Chapter 7 - The Child They Took Before
Julián raised his weapon.
The investigator did not move.
Mariana stood behind him, one hand pressed against her belly, unable to understand what she had just heard.
“Don't,” the investigator said quietly.
Julián's jaw tightened.
“You're going to tell me what she meant.”
The radio crackled again.
The woman's voice returned.
“Julián, listen to me. He has lied to you.”
The investigator slowly reached for his own weapon.
Julián aimed directly at his chest.
“Keep your hands where I can see them.”
The man obeyed.
Mariana stared at him.
“You helped Rocío take my first child?”
The investigator looked at her.
“No.”
His voice was almost a whisper.
“I helped your mother.”
Mariana's heart stopped.
“What?”
Julián looked at him.
“You said my wife has never had another child.”
“She hasn't.”
“Then explain the message.”
The investigator looked toward the door.
“They know we're here.”
Another gunshot struck the metal.
Mariana flinched.
The baby moved violently inside her.
She closed her eyes.
The investigator lowered his voice.
“Your father and Rocío weren't working together.”
Julián frowned.
“They were.”
“No.”
The investigator looked at Mariana.
“They were both trying to control the same secret.”
“What secret?”
“Your birth.”
Mariana stared at him.
“I was born thirty-four years ago.”
“Yes.”
“With Lucía.”
“Yes.”
“Then what child are you talking about?”
The investigator hesitated.
“The child who disappeared six years ago.”
Mariana's face went pale.
Lucía.
No.
That couldn't be right.
Lucía had said she was taken as a baby.
But the investigator's expression told her there was another story.
Julián lowered his weapon slightly.
“What happened six years ago?”
The investigator looked at Mariana.
“Your mother received a letter.”
“From whom?”
“Your father.”
Mariana's breathing became shallow.
“He told her someone had found the twins.”
“Who?”
“Not you.”
The room seemed to shrink around them.
Mariana looked at Lucía.
Lucía's face had gone white.
“What are you saying?”
The investigator answered.
“There was a third child.”
Nobody spoke.
Mariana almost laughed.
“A third child?”
“I know how it sounds.”
“It sounds impossible.”
“It isn't.”
Lucía stepped forward.
“My mother only had twins.”
The investigator shook his head.
“She was told that.”
“By whom?”
“Your father.”
Lucía's eyes filled with tears.
“You're lying.”
“No.”
He pulled a folded document from his jacket.
“It was hidden from you because you were the easiest person to remove from the story.”
Lucía stared at the paper.
Mariana reached for it.
The document was a medical record.
Her mother's name appeared at the top.
Below it were three entries.
Twin A.
Twin B.
And then:
Infant C — male.
Mariana's hands began to shake.
“No.”
Julián read the page.
“Where is he?”
The investigator looked at Mariana.
“That is the question your father has spent six years trying to answer.”
Mariana remembered Rocío's words.
I need the baby.
Her stomach tightened.
She suddenly understood why.
Rocío hadn't been obsessed with the baby because of inheritance.
She had been searching for something.
Someone.
“What happened to him?”
The investigator looked toward the ceiling.
“Your father believed the child was taken immediately after birth.”
“By whom?”
“Rocío.”
Mariana's eyes filled with tears.
“No.”
“She denied it.”
“But you believe her?”
“I don't believe anyone.”
The investigator pulled out another document.
“I follow evidence.”
He placed it on the floor.
A hospital transfer form.
The baby's identity had been removed.
Only a number remained.
R-17.
Mariana recognized the number.
She had seen it before.
On the back of one of Rocío's notebooks.
She remembered the strange mark.
R-17.
She had assumed it was a room number.
“It was in my house.”
Julián looked at her.
“What?”
“R-17.”
“Where?”
“On my mother-in-law's notebook.”
The investigator's eyes sharpened.
“Where is that notebook?”
“At home.”
“Then we need it.”
A violent crash came from the corridor.
The men outside were trying to force the door.
Julián looked at the investigator.
“How many?”
“At least four.”
“Can we get out?”
“There's another tunnel.”
Lucía shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“That tunnel leads to the old maternity wing.”
“And?”
“They'll be waiting there.”
The investigator looked surprised.
“How do you know?”
Lucía swallowed.
“Because that's where they kept me.”
Mariana looked at her sister.
“You said they kept you here.”
“They did.”
“For how long?”
“Three years.”
“And then?”
Lucía's voice broke.
“Someone came for me.”
“Who?”
“My father.”
Mariana stared.
“But you said you never saw him.”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because I was afraid.”
Lucía looked at Julián.
