Chapter 12 - THE CALL TO ELENA
Later that afternoon, while Marco was downstairs talking with the hospital social worker, I asked the nurse to hand me my phone from the bedside table. My fingers shook as I unlocked the screen and dialed my mother’s number. Elena Reyes answered on the first ring, her voice tight with immediate anxiety. “Isabel? How is the MRI? What did they find?”
I couldn't hold it together anymore. I broke down completely, sobbing into the receiver as I told her everything: the ruptured L5-S1 disc, the emergency cauda equina decompression surgery, the paralysis in my legs, and Marco’s confession after watching the security footage. There was a long, heavy silence on the other end of the line, followed by the sound of my mother exhaling a sharp, ragged breath.
“My God,” my mother whispered, fury burning through her voice. “I am driving to the hospital right now. And as for Marco—he is finished. You are not going back to that house, Isabel. You and Sophia are coming home with me, where people with actual medical knowledge can take care of you.” For the first time in weeks, a tiny spark of genuine safety ignited in my chest. I wasn't alone anymore. My mother was coming, and this time, nobody would call me dramatic.
