When they left Benjamin in the recovery room, I asked to go in for a minute. Roman looked at me, hesitated, and let me in, figuring it was impossible for anyone to hurt me inside that room.He opened his eyes when he heard the door."You didn't come to see me at the pharmacy," he joked, with a grimace that hurt."No," I replied. "But thank you for being there.""I'm no hero," he said. "I was reckless and acted on impulse, but I'm glad it was me and not you who got hurt."I bit my lip. The past trembled for a moment, but I didn't let it out. I never imagined that a thought like that could come out of Benjamin."Tell them what you saw. Thank you for saving me, and take care," I asked him."I will," he nodded.I left. Roman was waiting outside, with that protective yet patient expression he had learned to use with me."We're leaving," he said. "I'll bring your Eva," he smiled slightly. "Your friend. She says she wants to see you. And I think that's a good idea.""Can I talk to you?""Yes

"When I was hospitalized that time," I began, choosing each word carefully, "I had long days to think. You didn't call. You didn't come. You didn't ask about me. I know you had work, I know life goes on, but in that silence I realized that the love was one-sided, you simply didn't love me and you were just forcing yourself to stay in that empty relationship. I understood it too late. I realized we had no future together because in your idea of the future, I never had a place in your heart. I bit my lip, unable to say more, not about what I had experienced in my past life, since it hadn't happened in this one. There are things that don't fit into this life, no explanations I can give you without breaking something that couldn't be fixed.He listened to me in silence, as if he had finally learned that closing himself off doesn't prevent him from getting hurt. Then, with a calmness I had never seen before, he said:"I admit that I was upset that you disappeared without a trace. My pride

I don't know how long the darkness lasted. Nor do I know if it deserved an ending. Sometimes darkness is not the absence of light: it is a pause that the body needs to find its form. From that place without clocks, the only thing I could think—or feel—was a straight line, drawn freehand, connecting two points on my chest. And a word that I did not say, but that I heard very clearly: "Come back."Consciousness came and went like the tide. At times, a warm wave lifted me toward the light; at times, a whirlpool dragged me to a thick, boundless depths. I tried to open my eyelids. Nothing. A stone weight kept them closed. Through that dark world, voices came as if from another room."Is she going to be okay?" I recognized Roman's broken voice, without his usual composure, touched by a fear I had never heard in him before."The patient is in serious condition," replied another voice, professional and neutral. "Internal bleeding. We'll admit her to the ward right now. For now..." A brief pau

In the operating room, someone announces a blood pressure reading that sounds better than the previous one. Another voice says "stabilized." Time becomes a thicker rope again. The light doesn't change, but its temperature does."We're closing in stages," says the lead surgeon. "The next forty-eight hours are critical."***The clock in the hallway marks a time that no one remembers ever experiencing. The swinging door opens. A tall doctor with tired eyes and immaculate hands removes his mask as he walks. Everyone stands up at once, as if summoned by an invisible bell."Family of patient Isabella Araya," he says, his voice spreading through the hall like water.Roman takes a step. Claudia takes another. Eva takes two."She made it through the first surgery," the doctor continues. "We controlled the bleeding and stabilized her vital signs. She is on assisted ventilation and sedation. The prognosis is guarded. The next forty-eight hours are the most important. We are going to move her to

Román was waiting for her in the hallway. Before he could say anything, an elegant woman in her fifties with dark circles under her eyes approached."Roman, I was looking for you," she said. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.""Eva," he introduced her. "My cousin. And Eva," he smiled, "Isabella's best friend."The two looked at each other with a mixture of curiosity and confusion over the "tangle of names." There was no awkwardness, only quick recognition."Nice to meet you," said the cousin. "I wish we had met under different circumstances.""Likewise," replied the friend. "How is everything?"The older Eva soberly recounted the essentials: the harassment, the attack, Camila's arrest, the chain of accomplices, the role of the prosecution. She talked about the head of security, Mauricio, the workers who continued to go to the hospital. Eva's friend listened, nodding, clutching her purse to her chest as if hugging herself.***The next morning, Roman came in for his visiting shift as