“Your father-in-law told me something before he disappeared.”
“What?”
“That if I ever found Mariana, I had to keep her away from Rocío.”
Mariana's heart pounded.
“Why?”
Lucía looked at her belly.
“Because Rocío already tried to take one child.”
A terrible silence followed.
Julián looked at Mariana.
“What child?”
Lucía closed her eyes.
“Your first.”
Mariana shook her head.
“I never had a child before this.”
Lucía whispered,
“You did.”
Mariana stepped backward.
“No.”
“You were twenty-eight.”
“No.”
“You were pregnant for seven months.”
“I was never pregnant before.”
“Your medical records were changed.”
Mariana stared at her.
She remembered the years before Julián.
A strange hospitalization.
Her mother refusing to discuss it.
A period of several months she barely remembered.
She had always thought the memories were blurred because of trauma.
Now she wasn't sure.
“What happened to the baby?”
Lucía looked at the investigator.
He answered.
“That's what we are trying to find out.”
The door shook again.
A metal hinge groaned.
Julián turned.
“We're leaving.”
He grabbed Mariana's hand.
Lucía opened a hidden hatch beneath the floor.
A narrow passage appeared.
They climbed down.
The investigator followed.
Julián came last.
He pulled the hatch closed.
Darkness swallowed them.
They moved through the tunnel.
Mariana's breathing became faster.
Her contractions were coming closer.
Julián noticed.
“How far apart?”
“Maybe five minutes.”
“We need a hospital.”
The investigator shook his head.
“No hospital.”
Julián stopped.
“My wife is in premature labor.”
“That's exactly where they expect you to go.”
Mariana understood.
“The hospital is compromised.”
“Yes.”
“Then where?”
“There is a safe house.”
“Where?”
“Twenty minutes from here.”
They continued.
The tunnel ended beneath an abandoned warehouse.
They emerged through a hidden door.
A black SUV waited outside.
No one spoke.
They climbed inside.
Julián sat beside Mariana.
Lucía sat across from them.
The investigator drove.
For several minutes, there was only the sound of the engine.
Then Mariana noticed something.
The investigator kept checking the rearview mirror.
Not because someone was following them.
Because he was watching Lucía.
Mariana looked at her sister.
Lucía noticed.
“What?”
“Why is he watching you?”
Lucía frowned.
“I don't know.”
The investigator said nothing.
Julián's eyes narrowed.
“Pull over.”
“No.”
“Pull over.”
“I can't.”
Julián reached for his weapon.
The investigator suddenly slammed the brakes.
The SUV stopped violently.
Mariana cried out as pain tore through her abdomen.
Julián grabbed her.
“Are you okay?”
“I don't know.”
The investigator turned around.
“I need to tell you something before we reach the safe house.”
“What?”
He looked directly at Lucía.
“She isn't your sister.”
Mariana froze.
Lucía stared at him.
“What did you say?”
The investigator continued.
“The woman you know as Lucía was brought to the clinic under another name.”
Mariana shook her head.
“We have the birth records.”
“They were altered.”
“Then who is she?”
Lucía's eyes filled with panic.
“Don't listen to him.”
The investigator pulled out a photograph.
It showed two newborn babies.
One was Mariana.
The other was a baby girl.
But beside them stood a third infant.
A boy.
On the photograph was a handwritten note.
A-01.
Mariana stared at it.
Then she noticed something else.
A tiny bracelet around the boy's wrist.
It carried the same symbol she had seen on Rocío's notebook.
R-17.
Her breath caught.
Julián leaned closer.
“What does that mean?”
The investigator whispered,
“It means the child wasn't lost.”
Mariana looked at him.
“Where is he?”
The investigator opened his mouth.
His phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
His face changed completely.
Mariana saw only two words before he turned it away.
ROCIÓ LOZANO.
He answered.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then a woman's voice came through the speaker.
Rocío.
Her voice was calm.
Almost gentle.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
The investigator looked at Mariana.
Rocío continued.
“And if you want to know where your first child is, bring Mariana to the house.”
Julián grabbed the phone.
“Where is my wife's child?”
Rocío laughed softly.
“You still don't understand, Julián.”
“What?”
“The baby Mariana is carrying isn't the one I'm after.”
Julián's face went pale.
Rocío whispered one final sentence.
“Your son was born six years ago.”
The call ended.
Mariana stared at Julián.
Six years ago.
Her hand slowly moved to her belly.
May you like
Then the investigator looked toward Lucía.
And Lucía suddenly began crying because she already knew exactly whose name Rocío was about to say...
