Chapter 2 - The Missing Seventeen Minutes
Dr. Arturo Mena didn’t move.
Neither did Sebastián.
The video continued playing.
On the screen, the younger Valeria struggled beside the greenhouse.
Dr. Mena stood over her.
Then the image suddenly froze.
Static filled the screen.
Three seconds later, the recording jumped forward.
Valeria was gone.
Dr. Mena was gone.
The garden was empty.
Sebastián stared at the timestamp.
11:42 p.m.
The next visible frame began at 11:59 p.m.
Seventeen minutes were missing.
“What happened?”
Sebastián’s voice was frighteningly quiet.
Dr. Mena looked toward Rebeca.
Sebastián saw it.
Again.
Everyone looked at his mother before answering him.
That realization made him sick.
“I asked you.”
Dr. Mena cleared his throat.
“That recording is incomplete.”
“I can see that.”
“Then you understand why it proves nothing.”
Sebastián stood.
“It proves you were there.”
“I treated your wife that evening.”
“At my house?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dr. Mena hesitated.
Rebeca answered for him.
“Valeria had an episode.”
Sebastián turned toward her.
“Stop answering questions I’m asking other people.”
Rebeca’s lips tightened.
Sebastián faced the doctor again.
“What episode?”
Dr. Mena took a breath.
“She was agitated.”
“What does that mean?”
“She was behaving unpredictably.”
“What does that mean?”
“Sebastián—”
“What did she do?”
The doctor’s jaw tightened.
“She accused your mother of trying to poison her.”
Valeria suddenly sat upright.
“No.”
Sebastián looked at her.
Valeria’s eyes were fixed on Dr. Mena.
“I never said poison.”
The doctor blinked.
“You were confused.”
“I said she was putting something in my tea.”
Rebeca laughed softly.
“That is the same accusation.”
“No.”
Valeria looked at Sebastián.
“I didn’t know what it was.”
Sebastián felt cold.
“What tea?”
Valeria’s eyes filled.
“The tea your mother brought me every night.”
Rebeca shook her head.
“This is exactly why we wanted the psychiatric evaluation.”
Valeria ignored her.
“I would drink it.”
“Then what?”
Sebastián asked.
“I would lose hours.”
Silence.
Sebastián stared at her.
“What?”
“I would wake up somewhere else.”
Valeria’s voice trembled.
“Sometimes in bed.”
“Sometimes on the sofa.”
“Once in the downstairs bathroom.”
“I thought I was sick.”
“I thought pregnancy stress was doing something to me.”
“You weren’t pregnant three years ago,” Sebastián said.
“No.”
Valeria looked toward Rebeca.
“But they were already trying to convince you I was unstable.”
Camila covered her mouth.
Sebastián turned toward her.
“You know about this?”
Camila nodded.
“The tea.”
Rebeca’s composure cracked.
“Enough.”
Camila looked at her.
“You promised my brother would be safe.”
Rebeca stepped closer.
“He is safe.”
“Because I kept quiet.”
Octavio spoke.
“Camila, you are making serious accusations.”
She turned toward him.
“You should be the last person talking about accusations.”
Sebastián looked between them.
“What did Octavio do?”
Camila laughed bitterly.
“You really don’t know anything, do you?”
The words hit Sebastián harder than she intended.
He said nothing.
Camila’s anger softened.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Sebastián looked at Valeria.
“Don’t apologize.”
His voice broke slightly.
“I should know.”
He looked around the room.
“So tell me everything.”
Camila glanced toward the door.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because they still have my brother.”
Sebastián frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Camila hesitated.
Then she said the name.
“Mateo.”
Valeria closed her eyes.
Sebastián knew Mateo Ortega.
He worked for one of the Alcázar logistics companies.
Three years earlier, Mateo had been arrested for embezzlement.
The evidence had appeared overwhelming.
Company funds had been transferred through an account connected to him.
Sebastián remembered signing the complaint.
His stomach turned.
“No.”
Camila nodded.
“Yes.”
“Mateo stole from the company.”
“No.”
“We had records.”
“Octavio created the records.”
Sebastián slowly turned toward his cousin.
Octavio didn’t react.
Camila continued.
“They told me if I talked about what happened to Valeria, Mateo would go to prison.”
“He did go to prison.”
“Eighteen months.”
Her voice broke.
