Chapter 2 - The Second Hospital
Diego stood frozen in the sterile, brightly lit hallway of the emergency ward. The hospital hummed with the distant drone of monitors, clattering food carts, and the hurried footsteps of medical staff, but to Diego, the world had gone dead silent.
"What do you mean, something happened to her?" Diego’s voice cracked, the sharp edge of fury instantly replaced by a cold, prickling dread. He looked between the nurse and the social worker, whose faces had grown grim.
"Mr. Rivas, try to stay calm," the social worker, whose name tag read Ms. Higgins, said gently, gesturing for him to sit back down. "Your ex-wife, Laura, was admitted to Mercy General Hospital three nights ago. She is currently in their intensive care unit."
Diego’s knees buckled slightly, and he dropped back into the plastic chair next to where Mateo was sleeping. "ICU? That doesn't make sense. She texted me! She said she was taking the kids to Lake Geneva with a friend."
"She didn't write that text, or if she did, it was under severe duress," the nurse interjected, holding out a printed summary sheet. "According to the police report attached to her admission file, Laura was found unresponsive in her car, parked on the shoulder of Interstate 90, about twenty miles outside the city. Her phone was inside the vehicle, but it was dead. She had suffered a massive, sudden brain aneurysm."
The room spun. Diego stared at the paper in the nurse's hand without seeing the words. All the hatred, the bitterness, the raw fury he had felt toward Laura over the past three hours evaporated, leaving behind a terrifying, nauseating vacuum.
For three days, Laura hadn't chosen to abandon their children. For three days, she had been fighting for her life on a cold hospital bed, completely anonymous because she had no identification on her when the paramedics found her.
"Her phone was dead," Diego whispered, the pieces clicking together with devastating slowness. "And because it was dead, no one could access her contacts. No one knew who she was. The police had no idea she had two small children locked alone in an apartment."
"That's correct," Ms. Higgins said softly. "The authorities are treating it as a critical medical emergency. But Mr. Rivas, your children... they were left unattended for seventy-two hours. Child Protective Services is legally obligated to investigate the household conditions. Your daughter is stable now, but her dehydration and fever were severe. If your son hadn't managed to find your old work number and call..." She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't need to.
Diego buried his face in his hands. A dry, wracking sob escaped his throat. He thought of little Mateo, trying to feed his baby sister cereal and ketchup. He thought of Sophie, burning up with fever, slipping away on that worn-out couch. And he thought of Laura—the woman he had once loved, the mother of his children—lying alone in a white room downtown, hooked up to machines, with no one holding her hand.
"I need to see her," Diego said suddenly, looking up. His eyes were red, hard with a new, agonizing purpose. "I need to see Laura."
"Mr. Rivas, your place is here, with your children," the nurse reminded him firmly. "Sophie has just been moved to pediatric ICU for observation and fluid replenishment. She's going to need you when she wakes up. And Mateo is going to need reassurance."
Diego looked over at Mateo. The little boy shifted in his sleep, whimpering softly, his small hand still knotted tightly into the fabric of Diego's jacket.
"You're right," Diego choked out, gently stroking his son's messy hair. "My kids need me. But someone has to go to Mercy General. Someone has to tell them who she is."
"The police have already matched her fingerprints to DMV records," Ms. Higgins assured him. "Her family has been notified. They should be arriving at Mercy General soon."
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Diego froze. Her family. Laura’s parents lived two states away in Ohio. They had never liked Diego, and relations had been icy since the divorce. The thought of facing them, while his own children were recovering from a nightmare he couldn't protect them from, felt like an insurmountable mountain.
"Okay," Diego muttered, standing up slowly. "I'll stay here with my kids. But as soon as Sophie is stable... I'm going to find out how this happened."
