Clara felt that the cold hospital room was spinning around her. He looked at his daughter’s pale, sweaty face and tried to collect his thoughts. The doctor maintained an apparent calm, but in her eyes one could discern a concern that was impossible to hide.

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

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

— “It hurt a lot… and Martín told me not to tell Mom… that he was only going to worry. He gave me some pills… very bitter. After… I don’t remember everything well anymore.”

Clara’s blood froze in her veins. Pills? Why on earth would Martin give medicine to a girl without telling anyone?

The doctor reacted immediately:

— “It is essential to know what kind of substances you have ingested. I have already asked for an ambulance, and at the hospital we will do all the necessary tests. It is not a matter of simple indigestion.”

Every minute seemed like an eternity. Finally the ambulance arrived, and blue lights illuminated the windows of the office. The health workers carefully transferred Ana to the stretcher and immediately began the stabilization procedures.

Clara walked down the hospital corridor trying not to burst into tears. Her mind kept coming back to the same question: How could she not have seen him before? How could she have left her daughter alone with Martin?

On the way, the doctor whispered to him:

— “The symptoms and what we have seen on the ultrasound suggest that Ana’s body has been exposed to something it should not have. The liver and stomach show damage. We will have exact confirmation after laboratory analysis.”

In the waiting room, Clara felt for the first time a burning rage, mixed with an unbearable guilt. Martin. The man to whom she had entrusted her life and that of her daughter. The man she had believed in. What was he really hiding?

His mobile vibrated. A message from Martín:

“Everything okay? I’m already home. Are you okay?”

Clara clenched her fists. He did not answer. At that very moment, the doctor left the emergency door.

— “Ana’s situation is stable, but we have serious suspicions. We must inform the authorities. It is very likely that he has ingested a toxic substance.”

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

She looked up at her daughter’s whitish face, visible behind the glass of the living room. And at that moment she made an irrevocable decision: she would never allow Martín to get close to the girl again.

And in the depths of his heart he knew that the truth about that weekend would be much darker than he had ever imagined.