CHAPTER 12 – THE MOTHERS OF SANTA EMILIA
CHAPTER 12 – THE MOTHERS OF SANTA EMILIA
Rosa survived the journey across the lake.
Barely.
Paramedics met our vessel near the southern shore.
They removed her first.
Her blood pressure was dangerously low.
The bullet had damaged one lung.
She lost consciousness before they placed her inside the helicopter.
My mother was transported beside her.
The gunshot near her collarbone had missed her heart but fractured two ribs and torn muscle near her shoulder.
Eduardo was already undergoing surgery at a hospital in Cuernavaca.
Officer Salgado was taken to another operating room with a bullet lodged in his thigh.
Judge Medina remained in police custody.
Beatriz was loaded into an armored ambulance under armed guard.
Even with a bullet wound and metal restraints, she looked more irritated than defeated.
Six artificial womb chambers were transferred into emergency neonatal care units.
Subject Five’s heartbeat stabilized at seventy-one during transport.
Doctors warned that the direct transfusion had carried serious risks.
They also admitted it might have saved her life.
The other five unborn children survived the loss of power.
Subject Six developed respiratory complications.
Subject Three suffered a temporary drop in brain oxygen.
The doctors could not promise that every baby would survive.
They promised to try.
That was more than Beatriz had ever given them.
Daniel refused to release my hand while hospital staff examined him.
Lucía remained close to him.
Mateo sat silently in the next bed.
Nicolás watched everyone with the cautious expression of a child waiting for the next adult to change his name.
We occupied a secure pediatric wing guarded by federal officers.
No visitors entered without identity verification.
No medical order was accepted without two independent signatures.
No one trusted a white coat anymore.
At 6:42 that evening, a federal prosecutor named Camila Ortega entered our room carrying five sealed folders.
She looked exhausted.
She also looked angry.
That made me trust her slightly more.
“Laura Ríos?”
“Yes.”
“I am leading the investigation into the Armenta Foundation, Santa Emilia Hospital, and the judicial orders connected to Dr. Cordero.”
“Is Mariana in custody?”
“Yes.”
“Judge Medina?”
“Yes.”
“Beatriz?”
“In surgery under guard.”
“Mateo Salazar escaped with Subject Seven.”
“We know.”
“Has the capsule been located?”
“No.”
The answer felt like another door closing.
Silvana sat in a guarded room two floors below us.
Police had recovered her after the boathouse attack.
She had cooperated with investigators.
When she learned that Subject Seven was genetically her daughter, she demanded to join the search.
The prosecutor refused.
Silvana had committed fraud.
She had participated in Daniel’s abduction.
She had helped Eduardo prepare the guardianship scheme.
Being deceived did not erase what she had done.
It only made her one more damaged person who had chosen to damage others.
Camila placed the folders on the table.
“We have preliminary genetic results.”
Daniel immediately looked at me.
I squeezed his hand.
“Do we need to discuss them in front of the children?” I asked.
Daniel answered before Camila could.
“Yes.”
I looked at him.
“I am tired of people whispering about me.”
His voice was quiet.
“I want to hear the truth when everyone else hears it.”
Lucía nodded.
“So do I.”
Nicolás looked toward the floor.
Mateo said nothing.
I pulled four chairs into a circle.
The children sat together.
Elena entered as Camila opened the first folder.
Her parents had been found alive at their home.
They were now under protective detention while investigators determined how deeply Elena’s father had participated in the foundation’s finances.
Elena had not spoken to them yet.
She sat beside Mateo.
He allowed her to hold his hand.
Camila began with Daniel.
“The tests confirm that Laura and Eduardo are not Daniel’s biological parents.”
Daniel’s grip tightened around mine.
“The woman known as Rosa Valdez is his biological mother.”
I felt a strange mixture of relief and fear.
The photograph had been real.
At least one truth remained standing.
“Who is his biological father?” I asked.
Camila opened another page.
“Dr. Tomás Cordero.”
Mariana’s brother.
The administrator who had arranged the infant transfers.
The man who had supposedly died in a car accident six years earlier.
Daniel looked confused.
“Was he bad?”
Camila hesitated.
I answered.
“He did terrible things.”
“Did he love Rosa?”
