Part 2: The Emergency Room and the Frame-Up
A pair of bright headlights blinded Rosa as she stumbled out onto the busy avenue. She waved her bloodied hand frantically, screaming into the headlights of a passing yellow taxi. The driver slammed on his brakes, stopping just inches from her.
"Please! Help me! The baby isn't breathing!" Rosa sobbed, throwing open the backdoor and collapsing onto the vinyl seat.
The driver, an older man with kind eyes, took one look at the pale baby in her arms and didn't ask any questions. He slammed his foot on the accelerator, speeding toward the nearest public hospital in Guadalajara.
Inside the chaotic, bright emergency room, Rosa screamed for help. "¡Ayuda! ¡Por favor! My baby took medicine... he won't wake up!"
Nurses and a young pediatric doctor rushed forward, immediately ripping Santi from Rosa's arms and placing him on a stainless-steel gurney. They began pumping a bag-valve mask over his tiny nose and mouth.
"What did he ingest? How long has he been unconscious?" the doctor shouted over the noise of the ER.
"I don't know the name... it was a small bottle. The stepmother poured it into his milk," Rosa cried, her hands shaking as she pulled the sticky plastic baby bottle from her apron pocket. "Here! The milk is still inside!"
The doctor grabbed the bottle, sniffing it quickly before handing it to a nurse. "Run a rapid toxicology screen on this residue immediately! Get him into the ICU, start a gastric lavage and prepare an intravenous antidote for severe sedative overdose!"
As they wheeled Santi away behind double doors, Rosa collapsed into a plastic chair in the waiting room, burying her face in her blood-stained hands. She prayed intensely, bargaining with God, offering her own life if only Santi could survive.
An hour later, the heavy glass doors of the hospital entrance shattered open. It wasn't Tomás Montiel who walked in, but Valeria, flanked by two private lawyers and a high-ranking police commander. Valeria’s eyes scanned the room until they locked onto Rosa.
"There she is!" Valeria pointed a manicured finger, her voice echoing dramatically through the waiting room. "That is the woman who poisoned my son! She tried to extort us for money, and when I refused, she gave my poor baby an overdose and kidnapped him!"
Before Rosa could even stand up, two armed police officers grabbed her by the arms, forcing her against the cold wall.
"No! That's a lie! She did it! I have the bottle!" Rosa screamed, struggling against the heavy grip of the officers.
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"The bottle you stole from our kitchen to frame me?" Valeria sneered, walking up to Rosa, her voice dropping to a vicious whisper that only Rosa could hear. "I told you, you're nobody, Rosa. My family owns this city's elite. The police work for us. You are going to prison for attempted murder, and your children will grow up orphans."
The handcuffs clicked tightly around Rosa’s wrists, cold and unyielding. As she was dragged out of the hospital, she looked back at the closed ICU doors, her heart breaking into pieces.
