Chapter 5: The Woman in the Hospital Bed
Camila was awake when Mateo walked in.
She was propped against the pillow, her left wrist wrapped and elevated, an IV line in her right arm.
She looked smaller than he remembered.
Pale in a way that wasn't just the hospital lighting.
She looked at him when he came through the door.
She didn't say anything.
Mateo stopped just inside the room.
He looked at her wrist.
At the IV.
At the dark circles under her eyes.
He looked at everything except her face.
"Camila," he said.
"I'm so sorry.
I didn't know.
I swear I didn't know."
She said nothing.
"My phone was on airplane mode.
I didn't see the calls until this morning.
If I had known—"
"You would have what?" Her voice was quiet.
Not angry.
Just quiet.
He moved closer.
"I would have come.
Of course I would have come."
"You rejected the first three calls before you turned the phone off," she said.
"The log shows that.
Alejandro showed me."
Mateo went still.
"You saw the call coming in," Camila said.
"You looked at my name on the screen.
And you rejected it.
Three times.
Then you turned the phone off so you wouldn't have to keep rejecting it."
"Camila—"
"I was on the floor for almost forty minutes," she said.
"I couldn't move.
Every time I tried, the pain was so bad I thought I was going to pass out.
I kept calling you because I thought — I genuinely believed — that at some point you would answer.
That at some point you would think, maybe something is wrong.
Maybe I should check." She looked at him.
"But you didn't."
"I made a terrible mistake," he said.
"I know that.
I'm here now."
"You're here because Alejandro called you." She shifted slightly against the pillow and winced.
"You didn't come because you were worried.
You came because you were told to."
Mateo sat down in the chair beside the bed.
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
"Tell me what I can do.
I'll do anything."
"I want to see my daughter."
"Of course.
I'll ask the nurse—"
"I've already seen her," Camila said.
"Alejandro arranged it an hour ago.
They brought her to me." She paused.
"She's beautiful."
Mateo looked at his hands.
"I haven't seen her yet."
"I know."
The silence between them was not the silence of two people who had run out of words.
It was the silence of a woman who had already decided something and a man who hadn't realized it yet.
"Camila." He reached for her hand.
She moved it before he could touch it.
Not dramatically.
Just a small, quiet shift.
"I need you to leave," she said.
"What?"
"I need to rest.
And I need you to leave."
"I'm not going to leave.
You just had surgery.
Our daughter is in the NICU.
I'm staying."
"Mateo." She looked at him directly for the first time since he'd walked in.
"I was alone on that floor for forty minutes calling your name.
I am not going to argue with you in a hospital room the morning after my daughter was born.
I am asking you, calmly, to leave."
He stood slowly.
He looked like he wanted to say something else.
Several things.
He didn't say any of them.
He walked to the door.
Stopped with his hand on the frame.
"I do love you," he said.
"Whatever you think right now, I do."
Camila looked at the window.
"Close the door on your way out."
He closed it.
She sat in the quiet room for a long moment.
Then she pressed the call button for the nurse.
"Can you ask Alejandro to come in?" she said.
"Please."
He appeared two minutes later.
He stood just inside the door, not presuming to come closer.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Like I fell down a flight of stairs," she said.
A small, exhausted almost-smile.
He didn't smile back.
He just looked at her steadily, the way someone looks at a person they are genuinely relieved to see alive.
"Thank you," she said.
"For coming.
For all of it."
"You called me," he said simply.
"I didn't know who else to call."
"I know." He paused.
"You don't have to figure anything out today.
You just had a baby.
Rest.
I'll make sure everything is handled."
"Alejandro." She looked at him.
"What does 'everything' mean?"
He met her eyes.
"It means Mateo won't be making any decisions about your life or your daughter's life without your full knowledge and consent.
Not while I'm involved."
She held his gaze for a moment.
Then she nodded once, slowly.
"Okay," she said.
He turned to leave.
"Alejandro."
He stopped.
"What did Mateo say?
When you told him about the gate code.
About the calls."
Alejandro was quiet for a moment.
"He said he didn't know."
"And what did you say?"
"I told him there was a difference between not knowing and not wanting to know."
Camila looked at the window again.
Outside, the city was fully awake now.
Traffic.
Sunlight.
A normal Tuesday morning for everyone who hadn't spent the night on a marble floor.
"He's going to fight this," she said.
"Whatever comes next.
He's going to fight it."
"I know," Alejandro said.
"Are you ready for that?"
He picked up the folder from the chair by the door.
The one with the call log.
The timestamps.
The gate records.
The photographs.
"I've been ready for a long time," he said.
He left her to rest.
In the hallway, Mateo was standing by the elevator.
He watched Alejandro come out of Camila's room.
His jaw tightened.
"You're not her family," Mateo said.
"No," Alejandro agreed.
He pressed the elevator button.
"But I'm the one who showed up."
The elevator opened.
Alejandro stepped in.
Mateo stood in the hallway alone, watching the doors close.
His phone buzzed in his pocket.
A message from Valeria.
*How is everything?
Are you coming back?*
May you like
He stared at it for a long moment.
Then he put the phone back in his pocket without answering.