“I do not know.”
“Did he love me?”
I forced myself not to lie.
“I do not know that either.”
Daniel looked at Rosa’s empty place.
“Does she want me back?”
My chest tightened.
“We will ask her when she wakes up.”
“What do you want?”
“I want you safe.”
“That is not what I asked.”
He was seven.
He should not have needed to ask such a question.
“I want to remain your mother.”
His eyes filled.
“Even though Rosa is my real mother?”
“She is your biological mother.”
“She carried you.”
“She gave birth to you.”
“That is real.”
“I raised you.”
“I love you.”
“That is real too.”
“Neither truth has to erase the other.”
Daniel leaned against me.
“Then I want both.”
I kissed his hair.
“We will try to build something that gives you both.”
Camila opened Lucía’s file.
“The maternal sample used in the first DNA report was mislabeled.”
“Laura is not Lucía’s biological mother.”
Lucía stared straight ahead.
“Silvana is not her biological mother either.”
Lucía finally looked up.
“Then who is?”
My mother’s empty hospital bed seemed to fill the room.
“Teresa Martínez Armenta,” Camila said.
“Laura’s mother.”
Lucía looked at me.
“That makes you my sister.”
“Biologically,” I said.
“But I am thirty-two years older.”
Daniel frowned.
“How can her mother have a seven-year-old daughter?”
Camila turned to me.
“You should explain.”
I took a breath.
“My mother’s genetic material was preserved by the foundation.”
“An embryo created many years ago was implanted into Silvana without Silvana being told where it came from.”
Lucía looked sick.
“Silvana gave birth to me.”
“Yes.”
“But she is not my mother?”
“She carried you inside her body.”
“That matters.”
“My mother provided the egg that created you.”
“That also matters.”
“Then who do I belong to?”
“No one owns you.”
I moved closer.
“You are allowed to decide what every relationship means when you feel safe enough to decide.”
Lucía touched the pendant.
“Did Teresa give this to me?”
“No.”
“Mariana took it from her records.”
Lucía started to remove it.
I stopped her.
“It was my mother’s.”
“She would want you to have it.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she pointed to you when she thought she was dying.”
“She wanted us to know who you were.”
Lucía left the pendant around her neck.
Camila opened Nicolás’s folder.
“The tests confirm that Nicolás was created from an embryo belonging to Laura and Eduardo.”
Nicolás did not react.
“His original embryo records identify him as Nicolás Martínez.”
“Eduardo later added the surname Ríos in private payment documents.”
Nicolás looked at me.
“Did he name me?”
“Yes.”
“Why did Beatriz call me Subject Four?”
“Because numbers made it easier for her to ignore that you were a child.”
“Do I have to live with Eduardo?”
“No.”
“Do I have to live with you?”
The question hurt.
“No.”
“Then where do I go?”
“We will decide with you.”
“You will have a lawyer who represents only you.”
“You will have a therapist who does not work for the foundation.”
“You will not be moved anywhere without knowing why.”
He studied my face.
“What do you want?”
“I want time to know you.”
“I want the chance to become someone you can trust.”
“I will not force you to call me anything.”
He looked at Daniel.
“Can I stay near him?”
Daniel answered.
“Yes.”
Nicolás nodded once.
“Then I can stay near you too.”
It was not an embrace.
It was not forgiveness.
It was a beginning.
The fourth folder belonged to Mateo.
Elena’s hand tightened around his.
Camila read carefully.
“Mateo is Subject Two.”
“He is the child Elena’s parents received through the Armenta Foundation.”
“His biological mother is unknown.”
“His biological father appears to be a donor registered through Cordero Medical Holdings.”
Mateo looked at Elena.
“Am I still your brother?”
“Yes.”
Her answer came immediately.
“Even if my parents did bad things?”
“Yes.”
“Even if my name was different?”
“Yes.”
“Even if they bought me?”
Elena closed her eyes.
“You were never something they had the right to buy.”
“But I am your brother because we lived as family.”
“Only if you still want me to be your sister.”
Mateo thought for several seconds.
“I do.”
Elena began to cry.
Mateo leaned against her shoulder.
Camila opened the fifth folder.
“Subject Five has the same biological parents as Nicolás.”
