52

When the ambulance arrived, I was still in shock but a little calmer. Hastily, two nurses put Arnaldo on a stretcher and carried him towards the vehicle. For some unknown reason, I wanted to go with him, back there, with the security guards following us in another car. Ryleea also wanted to accompany us, but I asked her to stay at home, as the hospital where her mother had worked for several years was not a safe environment.

At the hospital, I waited in a room for several hours until the only doctor in town came to see me.

— Are you Arnaldo Brandao's companion? he asked, as if he did not know that I was the man's son and the only relative outside of jail.

- Yes. How is he?

- Not good. I managed to extract the bullet, but I am not a neurosurgeon. I won't know the extent of the damage done until after he wakes up. That if you wake up.

I could put that damned old man in the helicopter and take him to a renowned neurosurgeon in São Paulo, if only to assuage my guilt in the slightest.

"Is