Chapter 10 - The Missing Fourteen Minutes
Luis showed the message to Sofia the next morning.
She read it silently.
“Who sent this?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you reply?”
“Not yet.”
Sofia handed back the phone.
“Then don't start accusing anyone until you know what happened.”
Luis nodded.
He had spent years letting his mother decide what was true.
He wasn't going to replace that mistake with another one.
They drove to the house together.
Rosa was gone.
A note on the kitchen counter said she had gone to church.
Sofia read it.
“Of course.”
Luis looked at her.
“What?”
“Whenever Mom wants everyone to think she's the victim, she makes sure somebody sees her praying.”
He didn't answer.
They walked toward the laundry room.
There was a small security camera above the back entrance.
The system had been installed after a package theft two years earlier.
Luis opened the monitoring application.
Tuesday's recordings were available until 9:14 a.m.
Then nothing.
Recording resumed at 9:28.
Fourteen minutes missing.
Luis stared at the timeline.
“The camera lost power.”
Sofia examined the outlet.
“It's plugged in now.”
Luis checked the system log.
The interruption had been manual.
Someone had disconnected the device.
He looked toward the doorway.
“Who was here Tuesday?”
“Mom.”
“Mariana.”
“And Teresa.”
Teresa Alvarez had worked for the family three mornings a week for nearly seven years.
She cleaned the common areas and helped with household tasks.
Rosa frequently complained that Teresa was too slow.
Mariana always defended her.
Luis called Teresa.
She answered immediately.
“Mr. Luis?”
“Teresa, I need to ask you something.”
A pause.
“About Mrs. Mariana?”
“Yes.”
Teresa became quiet.
Luis took a breath.
“I know she fell on Tuesday.”
“I need to understand what happened.”
Teresa whispered, “I was hoping somebody would ask.”
Luis closed his eyes.
“Can you come to the house?”
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
“Why not?”
“Your mother told me not to return.”
Luis looked at Sofia.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Did she fire you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Teresa hesitated.
“Because I told her she should have called an ambulance.”
Luis gripped the phone.
“Teresa, please tell me what you saw.”
There was a long silence.
Then she began.
“I was folding sheets when I heard the basket fall.”
“I went to the laundry room.”
“Mrs. Mariana was sitting on the floor.”
“She was holding her stomach.”
“She said she'd lost her balance.”
“What did Mom do?”
“She told her to stand up.”
Luis closed his eyes.
“Did Mariana?”
“Not right away.”
“She said she felt pain.”
“Your mother told her she was exaggerating.”
Teresa's voice cracked.
“I wanted to help her.”
“But Mrs. Hernández ordered me back to the kitchen.”
Sofia leaned closer to the phone.
“Teresa, it's Sofia.”
“Oh, Miss Sofia.”
“Did you see Rosa disconnect the camera?”
Another pause.
“I saw her pull the plug.”
Luis stared at the device.
“Before or after Mariana fell?”
“After.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“She told me the camera was making a strange noise.”
Sofia exchanged a look with Luis.
Teresa continued.
“Then she told me to clean the floor.”
“Was there blood?”
“No.”
“Not then.”
Luis felt his stomach tighten.
“Did Mariana ask to go to the hospital?”
“Yes.”
The word came out clearly.
“What exactly did she say?”
“She said, 'Please call Luis or take me to the clinic.'”
“What did Mom say?”
Teresa swallowed.
“She said, 'I am not wasting another afternoon on one of your performances.'”
Luis covered his mouth.
Sofia took the phone.
“Teresa, would you be willing to tell the hospital social worker what you saw?”
“I already did.”
Both siblings froze.
“You did?”
“Yes.”
“I went to the hospital yesterday.”
“I was afraid your mother would find out.”
Sofia breathed out.
“Thank you.”
Teresa's voice trembled.
“I should have called for help myself.”
Luis took the phone again.
“Teresa, you tried.”
“She threatened to fire you.”
“That doesn't make this your responsibility.”
Teresa began crying.
“I've worked in that house so long.”
“I saw how she treated Mrs. Mariana.”
“I told myself it wasn't my place.”
Luis felt the words settle over him.
He had told himself the same thing.
Except Mariana was his wife.
He had a responsibility Teresa never did.
When the call ended, Sofia sat down.
“What now?”
Luis looked at the security system.
“We preserve the recordings.”
“And the messages.”
“And everything else.”
They contacted Daniel Pierce.
The attorney recommended saving the available evidence, avoiding alterations to the original files, and cooperating with any appropriate investigation.
He also urged Luis not to treat suspicion as proof.
That mattered.
Rosa had disconnected the camera.
But the missing footage didn't reveal why.
The available recordings couldn't establish what had happened in the fourteen-minute gap.
Luis was beginning to understand how easily a story could become distorted when someone decided the answer before hearing all the facts.
He went upstairs to the nursery.
The room was exactly as he had left it.
He sat in the rocking chair and stared at the empty crib.
A folded pink blanket lay across the railing.
Mariana had sewn a small white flower into one corner.
He touched it carefully.
His phone rang.
It was the hospital.
His heart stopped.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Hernández, this is Dr. Patel.”
Luis gripped the armrest.
“Is my daughter okay?”
“She's stable.”
He breathed out.
“But we need to talk with you and Mariana about something.”
His stomach tightened again.
“What?”
Dr. Patel paused.
“We've received an inquiry from someone claiming to have legal authority over your baby's care.”
Luis sat upright.
“Who?”
“The caller identified herself as Rosa Hernández.”
Luis closed his eyes.
“And what did she want?”
“She asked whether she could make decisions for the baby because she believed Mariana was medically unfit.”
For several seconds, Luis couldn't speak.
Then Dr. Patel said, “Mr. Hernández, we have not granted her that authority.”
“We're contacting you because we want to make sure your family understands what happened.”
Luis stared at the nursery.
His mother's behavior was no longer confined to arguments inside the house.
May you like
She was trying to reach his daughter.
And he understood that protecting his family would require more than telling Rosa to go home.
