The girl complained of severe abdominal pain after a weekend spent with her stepfather – and the doctor, seeing the ultrasound, immediately called an ambulance.

Clara felt the cold hospital room swirl around her. He looked at his son’s pale, sweaty face and tried to gather his thoughts. The doctor remained calm, but in his eyes one could see a concern that was impossible to hide.

— “Ana, dear, please… Tell us what happened on Saturday night,” the doctor asked in a low voice, leaning over the girl.

The girl hesitated. She bit her lip and tears began to roll down her cheeks.

— “It hurts so much… Martín told me not to tell my mom… that he was just going to worry. He gave me some pills… It’s very bittersweet. Then… I don’t remember everything.”

Clara’s blood ran cold in her veins. “Pills?” Why would Martin give a girl medicine without telling anyone?

– “It’s important to know what kind of ingredients you’re eating. I’ve asked for an ambulance, and at the hospital we’ll do all the necessary tests. It’s not a simple matter of indigestibility.”

Every minute seems like an eternity. The ambulance finally arrived, blue lights shining through the office windows. Health workers carefully moved Ana onto the stretcher and immediately began stabilization procedures.

Clara walked down the hospital corridor and tried not to cry. Her mind kept coming back to the same question: How could she not have seen it before? How could she leave her daughter alone with Martin?

As he walked, the doctor said to him:

– “The symptoms and what we saw on the ultrasound indicated that Ana’s body had been exposed to something it shouldn’t. The liver and stomach show damage. We will have exact confirmation after laboratory testing.”

In the waiting room, for the first time Clara felt a burning anger, mixed with an unbearable guilt. Martin. The man she entrusted with her life and that of her daughter. The Man He Believed In. What exactly is he hiding?

Her phone vibrated. A message from Martin:

“Is everything okay? I was at home. Are you okay?”

Clara clenched her fists. He didn’t answer. A short time later, the doctor came out of the emergency room.

— “Ana’s situation is stable, but we have serious suspicions. We need to inform the authorities. He must have been drinking a toxic substance.”

The words “report to the authorities” fell on Clara like lightning. He realized that the nightmare had just begun.

She looked at her son’s white face, which was visible behind the living room mirror. And at that moment he made an irrevocable decision: he would not allow Martín to approach the young woman again.

And deep down in his heart he knew that the truth about that weekend was going to be darker than he had imagined.