“He lost eighteen months of his life because I tried to help her.”
Sebastián looked at Octavio.
“Tell me she’s lying.”
Octavio folded his arms.
“I’m not going to participate in hysteria.”
That word.
Hysteria.
Sebastián had heard it hundreds of times.
Always about Valeria.
Now he heard what it actually was.
A weapon.
A word used to end conversations before inconvenient questions could be asked.
Sebastián looked at the laptop again.
“Where are the missing seventeen minutes?”
Camila shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“You said you kept the card.”
“I copied it before they erased the system.”
“Who erased it?”
Camila looked at Dr. Mena.
The doctor stepped backward.
Sebastián saw him reach toward his pocket.
“Take your hand out.”
Dr. Mena froze.
“Sebastián—”
“Take your hand out of your pocket.”
Slowly, Dr. Mena removed his hand.
His phone was in it.
The screen was lit.
A call was active.
Sebastián snatched it.
“Who are you calling?”
Dr. Mena reached for it.
Sebastián stepped away.
The screen displayed no name.
Only a number.
The call had lasted forty-three seconds.
Sebastián raised the phone to his ear.
Nobody spoke.
Then a man’s voice said,
“Arturo?”
Sebastián’s blood went cold.
He recognized the voice.
It belonged to his father.
Alejandro Alcázar.
The man who supposedly had been in Madrid for the last four days.
Sebastián said nothing.
The voice continued.
“Is the transfer finished?”
Sebastián’s eyes moved toward Valeria.
“What transfer?”
Silence.
Then the call disconnected.
Sebastián lowered the phone.
Rebeca’s face had changed.
Valeria saw it too.
Sebastián looked at his mother.
“Where is my father?”
Rebeca said nothing.
“WHERE IS HE?”
Valeria flinched.
Sebastián immediately lowered his voice.
But the damage was done.
Rebeca stared at him.
“He is handling a family matter.”
“What family matter?”
She remained silent.
Sebastián looked at Dr. Mena.
“The transfer he asked about.”
“What transfer?”
Dr. Mena looked at the floor.
Sebastián moved toward him.
“What transfer?”
The doctor whispered,
“The baby.”
Valeria screamed.
“No!”
She tried to get out of bed.
Pain doubled her over.
Sebastián rushed toward her.
“Valeria!”
“My baby!”
“Stay down.”
“Where is my baby?”
A nurse appeared at the door.
Valeria grabbed Sebastián’s shirt.
“Go!”
Her eyes were wild with terror.
“Go get her!”
Sebastián froze.
Her.
He hadn’t known.
Nobody had told him whether they had a son or daughter.
Everything had happened too quickly.
“A girl?”
Valeria stared at him.
“You didn’t know?”
Sebastián felt something break inside him.
“No.”
Her expression collapsed.
For one painful second, they simply stared at each other.
Then Sebastián kissed her forehead.
“I’m bringing our daughter back.”
He turned toward the door.
Rebeca blocked him.
“Sebastián.”
“Move.”
“The child needs medical observation.”
“Move.”
“You don’t understand.”
He stared at his mother.
“No.”
“I finally do.”
He walked past her.
The neonatal unit was two corridors away.
Sebastián moved faster.
A nurse called after him.
He ignored her.
He reached the secured doors.
His family access card failed.
He tried again.
Red light.
Denied.
He pressed the intercom.
“My daughter is inside.”
A voice answered.
“Name?”
“Baby Alcázar.”
There was a pause.
Then,
“There is no Baby Alcázar currently registered in neonatal care.”
Sebastián went still.
“That’s impossible.”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
“My wife gave birth tonight.”
Another pause.
“What is the mother’s name?”
“Valeria Alcázar.”
Typing.
Silence.
Then the nurse said something Sebastián would remember for the rest of his life.
“Mr. Alcázar…”
“Yes?”
“According to our system, the infant was discharged forty-one minutes ago.”
Sebastián stared through the glass doors.
“To whom?”
The nurse hesitated.
Then answered.
“To the child’s legal guardian.”
Sebastián’s voice disappeared.
“Who?”
Another pause.
“Mr. Alejandro Alcázar.”
His father.
And suddenly Sebastián understood the call.
May you like
The transfer was already happening.
While they were arguing about what had happened three years ago, someone had taken his newborn daughter out of the hospital.
