Chapter 3 - What My Mother Had Planned
My mother didn't raise her voice.
That made it worse.
“What were you looking for?” she repeated.
I stepped between her and Paola.
“Medical records.”
“For Mariana?”
“Yes.”
Mother sighed.
“You've always been too trusting.”
I felt something harden inside me.
“You wrote that she was unstable.”
“I documented what I observed.”
“You wrote that she was a danger to our son.”
“She is emotional.”
“She was eight days postpartum.”
Mother's expression didn't change.
“She needs discipline.”
I pulled the blue folder from beneath my shirt.
“Did you prepare this before Emiliano was born?”
Silence.
Paola looked down.
Mother's jaw tightened.
“You don't understand what motherhood requires.”
“No.”
I held up the page.
“I understand what manipulation looks like.”
For the first time, anger appeared in her eyes.
“You're letting that woman turn you against your family.”
“My wife almost collapsed.”
“She exaggerates.”
“She had bruises.”
“She fought us.”
“Who is us?”
Mother didn't answer.
I looked at Paola.
She whispered, “Mom and me.”
I turned back to Mother.
“You restrained her?”
“She wouldn't listen.”
“She asked to take her sick baby to the hospital.”
“She was hysterical.”
“She was right.”
My mother stepped closer.
“You're making a terrible mistake.”
“No.”
I closed the folder.
“My mistake was leaving her here.”
Mother's expression changed.
“You'll regret humiliating me.”
“I don't care.”
She pointed toward the folder.
“That evidence won't hold up.”
I stared at her.
“Evidence?”
She realized what she had said.
Paola's eyes widened.
Mother quickly recovered.
“You think a few notes mean anything?”
“Why were you building a case against my wife?”
“Because someone has to protect the baby.”
I walked toward the door.
Mother blocked me.
“You won't take that folder.”
I looked at her.
“Watch me.”
She stepped aside.
But as I passed her, she whispered something.
“Ask your wife why she never told you what happened before the wedding.”
I stopped.
“What does that mean?”
Mother smiled.
“Ask her.”
I turned around.
She was already walking away.
Paola grabbed my arm.
“Don't listen to her.”
“What did she mean?”
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
Paola's eyes filled with tears.
“I know there is something about Mariana's past, but I don't know what.”
I left the house with the folder.
Back at the hospital, Mariana was awake.
Emiliano was sleeping under observation.
I sat beside her.
“There's something you need to tell me.”
She looked frightened.
“About what?”
“My mother said I should ask what happened before our wedding.”
Mariana looked away.
I waited.
Finally, she whispered, “I knew she was trying to destroy our marriage.”
“Why?”
“Because she wanted you to marry someone else.”
“Who?”
Mariana's hands trembled.
“I didn't know her name.”
“What woman?”
She swallowed.
“Your mother's friend.”
I frowned.
“What friend?”
Mariana reached beneath the blanket.
She pulled out another folded paper.
“I found this in your mother's things.”
I opened it.
There was a photograph.
A woman stood beside my mother.
On the back was a date.
And underneath it, a handwritten sentence:
The son must never know what happened to the first baby.
My heart stopped.
I looked at Mariana.
“What first baby?”
She opened her mouth.
Before she could answer, the hospital door opened.
A nurse stood there holding a phone.
“Mr. Santiago?”
“Yes?”
“This was found in your wife's belongings.”
May you like
It was my mother's number on the screen.
And there was a new voicemail.
