Chapter 3 - When Victoria Finally Saw Me
Victoria dropped the dish towel in her hand.
She rushed across the room and seized the terrace handle.
It would not move.
Her eyes widened.
She pulled again.
Then she looked directly at me.
By then, I could barely remain upright.
One hand gripped the door frame.
The other cradled my stomach.
My breath fogged the glass between us.
“Open the door,” I whispered.
Victoria could not hear the words.
But she read them on my lips.
She spun toward the hallway.
“Paola!”
Alejandro looked up from his phone.
For half a second, he seemed confused.
Then he saw me.
The phone slipped lower in his hand.
Every trace of color left his face.
He shoved past a chair and ran toward the terrace.
“What happened?”
Victoria yanked the handle again.
“It’s locked.”
Alejandro slammed his palm against the glass.
“Sofia!”
I tried to answer.
My knees buckled.
I caught myself against the railing.
Behind Alejandro, Ernesto stared through the door, stunned.
Then Paola appeared from the hallway.
Her face was already pale.
“I—she just stepped outside.”
Victoria turned on her.
“Why is this locked?”
“I didn’t think—”
“Open it!”
Paola reached for the lock.
Her hands were shaking now.
The woman who had watched me with folded arms had disappeared.
In her place stood someone who finally understood that witnesses changed everything.
I slid sideways toward the terrace floor.
Both arms wrapped around my belly.
Alejandro struck the glass again.
“Sofia, stay with me.”
The lock clicked.
The door slid open.
Warm air rushed over me, but it felt too late to matter.
Alejandro dropped to his knees and caught my shoulders before my head hit the floor.
“Sofia, look at me!”
His voice cracked.
I forced my eyes open.
His face hovered above mine, terrified and guilt-stricken.
Victoria touched my hand and gasped.
“She’s freezing.”
Paola backed away.
“I didn’t know it was that cold.”
No one answered her.
I clutched Alejandro’s plaid sleeve.
Then I lifted one trembling finger toward Paola.
I wanted to say that she had watched me.
That she knew.
That she walked past the glass and left me there.
But my throat produced only a broken sound.
Victoria covered her mouth.
Ernesto looked down at the floor beside my leg.
His expression changed.
I followed his eyes.
A damp stain had spread across the terrace boards beneath me.
For one terrible second, nobody moved.
Alejandro stared at it.
“Is that blood?”
Victoria began to cry.
Paola backed away so fast she struck the wall.
But Ernesto continued staring.
Not only at the stain.
At something half hidden beneath the outdoor chair.
Something small.
May you like
Metallic.
And familiar.
