Chapter 3 - The Empty Incubator
I grabbed the silver key from Rosa's lifeless fingers and sprinted toward the servant stairs.
I heard Rodrigo kick the heavy kitchen doors open just as I reached the second floor.
I climbed out of a narrow bathroom window and shimmied down the ancient stone trellis.
My heart pounded furiously against my ribs as I vanished into the dense estate gardens.
I reached my car hidden down the street and punched the monastery's address into the GPS.
The drive into the remote mountains of San Miguel de Allende took exactly forty agonizing minutes.
The old monastery sat completely isolated behind towering wrought-iron gates.
I climbed over the rusted fence, ignoring the sharp metal tearing into my palms.
The heavy wooden front door of the sanctuary was secured with a shiny new padlock.
I slid Rosa's bloody silver key into the lock, and the mechanism clicked open smoothly.
I stepped into the dark, cavernous hallway, my footsteps echoing against the cold stone walls.
The air inside smelled intensely of expensive baby powder and sterile medical alcohol.
I followed the glow of a warm yellow light coming from the old abbot's quarters.
I pushed the heavy oak door open and found a perfectly equipped, modern medical nursery.
A state-of-the-art infant incubator hummed quietly in the center of the room.
I rushed over to the machine with tears of desperate hope streaming down my face.
I looked through the clear plastic glass, praying to see my beautiful newborn son.
The incubator was completely empty.
Only a small, blue knitted blanket remained inside the sterile chamber.
My hands shook violently as I realized they had already moved him to a new location.
A sudden electronic buzzing noise shattered the eerie silence of the room.
A cheap disposable cell phone was vibrating aggressively on a nearby medical cart.
I picked up the burner phone and pressed the green answer button.
The slick, confident voice of Arturo, our corrupt family lawyer, echoed through the speaker.
May you like
Arturo told me the foreign buyers were growing extremely impatient about the vineyard sale.
He warned that if I did not sign the inheritance documents by midnight, the baby would be disposed of in the river.
