Chapter 3 - The Missing Minute
Emergency lights flooded the surgical floor in dim red.
The hospital’s main power had failed, but only on the private maternity wing.
Sebastián heard nurses shouting from behind the operating-room doors.
A newborn’s cry echoed once more.
Then it stopped.
His heart seemed to stop with it.
“Valeria!”
He rushed toward the doors.
A nurse pushed through from the other side.
“Stay back.”
“What happened?”
“The backup generators are starting.”
“Where is my son?”
“He is with the neonatal team.”
The lights flickered.
At the far end of the hallway, the three men from the elevator began moving toward the operating room.
Lucía stepped in front of them.
“The floor is restricted.”
One man reached inside his jacket.
Sebastián did not wait to see what he was reaching for.
He grabbed a metal equipment stand and shoved it across the corridor.
The stand crashed into the man’s knees.
Security officers surged forward.
For a few seconds, the hallway dissolved into shouting and confusion.
Then a new voice cut through everything.
“State police.”
A woman in a dark suit emerged from the stairwell with four uniformed officers.
She was in her early forties, with sharp eyes and hair pulled into a low knot.
She held up her credentials.
“Adriana Cruz.”
The three men stopped.
The hospital security officers backed away.
Adriana pointed toward the elevator.
“No one leaves this floor.”
One of the suited men protested.
“We are private security for the Alcázar family.”
“Then you will have no problem showing me your permits and identification.”
The main lights returned.
Dr. Salgado appeared at the operating-room doors.
His mask had been pulled below his chin.
“Mr. Alcázar.”
Sebastián ran toward him.
“My wife?”
“Stable.”
“My son?”
“Breathing well.”
Relief nearly brought Sebastián to his knees.
“I want to see them.”
“You can see your wife in recovery.”
“And my son?”
Dr. Salgado glanced toward the neonatal corridor.
“He was taken for routine evaluation.”
Adriana’s eyes narrowed.
“By whom?”
“A neonatal nurse.”
“What was her name?”
Dr. Salgado looked behind him.
A second nurse approached, visibly shaken.
“We don’t know.”
The hallway became silent.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Sebastián asked.
“She wore hospital identification.”
“Where did she take him?”
“To the nursery.”
Adriana turned toward the officers.
“Lock down every exit.”
Sebastián ran toward the nursery.
The main room was visible through a wall of glass.
Several newborns lay in clear bassinets.
His son was not among them.
A nurse checked the computer.
“There is no transfer record.”
Sebastián felt panic rising inside him.
“How long ago did she leave the operating room?”
“Less than a minute.”
One minute.
That was all it took.
The elevator was locked down.
The stairwells were being watched.
The maternity wing had no external exit.
Adriana studied the floor plan displayed near the nurses’ station.
“Service corridors?”
The nurse pointed to a gray door.
“That leads to laundry and medical storage.”
The door stood slightly open.
Sebastián pushed through it.
The corridor beyond was narrow and poorly lit.
A linen cart had been abandoned against the wall.
One white blanket hung over the side.
Sebastián grabbed it.
The fabric was warm.
“He was here.”
Adriana drew her weapon.
“Stay behind me.”
They moved deeper into the service corridor.
A faint sound came from somewhere ahead.
Not crying.
A mechanical hum.
The corridor ended at a freight elevator.
The indicator showed it descending.
“Where does that go?” Adriana asked.
“Basement loading dock,” the nurse answered.
Sebastián pressed the call button repeatedly.
Nothing happened.
Adriana spoke into her radio.
“Units to the basement.”
Sebastián looked at the elevator numbers.
Level three.
Level two.
Level one.
Then the number stopped.
Basement.
He turned toward the stairs and ran.
Adriana shouted for him to wait, but he did not slow down.
He took the concrete steps two at a time.
Images flashed through his mind.
Valeria begging him not to let them take her baby.
The custody forms.
Rebeca’s calm smile.
Octavio’s warning.
His mother had planned everything.
The power failure.
The unknown nurse.
The service elevator.
It had all been arranged before Valeria entered the hospital.
Sebastián reached the basement and slammed through the door.
The loading area was crowded with laundry trucks, supply carts, and hospital employees.
A black SUV waited beside an open service entrance.
Its rear door was open.
A woman in blue scrubs hurried toward it, holding a covered carrier against her chest.
Sebastián shouted.
She looked back.
For one second, he saw the infant’s face beneath the blanket.
His son.
The driver accelerated before the woman reached the vehicle.
The sudden movement startled her.
She stumbled.
Sebastián crossed the distance between them and caught the carrier before it struck the ground.
The woman tried to run.
Adriana emerged from the stairwell and tackled her against a stack of boxes.
The SUV sped through the loading entrance.
Police officers fired no shots.
Too many hospital workers stood nearby.
The vehicle disappeared into the street.
Sebastián dropped to his knees.
He pulled back the blanket.
His son’s eyes were closed.
A tiny blue cap covered his dark hair.
For a horrifying moment, the baby did not move.
Then his mouth opened.
A thin cry escaped.
Sebastián began sobbing.
He had not cried at his father’s funeral.
He had not cried when the family company nearly collapsed.
But holding his newborn son in a hospital basement, he broke completely.
Adriana handcuffed the woman in scrubs.
“Who hired you?”
The woman said nothing.
Adriana removed the false hospital badge from her uniform.
The name printed on it did not match her face.
Sebastián looked at the black SUV disappearing beyond the gates.
“Was my mother inside?”
The woman smiled faintly.
“You think your mother planned this?”
“Who else?”
Her smile widened.
“Ask your cousin who really owns Casa Esperanza.”
Sebastián’s phone rang.
Octavio’s name appeared on the screen.
He answered.
Octavio did not say hello.
“You should have let us protect the child.”
“You tried to kidnap him.”
“You still don’t understand.”
“Then explain it.”
Octavio paused.
“The baby is not the only Alcázar heir in danger.”
The line went dead.
Adriana took the phone from Sebastián.
“What did he say?”
Sebastián stared at his son.
“He said there is another heir.”
Adriana’s expression changed.
“Do you have a brother?”
“No.”
“A sister?”
Sebastián slowly raised his eyes.
His mother had given birth to a daughter two years before he was born.
The child supposedly died before leaving the hospital.
No photographs existed.
No grave had ever been shown to him.
Only a name his father refused to discuss.
May you like
Isabel.
For the first time, Sebastián wondered whether the story of her death had also been a lie.
