Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Bruises and Signatures
"I'm not signing anything," Valeria said, her voice shaking from the pain of a fresh contraction, but her resolve absolute.
Dr. Salgado nodded to the nurses. They moved in unison. One nurse forcefully pinned Valeria’s left arm to the mattress, while the other held her right. Salgado reached over and disconnected the emergency call button, tossing it onto the floor.
Octavio grabbed Valeria’s right hand. His grip was brutal, digging into her delicate bones. He pried her fingers open, jammed a heavy Montblanc pen into her palm, and forcefully guided her hand over the documents.
Valeria fought back with everything she had. She thrashed, twisted, and kicked violently. Her bare legs slammed repeatedly against the unforgiving metal side-rails of the hospital bed. The sound of flesh hitting steel echoed in the room, but the nurses did not relent. Deep, purple and black bruises began to bloom instantly across her shins, ankles, and thighs.
"Hold her still!" Octavio hissed, using his own body weight to press her hand down, forcing a jagged, messy signature onto the bottom of each page.
Valeria suddenly stopped resisting. She let her head fall back against the pillow, panting heavily. Her eyes darted upward, locking onto a tiny, almost invisible black dot hidden in the grooves of the smoke detector on the ceiling.
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The camera. It didn't belong to Rebeca. Valeria had installed it three days prior.
She let Octavio finish forcing her hand to sign the documents. Let them think they had won. The physical pain in her legs was agonizing, but the intellectual victory she was about to claim fueled her.