“Laura and Eduardo.”
Nicolás looked toward the neonatal wing.
“A sister.”
“Yes.”
“Does she have a name?”
I had spent the entire afternoon thinking about that.
A child who had been reduced to a number deserved a name chosen with love.
“Sofía.”
Nicolás repeated it.
“Sofía.”
Daniel smiled.
“It means wisdom.”
I looked at him.
“How do you know that?”
“Rosa told me.”
The mention of Rosa silenced us.
A doctor entered.
Rosa had survived surgery.
She remained unconscious.
My mother had also survived.
Her condition was serious but stable.
Eduardo was alive.
The bullet had punctured his lung but missed his heart.
He had asked to speak with investigators before receiving additional pain medication.
Camila collected her folders.
“There is more.”
“Beatriz’s files confirm that Subject Seven is genetically related to Silvana.”
“Who is the father?” I asked.
“Unknown donor.”
“Gestational age?”
“Thirty-four weeks.”
“If the chamber loses power?”
“The capsule has approximately fourteen hours of independent life support.”
“How much time remains?”
“Eleven hours.”
Mateo Salazar had taken the chamber to Santa Emilia.
The original hospital had partially reopened under a new name after the fire.
The maternity wing had remained abandoned.
Police were searching it.
They had found no sign of Mateo.
At 8:10 p.m., Rosa woke.
I went to her room alone.
Machines surrounded her bed.
A tube beneath her nose delivered oxygen.
Her skin looked almost gray.
When she saw me, tears filled her eyes.
“Daniel?”
“Safe.”
“Lucía?”
“Safe.”
“The boys?”
“Safe.”
She closed her eyes.
“Thank God.”
I sat beside her.
“The test confirmed you are Daniel’s biological mother.”
A tear rolled into her hair.
“I knew.”
“Why did you not tell me?”
“Tomás said he would kill you.”
“Why me?”
“Because you had seen his face in the hospital.”
“I did not remember him.”
“He did not know that.”
“He took Daniel from me after delivery.”
“He said our son had been transferred to a safe family.”
“When I found you five years ago, I recognized Daniel immediately.”
“Why?”
“The way he rubbed his thumb against his first finger when he was tired.”
“He did it inside me.”
“He did it after birth.”
“He still does it.”
I had seen the habit every night for years.
I had never known where it came from.
“Why work in my home instead of telling me?”
“Because I saw how he looked at you.”
“How safe he felt.”
“You were his mother already.”
“You were better than me.”
“No.”
“You were threatened.”
“I still stayed silent.”
“You saved him from the orange juice.”
“I should have saved him years earlier.”
“We cannot change those years.”
“What do you want now?”
She looked afraid.
“To know him.”
“Not to take him.”
“Not to erase you.”
“Just to let him know I did not leave because I stopped loving him.”
I nodded.
“When you recover, we tell him together.”
She began crying.
Then her expression changed.
“Mateo Salazar.”
“What about him?”
“He did not work for Beatriz.”
“We know.”
“He worked for Tomás.”
“Tomás is dead.”
Rosa looked at me.
“No.”
My skin tightened.
“Eduardo said he died six years ago.”
“The body was never identified.”
“Mariana told everyone he died.”
“Where is he?”
“I do not know.”
“But Mateo called someone from the boathouse.”
“He said, ‘Your son is coming home.’”
“Whose son?”
Rosa’s eyes moved toward the door.
Before she could answer, every light in the hospital flickered.
The emergency system activated.
A security alarm sounded in the hallway.
I stood.
The door locked automatically.
A television screen mounted on the wall turned on.
Mateo Salazar appeared.
Behind him stood the abandoned entrance of Santa Emilia Hospital.
Subject Seven’s capsule rested beside him.
Its life-support monitor showed nine hours remaining.
A second man stepped into the frame.
He was older than the photograph in the hospital files.
His hair was gray.
A burn scar covered the right side of his neck.
Rosa made a broken sound.
“Tomás.”
Dr. Tomás Cordero was alive.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Laura.”
“You have my son.”
“I have Silvana’s daughter.”
May you like
“Bring Daniel to Santa Emilia before midnight.”
“Or the last child in the program will be the first one we allow to die.”
