“We landed.”
So they had gone through with it.
They had boarded the plane after leaving me on the floor.
They had flown to Miami while I was in labor.
I rested my hand over my stomach.
“Daniel, do you know where I am?”
Silence.
Then, quietly, “The hospital?”
Camila turned away.
I said, “Your child is being born, and you called because a credit card declined.”
His breathing changed.
“Isabel, Mom said—”
“No.”
It was the first time I had interrupted him without apologizing afterward.
“Don’t tell me what your mother said.
I was on the floor.
You saw my water break.
I asked you to call 911.
You looked at her, walked out, and locked both deadbolts.”
“I thought Camila was with you.”
Camila spun toward the phone.
“No, you didn’t.”
Daniel went silent.
Camila leaned closer.
“You thought I was getting into the car.
I came back after Mom told you to lock Isabel inside.”
“Camila, stay out of this.”
Her expression hardened.
“I was there.”
That sentence changed the shape of the conversation.
Until then, Daniel could still imagine the morning becoming a story with softer edges.
He could say he had misunderstood.
He could say I had exaggerated.
He could say the door had locked automatically or that he expected me to call someone myself.
But Camila had watched it happen.
She had heard Verónica.
She had seen him turn both locks.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Put Isabel back on.”
I already had the phone.
“I’m here.”
“We’ll come back.”
I closed my eyes.
He said it like a favor.
“Do what you want,” I said.
“But you are not coming here and pretending you chose us.”
Another contraction began, stronger than the others.
I handed the phone to Camila.
“End it.”
She did.
Labor became harder after that, and for a while there was no space in my mind for anything else.
I stopped checking my phone.
I stopped wondering whether Daniel was at the hotel, the airport, or already looking for a return flight.
My entire world became the child I was trying to bring safely into it.
Camila stayed.
She held water for me.
