Chapter 7: One Within the Hour

Aurora came through the emergency doors with white lilies in her arms.

Valeria heard the heels first, steady and unhurried, and then the voice that asked a nurse for the patient's name.

Fabiola stood up from the plastic chair beside the bed.

"Don't," she said. "Don't let her in."

The curtain slid back anyway.

Aurora looked at Valeria on the narrow bed.

She looked at the monitor, and at the paper strip still curling off the machine.

Her eyes stopped on one line of it.

"Two," she said softly.

Valeria did not answer.

"My driver spoke to a nurse he knows."

"I'm not angry that you hid it, dear. I understand why you did."

She laid the lilies on the foot of the bed.

"You are carrying my grandchildren, and I'm so happy."

"They're not yours," Valeria said.

"They are Escalantes."

"They're mine."

"And Rodrigo's." Aurora smiled. "Which is a miracle, considering the report. But the Lord is generous."

Fabiola made a sound in her throat.

"The Lord didn't write that report," she said. "Your clinic did."

Aurora's gaze moved to her for the first time.

"You must be the sister. A court clerk, I think. Such honest work."

"I'm not honest, I'm just loud."

"Fabiola," Valeria said quietly.

Aurora pulled the visitor's stool out with the toe of her shoe and sat down with her bag on her lap.

"Let us be practical, Valeria. You've had a shock."

"You have no income, and you are living on your sister's couch. You need a proper doctor."

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