Chapter 8 - SHE CAME BACK FOR SOPHIE
Alejandro had never driven so fast in his life.
Police reached the hospital first.
Every entrance was locked down.
Security officers searched every floor.
Sophie was moved to a secured pediatric room.
Elena stayed beside her.
Alejandro arrived breathless.
“Where is she?”
Rachel met him at the elevator.
“We haven’t found Valerie.”
“She’s here.”
“We know she was nearby.”
“She sent the picture.”
“We’re checking cameras.”
Alejandro entered Sophie’s room.
She immediately reached for him.
“Daddy.”
He hugged her.
“I’m right here.”
“Why are there police?”
“They’re keeping us safe.”
“From Valerie?”
Alejandro hesitated.
Then decided he would never lie to her again.
“Yes.”
Sophie’s eyes widened.
“Is she mad?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
He crouched.
“You are safe.”
At 1:13 a.m., hospital security found Valerie’s baseball cap in a second-floor restroom.
At 1:19, they found a discarded jacket.
At 1:26, a nurse reported seeing a woman wearing blue scrubs enter a staff elevator.
Valerie had changed clothes.
Rachel ordered every exit sealed.
Then the fire alarm sounded.
Red lights flashed.
Doors unlocked automatically.
Patients began moving into corridors.
Rachel swore.
“She triggered it.”
Alejandro grabbed Sophie.
A nurse rushed in.
“We need to evacuate this section.”
“No.”
“Sir—”
“There’s someone trying to reach my daughter.”
Rachel entered.
“Use the service corridor.”
They moved quickly.
Elena walked beside Sophie’s bed.
Alejandro stayed behind it.
At the end of the corridor, a woman in blue scrubs appeared.
Mask.
Hair covered.
She pushed an empty wheelchair.
Alejandro stopped.
Something about her eyes.
“Valerie.”
The woman froze.
Then ran.
Rachel chased her.
Two officers came from the opposite direction.
Valerie turned into a stairwell.
Alejandro stayed with Sophie.
Every instinct told him to run after Valerie.
Every lesson from the last twenty-four hours told him not to leave Sophie.
So he didn’t.
He held his daughter’s hand.
Valerie made it three floors down before officers caught her.
She fought.
She screamed.
She insisted they had the wrong woman.
Then Rachel removed her mask.
Valerie’s perfect smile was gone.
So was the polished woman Alejandro married.
She looked exhausted.
Cornered.
Furious.
As officers led her past the pediatric floor, she saw Alejandro.
“Alejandro!”
He didn’t move.
“You’re making a mistake.”
He stared at her.
“You already made mine.”
Valerie struggled against the officers.
“She ruined us.”
Alejandro’s expression changed.
Valerie pointed toward Sophie’s room.
“That child ruined everything.”
The corridor went silent.
Alejandro stepped forward.
Rachel blocked him.
He stopped.
Then Valerie screamed,
“You chose her over your wife!”
Alejandro looked at her for a long moment.
“Yes.”
One word.
No hesitation.
“Yes, I did.”
Valerie stared at him.
“And I would do it again.”
The officers took her away.
Alejandro thought it was over.
It wasn’t.
Because when detectives searched Valerie after the arrest, they found a flash drive sewn into the lining of her bag.
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And on that drive was a folder labeled:
RIVERS — PHASE TWO.
