Time fractured.
“WAIT!” he shouted.
He jerked free.
The guard didn’t react fast enough.
And in a move no one expected…
Mateo ran to the incubator.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” shouted a doctor.
But it was too late.
Mateo took the baby.
Small. Cold. Unresponsive.
“GIVE ME BACK MY SON!” Camila screamed, beside herself.
The doctors advanced.
But Don Ernesto raised his hand.
—NOBODY MOVE!
Something in his voice… froze them.
It was madness.
It was desperation.
It was… faith in the only thing that remained.
Mateo didn’t hear anything.
The world vanished.
It was just him…
and that tiny body.
He held it as his grandfather had taught him.
Careful… but firm.
“You’re not dead…” he murmured, “you just can’t breathe…”
He tilted it.
Head down.
