Chapter 7: What Camila Decided
The baby's name was Sofia.
Camila had chosen it alone, in the quiet of the second night, when the hospital had gone still and the only sound was the soft rhythm of the monitors.
She hadn't consulted Mateo.
She hadn't felt the need.
By the fourth day, Sofia was off the ventilator and breathing on her own.
The nurses said she was strong.
Camila held her for the first time without tubes and wires between them, and she sat very still for a long time, not saying anything, just holding her.
Alejandro found her like that when he came in.
He stopped in the doorway.
"I can come back."
"No.
Come in." She looked up.
Her eyes were red but steady.
"She looks like my mother."
He came closer and looked at the baby.
Dark hair.
Tiny clenched fists.
"She's beautiful."
"She is." Camila looked back down at her.
"I've been thinking."
"Okay."
"I don't want to make a decision because I'm angry," she said.
"I want to make a decision because it's right."
Alejandro sat in the chair beside the bed.
He didn't say anything.
"I've been going over it," Camila continued.
"Not just last week.
All of it.
The last two years." She adjusted Sofia gently.
"I kept telling myself it was stress.
His business pressures.
That he would come back to himself.
That the man I married was still in there somewhere." She paused.
"But the man I married would not have turned his phone off."
"No," Alejandro said quietly.
"He wouldn't have."
"I want to file," she said.
"I want to start the process."
Alejandro nodded once.
"I'll call Gerardo."
"I want my own lawyer," she said.
"Someone I choose.
Not someone connected to you."
He looked at her.
"Of course."
"I'm not saying that to be ungrateful.
I'm saying it because I need this to be mine.
My decision.
My process.
My life."
"I understand completely," he said.
"And you're right."
She looked at him.
"You're not offended?"
"No." He leaned forward slightly.
"Camila.
Everything I've done this week — the documentation, Gerardo, the hospital — none of it was to take control of your situation.
It was to make sure you had options.
What you do with them is entirely yours."
She was quiet for a moment.
Sofia made a small sound and settled.
"Mateo came to see her yesterday," Camila said.
"Sofia.
He sat with her for about twenty minutes in the NICU.
He didn't say much.
He just held her." She looked at the window.
"He cried."
Alejandro said nothing.
"I don't think he's a monster," she said.
"I think he's a man who made choices.
Selfish, careless, dangerous choices.
And I think he would make them again, because I don't think he actually understands what those choices cost."
"What do you want him to understand?"
She looked down at Sofia.
"I want him to understand that she almost didn't make it.
That I almost didn't make it.
And that he was the reason.
Not the fall.
The fall was an accident.
But everything after the fall — that was him."
"He knows," Alejandro said.
"Knowing and understanding are different things," she said.
He almost smiled.
"You sound like me."
"You said something like that to him.
About not knowing versus not wanting to know."
"I did."
"It's true." She shifted Sofia to her other arm.
"I'm going to need a place to go.
When I leave here.
I can't go back to the mansion.
I won't."
"I have a property," Alejandro said.
"A house, fully staffed, completely private.
It's yours for as long as you need it.
No conditions."
She looked at him carefully.
"Alejandro.
Why are you doing all of this?"
He was quiet for a moment.
"Because five years ago, at that dinner Mateo hosted, I watched you keep your eyes on your plate every time he spoke," he said.
"And I didn't say anything.
Because it wasn't my place." He paused.
"I've thought about that night a lot since then."
Camila looked at him for a long time.
"It wasn't your fault," she said.
"No.
But I could have said something."
"What would you have said?"
He thought about it.
"I don't know.
Something." He stood.
"I'll get you a list of family lawyers.
Three names.
You pick."
"Thank you."
He moved toward the door.
"Alejandro." Her voice stopped him.
"When Mateo finds out I'm filing — and he will find out soon — he's going to be furious.
He's going to come after you."
"I know."
"He'll say you manipulated me.
That you used the situation to get close to me.
That none of this was really about helping me."
"He'll say a lot of things," Alejandro agreed.
"Are you prepared for that?"
He picked up the folder from the chair.
The one that had been with him since the first night.
The call log.
The timestamps.
The record of every choice Mateo had made while Camila was on the floor.
"Let him say them," Alejandro said.
"The record speaks for itself."
He left.
Camila looked down at Sofia.
The baby's eyes were open, dark and unfocused, taking in the light.
"It's going to be okay," Camila whispered.
"I promise you.
It's going to be okay."
Down the hall, she could hear Mateo's voice.
Raised.
Arguing with someone on the phone.
May you like
She didn't listen to the words.
She just held her daughter and waited for the noise to pass.
