Chapter 48

POV Eduard

The instant Raquel's scream froze my blood is something I will never erase from my memory. I was holding her in my arms, leaving that horrible house, when I noticed the wet warmth soaking my shirt and saw her face filled with terror.

"Eduard... my water broke," she murmured, her eyes brimming with tears.

For a brief moment I remained motionless. My mind kept repeating no, it can't be now, but her labored breathing brought me back to reality.

"Luis! I need a car immediately!" I shouted, with the desperation of a man about to lose everything.

Outside, the chaos was beginning to calm down. Luis's men had finished with the last guys, the corpses lay smoking on the ground and the smell of gunpowder was unbearable. However, that no longer mattered. The real fight was in front of me: Raquel and our son fighting to be born.

We settled her in the back seat of a car, doing something I never thought I'd do. My hands were shaking, and I could feel my heartbeat echoing in my ears.

"Hold on, darling. Everything will be fine," I told her quietly, though inside I didn't believe it.

An ambulance was on its way, but we were aware it wouldn't arrive in time. She was gasping, the spasms made her writhe and my soul broke seeing her that way.

"Eduard... I can't take it anymore..." she complained, clinging to my hand desperately.

I rolled up my sleeves, took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. I couldn't let fear overcome me. If I didn't do it, no one could.

"Look at me, Raquel," I asked her, holding her sweat-soaked face. "You're going to be okay. Our son will be okay. Trust me."

Her eyes, filled with pain, met mine. She nodded weakly.

I remembered the instructions I had heard in medical talks, never imagining I would use them at some point. I asked her to push during contractions. She screamed, torn apart, and each scream was like a dagger in my chest.

Time stopped. I didn't know if only a few minutes or an eternity had passed. Sweat ran down my forehead, my shirt was soaked, and her nails had left deep marks on my hands.

"Come on, darling, we almost made it! Push one more time, Raquel, please, for our son..."

She screamed, a scream that intertwined with overwhelming silence.

And then I heard it.

A cry. Sharp, strong, powerful.

I held him in my hands. A boy. My son. Blood and tears stained my face as I lifted him. To me, he was perfect, beautiful, the miracle I had waited for so long.

"Raquel... look at him, he's our son, he's a boy..." I told her, my voice trembling with emotion.

However, when I turned my gaze back to her, relief turned to fear.

Her face was pale, extremely pale. Her eyes were almost closed, and there was too much blood on the seat.

"No, please, Raquel, hold on! Don't do this to me!" I screamed in anguish.

At that moment, the sirens arrived at the scene. The ambulance and police had appeared. The paramedics rushed toward us and took the baby from my hands to examine him.

"He's stable, although he was born prematurely," said one of them.

But I couldn't take my eyes off Raquel, who could barely breathe.

"She's losing too much blood, we have to take her immediately," indicated the emergency doctor.

The world became a fast-moving nightmare. We got into the vehicle, I firmly held Raquel's hand, begging them not to take her from me just now that I had gotten her back.

The trip to the hospital was agony. With each second I saw her weaker, more distant. I kissed her forehead and talked non-stop, as if my words could keep her conscious.

"Don't leave me, darling, listen to my voice, look at me. You promised you would fight with me, you can't abandon me."

But I got no response.

Upon arriving at the hospital, everything was chaos. They took her to the operating room immediately, while I stayed in the hallway with my son in my arms, trembling like never before. The baby slept peacefully, oblivious to the storm, while I cried silently.

The following hours were the greatest torture of my life. I walked back and forth, unable to stay in one place. My mind visualized terrifying scenes: her dying, me raising alone a baby who would never know his mother.

Luis was beside me, his clothes stained with blood, supporting me without saying a word. Antonio, with a bandage on his shoulder, stayed there, almost motionless, waiting for news. Mariana came running, her eyes filled with tears. She hugged me silently, and in her expression I saw the same fear that consumed me. Celeste, my mother and my sister also arrived. We were all there, united in the same suffering.

The hours passed, eternal, until finally the door opened.

The doctor came out, exhausted.

"It was complicated, but we managed to stop the hemorrhage. Mrs. Santodomingo is unconscious and will be taken to ICU. She's still in danger, we must wait for her to wake up."

I felt myself collapse. I dropped into a chair and the tears I had been holding back began to flow. I couldn't take it anymore. My mother hugged me, and her words of comfort were just a distant murmur. All I could think was that I had saved her from a terrible situation only to lose her in my arms.

I looked out the window, toward the dark night sky.

"Please, God... don't take her from me now."

Because without Raquel, everything I had achieved, everything I had fought for, had no meaning.