Chapter 1 - The Hospital at Dawn
The cold morning air bit at my skin as I parked behind the private clinic.
My watch read exactly six o'clock.
I walked toward the emergency loading dock just as Doctor Ana Lucía Méndez had instructed.
The heavy metal door cracked open before I even had the chance to knock.
Ana Lucía grabbed my arm and pulled me into the dimly lit corridor.
She looked terrified and completely exhausted.
There were dark circles under her eyes as she locked the door behind us.
I demanded to know where my wife's medical file was hidden.
Ana Lucía shook her head and told me there was no official file.
She explained that my mother had brought Camila in through the private underground garage.
Teresa had paid a corrupt surgeon a fortune to bypass all standard hospital protocols.
I felt a sickening knot form in my stomach as we walked down the sterile hallway.
We entered the hospital morgue where the air was freezing and smelled of strong chemicals.
Ana Lucía walked over to a steel table covered by a white sheet.
I braced myself to look at my beautiful wife one more time.
Ana Lucía pulled the heavy fabric down just enough to expose Camila's torso.
My breath caught in my throat and my knees nearly gave out.
Camila's stomach was completely flat.
A fresh surgical incision stretched across her abdomen, crudely stitched together with thick black thread.
I looked at the doctor with tears of pure rage burning in my eyes.
Ana Lucía placed a trembling hand on my shoulder.
She whispered that Camila had not died from natural complications during childbirth.
Someone had paralyzed my wife with a powerful muscle relaxant.
Then they had performed a forced surgical extraction of the baby.
I asked her where my newborn son was right now.
Ana Lucía looked toward the morgue entrance with wide, frightened eyes.
She told me my mother had walked out of the hospital holding a healthy, crying baby boy wrapped in a blue blanket.
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Before I could even process the shock, the heavy morgue doors suddenly violently rattled from the outside.
Someone was trying to break in, and they were armed with a heavy steel crowbar.
