My pulse spiked.
He pressed a button.
A large flatscreen mounted on the wall flickered to life.
The image was steady. Clear.
An elderly woman lay in a hospital bed, frail and small beneath thin sheets. Tubes ran into her arms. An oxygen maskcovered most of her face. Monitors beeped softly beside her, green lines pulsing with fragile rhythm.
A sign on the wall behind her read:
ST. MARY’S MEDICAL CENTER – LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA
My stomach turned to ice.
A man in scrubs stood beside the bed, one hand resting lightly on the oxygen tube. He looked directly into the camera.
“Should I remove it, boss?” the doctor asked calmly, his voice tinny through the speakers.
The room went dead silent.
Elena went rigid, like a wire pulled too tight.
“Don’t you dare touch her.”
Her voice wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be. It carried the kind of terror that comes from knowing exactly how much there is to lose.
Chapo’s smile widened, stretching into something openly predatory.
On the screen, the doctor’s fingers moved with deliberate slowness. He peeled the oxygen mask away.
The effect was immediate.
The old woman—Elena’s grandmother, her only family left in the world—jerked weakly against the sheets. Her chest hitched, ribs straining visibly beneath thin skin. She sucked in air that never seemed to reach her lungs. The sound that came from her throat wasn’t breathing. It was drowning.
Wet, rattling coughs echoed through the speakers.
Blood flecked her lips.
Elena made a broken sound somewhere between a gasp and a sob.
“No—no, please—” Her knees buckled, and she staggered forward a step, eyes glued to the screen. “She’s all I have,”she whispered, the words barely audible. She looked at me, desperation naked and raw, then at Amy—
Amy still wouldn’t lift her head.
Shame wrapped around her like chains.
“Please,” Elena begged, turning back to Chapo. Tears spilled freely now, streaking down her cheeks. “Put it back. I’ll do anything. Anything you want.”
On screen, the coughing worsened. The woman’s mouth opened in a silent scream as her face darkened, lips turning blue. Her hands twitched weakly against the sheets.
Elena screamed.
“Please!” She lurched toward the screen as if she could reach through it, fingers clawing at empty air. “I’ll do it! I swear to you, I’ll do it—just put it back!”
The doctor hesitated, eyes flicking sideways toward the camera.
Elena collapsed.
