Chapter 22: What He Signed

Ignacio waited outside the room on a plastic chair.

A thin brown line of Lorena's blood had dried on his cuff.

It was not much blood.

It was a scrape from the air bag, the nurse had said.

He had looked at it for two hours.

At eleven the doctor came out, a young woman in green, with her mask pulled down.

"She is bruised across the shoulder where the belt caught her," she said. "Nothing is broken. We are keeping her overnight."

"And the baby?"

"Strong heartbeat. We've listened three times."

She smiled a little.

"You can go in. She is resting, so be quiet."

He stood, and his legs did not work for a moment.

The room was dim.

A monitor beside the bed made a small quick sound, and he stood in the doorway and listened to it.

Lorena lay on her side with one hand under her cheek.

He did not wake her.

He sat in the visitor's chair and watched the green line move.

He sat there until after midnight.

At one in the morning his mother walked into the corridor in a coat thrown over her nightdress.

She wore no pearls.

"Is she alive?" Consuelo said.

"She is, and so is the child."

His mother put her hand to her mouth.

"I heard it on the radio," she said. "That man drove into her."

"Yes."

"He was my guest, Ignacio. He sat at my table. I told him everything."

"I know. You told him when the board would meet."

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