Mateo opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
"Come to the hospital," Alejandro said.
"Come alone."
The line went de@d.
Mateo told his driver to turn around.
He arrived at Clínica Vidal at five-twenty in the morning.
Alejandro was waiting in the lobby.
He was wearing the same clothes from the night before.
There was a faint stain on his left sleeve that Mateo didn't look at directly.
"Where is she?" Mateo said.
"She's resting.
You can see her in a few minutes." Alejandro didn't move from where he was standing.
"Sit down, Mateo."
"I don't want to sit down.
I want to see my wife."
"Sit down."
Something in Alejandro's voice made him sit.
Alejandro pulled a chair across from him and sat down slowly.
He set a manila folder on the table between them.
"What is that?" Mateo said.
"Your wife's call log from last night.
Printed and certified by the phone carrier.
Seventeen calls.
The first one came in at eleven-oh-nine.
The last one at eleven forty-four." Alejandro opened the folder and turned it so Mateo could see.
"Your phone went to airplane mode at eleven-twelve."
Mateo looked at the paper.
He didn't touch it.
"There was an accident—" he started.
"You didn't know there was an accident because you turned your phone off," Alejandro said.
"Three minutes after she started calling."
"I didn't know she was hurt.
I thought she was just—"
"Being dramatic?" Alejandro said.
Mateo's mouth closed.
"The gate to the mansion was locked," Alejandro continued.
"The override code was only accessible through your phone.
No ambulance could have entered without it.
The only person who could have opened that gate was you." He paused.
"You were the only one who could have let help in.
And you chose not to answer."
"I didn't know—"
"You didn't want to know." Alejandro's voice didn't rise.
It didn't need to.
"There's a difference."
Mateo stood up.
"I want to see Camila.
Now."
"You'll see her." Alejandro didn't stand.
"But first you're going to hear what I'm about to tell you.
Because I'm only going to say it once."
Mateo stayed standing.
His hands were at his sides.
"I have the call log," Alejandro said.
"I have the gate security record.
I have photographs and timestamped witness statements placing you at Club Élite with Valeria Montoya from ten forty-seven until three fifty-eight this morning.
I have a statement from your door staff.
I have documentation that your phone was on airplane mode during the entire window in which your pregnant wife was lying injured and alone on the floor of your home." He closed the folder.
"I have all of it, Mateo.
Every piece."
"What do you want?" Mateo said.
His voice had changed.
"Right now, I want you to go see your wife and your daughter.
And I want you to understand something very clearly before you walk into that room."
"What?"
Alejandro looked up at him.
"I'm watching everything now."
Mateo held his gaze for three seconds.
Then he looked away first.
A nurse appeared at the end of the corridor to take him to Camila's room.
He followed her without another word.
Alejandro watched him go.
Then he picked up his phone and sent a single message to Gerardo.
May you like
*He's here.
Begin.*
