Chương 5
“It might have recorded outside,” she said.
“Possibly.”
“But the kick happened inside.”
“Yes.”
Lucía closed the notebook.
“Evidence doesn’t have to show everything to matter.”
Sofía thought of Carmen blocking the doorway.
Of herself trying to leave.
Of the moments before they disappeared into the house.
Of Iván inside the Toyota.
Of Andrés standing near the entrance with the bread.
Small things.
Ordinary things.
Things that had seemed meaningless until someone needed to decide whose story matched the world.
Lucía stood.
“I’ll update you when I know more.”
Sofía took another bite of the cracker.
Her phone lit up on the blanket.
This time the message was from Iván.
She almost ignored it.
Then she saw the first line in the notification preview.
Don’t believe what my mother is telling them.
Sofía opened the message.
I saw Dad come toward you before you fell.
I didn’t see the kick because I was outside.
Mom says you attacked her first.
That’s not what happened before you went in.
I already told the police.
Sofía read it twice.
Then a second message arrived.
Andrés told me not to get involved.
Her fingers stopped moving.
Maribel saw her expression.
“What?”
Sofía handed her the phone.
Maribel read the messages and gave it back without comment.
Sofía stared at Andrés’s name farther down the screen.
For hours she had been asking herself why he had stood still.
Now a different question opened beneath it.
If his silence at the house had been fear, what was it becoming afterward?
She pressed the phone facedown against the blanket.
Outside the room, the hospital continued exactly as hospitals always did.
Phones rang.
Shoes squeaked.
Someone laughed too loudly at the nurses’ station.
A man asked where the vending machines were.
Nothing in the building knew that Sofía’s marriage had begun to come apart in increments smaller than a heartbeat.
And for the first time, she stopped trying to hold the pieces together.
The discharge instructions arrived after midnight, printed on three pages that Sofía read twice despite knowing most of the warnings from work.
Return for severe bleeding.
Return for fainting.
Return for fever.
Return for worsening pain.
Rest.
Hydrate.
Follow up.
The language was clinical enough to feel insulting, and she hated herself a little for thinking that because she had handed similar sheets to hundreds of patients.
Maribel helped her change into hospital sweatpants someone found in the staff locker room.
Sofía folded her bloodstained clothes into a plastic belongings bag and tied the handles together.
She could not look at the bag for long.
Lucía returned before Sofía left.
“Ramiro was taken in for questioning,” she said.
Sofía waited for the sentence to produce something.
Relief did not come.
Neither did satisfaction.
“What did he say?”
“I can’t give you a full account right now.”
“Did he deny it?”
Lucía hesitated just enough.
“He described it differently.”
“Of course he did.”
“Your mother-in-law says you became aggressive with her.”
Sofía closed her eyes.
“And Andrés?”
“He gave a statement.”
Something in Lucía’s tone made Sofía look up.
“What did he say?”
“He confirmed there was an argument.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Lucía sat on the edge of the empty chair.
“He confirmed his mother grabbed your arm.”
Sofía waited.
“He said you pulled away.”
“And the kick?”
“He said his father stepped toward you and that everything happened very fast.”
Sofía stared at her.
“That’s what he said?”
Lucía did not soften it.
“Yes.”
“Did he say his father kicked me?”
“He said he could not be certain exactly how contact happened.”
The room seemed to tilt, though Sofía knew she was lying still.
She heard Maribel curse under her breath.
Sofía looked toward the doorway because she suddenly could not bear anyone watching her face.
“He saw it.”
Lucía said nothing.
“He was three meters away.”
“I understand.”
“He saw it.”
“I wrote down what you told me.”
Sofía pressed both hands against the blanket.
“He told me he would tell the truth.”
Lucía’s expression remained professional, but something human moved behind it.
“He may believe that is what he did.”
That hurt worse than calling him a liar.
A deliberate betrayal could be fought.
Self-deception was harder.
Sofía asked whether Iván’s statement mattered.
“It matters.”
“He told you his mother grabbed me?”
“He told officers he saw part of the confrontation outside and that you were trying to get your keys back.”
“And the camera?”
“The neighbors agreed to preserve the footage.”
“Did it show anything?”
“They haven’t finished reviewing it.”
Lucía stood.
“You don’t need to solve the entire case tonight.”
Sofía almost laughed.
“I’m not trying to solve it.”
“What are you trying to do?”
Sofía looked at the plastic bag holding her clothes.
“Figure out where I’m supposed to sleep.”
That problem, at least, had an answer.
She could not go back to the apartment she shared with Andrés.
Her mother lived two hours away and would come immediately if called, but Sofía could already imagine the panic in her voice.
She was not ready to hear it.
Maribel offered her guest room.
Sofía refused twice.
Maribel ignored both refusals.
“You can argue when you’re not medicated.”
“I’m not that medicated.”
“You tried to stand up ten minutes ago and thanked the IV pole.”
“I thought it was you.”
“That is worse.”
Sofía let herself be driven.
Her SUV remained at the hospital because she was in no condition to take it anywhere.
The Saint Jude charm was still hanging from the mirror.
Before getting into Maribel’s car, Sofía went back and removed it.
She closed her fist around the small medal and slipped it into her pocket.
Maribel lived in a narrow apartment above a pharmacy with two cats and a kitchen perpetually smelling of cinnamon.
One cat inspected Sofía’s shoes.
The other ignored her completely.
“His name is Benito,” Maribel said, pointing to the indifferent one.
May you like
“He believes empathy is a scam.”
Sofía lowered herself carefully onto the sofa.
