She’s pregnant and she’s always dizzy.
We were trying to help her.”
Helena stepped beside him.
“Exactly.
She gets hysterical.
We were making breakfast and suddenly she threw herself on the floor.”
I saw Alex look at the broken pieces of my phone.
“Then why did she text me for help?”
Nobody had an answer.
Raúl tried.
“Couples argue.
It’s none of your business.”
Alex’s eyes moved toward Nora.
Her phone was still in her hand.
“Were you recording?”
Nora looked at Víctor.
Then at Helena.
Then at me.
“Nora,” Víctor warned.
That one word exposed more than any confession could have.
Alex heard the threat in it.
So did the people who had entered behind him.
I was helped carefully from the floor.
The movement sent pain through my leg and back, and immediately I wrapped both hands around my stomach.
“The baby,” I said.
“Please check the baby.”
That was the first thing I asked for.
Not revenge.
Not an arrest.
Not an explanation.
My baby.
As they prepared to take me for medical evaluation, Víctor attempted to follow.
I panicked so badly my entire body began shaking.
Alex stepped between us.
“She doesn’t want you near her.”
“She’s my wife,” Víctor snapped.
For years, he had spoken those words as if they meant ownership.
This time they sounded different.
This time other people were listening.
At the hospital, every minute felt enormous.
I lay beneath bright lights while they checked me and monitored the baby.
I stared at the ceiling and counted each movement I felt inside me.
One.
Then another.
Then another.
Each one loosened something inside my chest.
The medical staff documented my injuries.
Questions were asked quietly, away from Víctor and his family.
For the first time, nobody interrupted my answers.
Nobody rolled their eyes.
Nobody told me I was exaggerating.
When I said Víctor had struck me with a wooden stick, the person taking my statement simply wrote it down.
When I said Helena had encouraged him, that was written down too.
When I explained that Raúl had watched and ordered me to stand, nobody laughed.
And when I said Nora had recorded the incident, Alex told them the phone existed.
That recording became the thing Víctor’s family feared most.
