30/12/2025
AFTER THE ACCIDENT, I LAY MOTIONLESS IN A HOSPITAL BED, MY LEGS NUMB AND PHYSICAL PAIN PIERCING ME WITH EVERY BREATH—BUT NOTHING COMPARED TO THAT MOMENT.
My mother-in-law lunged toward me, slapped me in front of everyone, and violently ripped my newborn baby from my arms. I screamed in desperation, reaching out my hands by pure instinct. And my husband? He simply stood there, cold-eyed, without saying a single word, as if my son and I had never been his family. After that day, I swallowed the pain and took action, and when I was finally discharged from the hospital, it was they who had to kneel before me…
My name is Lucía Martínez, and I had just given birth to my son, Mateo, when everything shattered. The room door burst open and my mother-in-law, Carmen Ruiz, entered without a greeting, her eyes filled with rage. Before I could react, she slapped me in front of doctors and nurses. The sharp sound echoed through the room. Then, with violence, she snatched my newborn from my arms.
I screamed in despair, reaching out my hands by pure instinct. My body would not respond. “Give him back to me!” I pleaded. Carmen pressed the child against her chest as if he were her own and called me useless, weak, a disgrace to her family. I searched for my husband, Javier Ortega, with my eyes, waiting for him to say something, to defend me. He was just standing there, face expressionless, arms crossed. He didn’t say a word. His eyes were cold and distant, as if Mateo and I had never been his family.
I remembered then how, weeks before, Javier had insisted on putting everything in his mother's name "for security." Trusting and exhausted by the pregnancy, I had agreed. Now I understood. The accident hadn't been just bad luck: they had forced me to drive while tired and under pressure to fulfill a family commitment that wasn't mine. While I struggled to move a single finger, Carmen ordered them to take the child away. No one dared to contradict her. I cried in silence, swallowing the humiliation and the fear.
That night, alone in the room, I made a vow. I didn't scream anymore. I didn't plead anymore. I swallowed the pain and began to think. Because if they had stripped me of everything in an instant, they could also learn what it means to underestimate a mother. And in that moment, with the monitor beeping and the emptiness in my arms, the true conflict began—the one that would change our lives forever...
To be continued in the comments.