“Are you at the hospital?”
“On the way.”
“I’m coming.”
“Don’t fly like an idiot.”
Despite everything, he laughed.
“I’ll try.”
Their daughter was born six hours later.
Alejandro arrived with twenty minutes to spare.
Lucía allowed him into the delivery room.
He stood beside her.
He did not tell her to be strong.
She already was.
He held her hand when she offered it.
Their daughter arrived crying.
Small.
Healthy.
Furious.
The nurse placed the baby against Lucía.
Alejandro cried openly.
“What do we call her?”
he asked.
Lucía looked at the child.
“Isabela.”
His mother’s middle name.
Alejandro looked at Lucía.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Your mother was kind to me.”
“She would have hated what Ramón did.”
Alejandro laughed through tears.
“She would have destroyed him herself.”
Lucía smiled.
It was the first time he had seen that smile directed at him in eight
