Chapter 4 - THE NIGHT SOFÍA CAME
The storm arrived three weeks later.
At 2:07 a.m., Valentina woke with a contraction so strong she grabbed the bedframe.
She counted.
Seven minutes.
Then six.
Then five.
Rodrigo had gone to Monterrey that afternoon to meet a buyer.
The road was flooding.
Valentina reached the hallway.
“Mateo.”
His door opened immediately.
“What happened?”
“The baby's coming.”
Mateo's face went white.
Tomás appeared behind him.
“What do we do?”
Valentina almost laughed.
She was terrified.
Yet somehow these two boys were looking at her as if she knew everything.
“Call your father.”
The line wouldn't connect.
Mateo tried again.
Nothing.
“Truck.”
Valentina grabbed the wall as another contraction hit.
“I can drive,” Mateo said.
“No.”
“Then who?”
Old Don Ernesto lived in the worker's cottage half a mile away.
Mateo ran through the rain to get him.
Twenty minutes later, they were bouncing down the flooded road in Ernesto's truck.
Tomás sat beside Valentina.
He held her hand the entire way.
At one point, she squeezed so hard he winced.
He never pulled away.
Sofía was born at 5:42 a.m.
Six pounds, one ounce.
Healthy.
Loud.
Perfect.
Rodrigo reached the hospital an hour later.
He entered the room soaked from the rain.
Mateo was asleep in a chair.
Tomás was curled beneath a blanket.
Valentina held Sofía against her chest.
Rodrigo stopped.
Something about the scene hit him unexpectedly.
His boys.
This woman.
The baby.
For the first time since Carmen died, the room didn't feel like a place where something had been lost.
It felt like something had begun.
Rodrigo stepped closer.
“She's beautiful.”
“Her name is Sofía.”
He smiled.
“Welcome to El Nogal, Sofía.”
Mateo opened his eyes.
He walked toward the bed.
“Can I hold her?”
Valentina nodded.
Mateo held the baby awkwardly.
Sofía wrapped her tiny fingers around one of his.
Mateo stared.
Then whispered something Valentina barely heard.
“You're not leaving, okay?”
Valentina looked at him.
May you like
But Mateo was speaking to Sofía.
Or perhaps he wasn't.
