CHAPTER 4 — BURIED ALIVE I

“She's losing too much blood, and I can't keep her here!” Lucía shouted as she pressed both hands against the wound on Isabella's head. “Get the ambulance on the phone again, and tell them we're ten minutes away!”

Lucía had been following a lead connected to the late Laurent family's business records when she spotted the wreckage at the bottom of the embankment. At first, she had assumed the crash was recent and that emergency services were already on their way, but the absence of flashing lights or passing vehicles had made her stop. What she found inside the overturned car nearly cost her the courage to move.

The woman trapped beneath the twisted dashboard was Isabella Laurent.

“Isabella, can you hear me?” Lucía asked, leaning through the broken window. “You need to keep your eyes open. I'm going to get you out of here, but you have to stay with me.”

Isabella's lips moved, though the words came out as little more than a whisper.

“My baby,” Isabella murmured.

Lucía looked toward the smoke rising from the front of the car and forced herself to remain focused. “I'm going to get you to a hospital, Isabella. The doctors will help you, but I need you to keep breathing.”

The attacker had disappeared by the time Lucía reached the wreckage. She did not waste precious seconds looking for him. With the help of two men who had stopped on the road, she managed to free Isabella moments before the flames engulfed the front of the vehicle.

By the time the ambulance arrived, Isabella was barely conscious.

Lucía climbed in beside her and held her hand as the paramedics worked to stabilise her.

“Please, don't let her die,” Lucía told the nearest paramedic. “Her name is Isabella Laurent, and she is six months pregnant. You must do everything you can to save them both.”

“We're doing everything possible,” the paramedic replied as he adjusted the oxygen mask over Isabella's face. “I need you to give us room to work.”

Lucía moved back, but she refused to release Isabella's hand until the paramedic needed her to step aside. As the ambulance raced toward the nearest hospital equipped to handle severe trauma, Lucía watched the blood spreading beneath the bandages and silently begged Isabella to survive.

She had found the records she came looking for.

She had not expected to find the woman those records belonged to dying in a wreck.

At the hospital, the emergency team moved Isabella straight into surgery. Lucía remained outside the operating theatre, pacing the corridor until a nurse finally persuaded her to sit down. Her clothes were stained with blood, her hands trembled from exhaustion, and every time the doors opened, she rose with the desperate hope that someone would tell her Isabella was going to be all right.

Nearly three hours passed before the surgeon emerged.

“Are you a relative of the patient?” the surgeon asked.

“No, but I know her family, and I am the person who brought her here,” Lucía replied quickly. “How is she? Is she alive?”

“The patient survived the initial injuries, but she suffered significant blood loss and severe abdominal trauma,” the surgeon explained. “We managed to stabilise her, although she will need close monitoring.”

Lucía swallowed hard before asking the question she feared most.

“What about her baby?” Lucía asked.

The surgeon lowered his eyes briefly before answering.

“I'm sorry. We could not save the child.”

Lucía stared at him, unable to respond. She had prepared herself for the possibility that Isabella might not survive, but she had hoped the baby would give her something to hold on to when she woke.

Instead, the child Isabella had spoken about during her brief moments of consciousness was gone.

“Can I see her?” Lucía asked quietly.

“Not yet,” the surgeon replied. “She is still unconscious, and we need to monitor her condition carefully. We will let you know when she is stable enough for visitors.”

Lucía nodded, then returned to her chair. For the first time since finding Isabella, she allowed herself to cry.

Isabella woke two days later to the steady rhythm of a heart monitor and the sterile smell of a hospital room.

Her eyelids felt impossibly heavy, and the slightest movement sent pain through her body. She tried to lift her head, but a sharp ache forced her back against the pillow.

A woman sitting beside the bed immediately rose.

“Isabella, please don't try to move,” Lucía said, reaching for the nurse call button. “You've been through surgery, and your body needs time to recover.”

Isabella turned her head slowly, struggling to focus on the unfamiliar face.

“Who are you?” Isabella whispered.

“My name is Lucía,” the woman replied. “I found you after the accident and brought you to the hospital.”

Isabella blinked several times as fragments of memory returned: the wet road, the impact, the twisted metal, and Alejandro's voice coming through the phone.

Her expression changed abruptly.

“Alejandro,” Isabella said, trying to sit up. “Where is my husband? Have you called him?”

Lucía's hand tightened around the bed rail.

“Isabella, you need to rest,” Lucía replied carefully. “The doctors have only just allowed you to wake properly.”

“That's not what I asked.” Isabella struggled to lift herself again, wincing as pain crossed her abdomen. “Where is Alejandro? Does he know I'm here?”

Lucía pressed a hand gently against her shoulder to keep her from moving.

“Please, don't hurt yourself,” Lucía said. “You have serious injuries, and you need to listen to the doctors.”

“Then call my husband!” Isabella demanded, her voice rising despite her weakness. “He knows I was in an accident. I called him before the car caught fire. He must know I'm alive.”

Lucía looked away.

The movement was small, but Isabella noticed it.

“Why are you looking away?” Isabella asked. “What aren't you telling me?”

Lucía drew a slow breath, searching for a way to explain what she had discovered without causing Isabella further distress.

“I don't know where Alejandro is right now,” Lucía answered. “I haven't spoken to him, and I didn't contact anyone from your family before bringing you here.”

Isabella stared at her.

“You haven't called him?”

“No,” Lucía replied. “I was trying to save your life. There was no time to investigate your family or find your husband while you were bleeding in that car.”

Isabella sank against the pillow, tears gathering in her eyes. Alejandro had ended the call while she begged him to save her, but some desperate part of her still wanted to believe that he had changed his mind, that he had sent someone to look for her after all.

“Please, give me my phone,” Isabella whispered.

Lucía hesitated before retrieving the damaged device from her bag. The screen had been replaced temporarily with a spare phone from the hospital, but Isabella's old SIM card was still inside it.

Isabella tried to call Alejandro, but the number went straight to voicemail.

She called again.

When he still did not answer, she turned to Lucía with a frightened expression.

“Something is wrong,” Isabella said. “He wouldn't leave me alone in a hospital if he knew what happened. He wouldn't.”