Chapter 4: The Fortress of Glass
The private medical wing on the third floor of the Navarro mansion was transformed into an intensive care suite within an hour.
Dr. Alvarez, the family’s trusted physician of thirty years, adjusted the intravenous antibiotics while Elena lay sleeping under heavy goose-down blankets, her breathing assisted by a soft oxygen cannula.
In the adjoining sitting room, Mia sat on a wide velvet sofa, wearing a warm cashmere sweater provided by the housekeeper. She was eating warm chicken broth, swinging her legs contentedly while holding the gold crest button in her left hand.
Diego stood by the glass observation wall, his jaw clenched, his eyes never leaving Elena’s sleeping face.
""She’s suffering from severe exhaustion, acute pneumonia, and chronic malnutrition,"" Dr. Alvarez said, stepping out of the room and removing his stethoscope. ""If she had spent another two hours in that freezing rain, her heart would have failed.""
""Will she recover?"" Diego asked, his voice strained.
""Yes,"" the doctor nodded. ""Her vitals are stabilizing now. She is young, and she is a fighter. But Diego... you need to see this.""
Dr. Alvarez handed Diego a worn, water-damaged notebook that had been retrieved from Elena’s coat pocket.
Diego opened it. Inside were five years of medical receipts, eviction notices from low-income tenements in Lisbon and Marseille, and dozens of hand-written letters addressed to him—all returned stamped with the words: *REFUSED BY ADDRESSEE - RETURN TO SENDER.*
His family had intercepted every single plea. When Elena had discovered she was pregnant in Portugal, she had tried to reach him for months. Diego’s late father had threatened her with legal prosecution and child abandonment charges if she ever stepped foot on American soil.
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Diego closed the notebook. The gold button in his pocket burned against his thigh. He had spent five years believing he was the victim of betrayal, while the woman he loved had fought through starvation to keep his daughter alive.
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