Chapter 24
Maria has walked back and forth in the hospital hallways for almost two hours after answering the police's questions between sobs.
She hasn't stopped despite a doctor wanting to examine her because her adrenaline was so high she felt that if she stopped, her heart would burst. However, for the past ten minutes, she's been leaning against a column with strong tremors in her hands and legs.
"Are you better? Should I bring you something from the vending machine?" Oliver asks her.
Maria slowly shakes her head and the bodyguard nods and stays close to her.
That's when she hears hurried steps down the hall and immediately recognizes that way of walking, the characteristic click of heels she always associates with her best friend.
She turns her head and sees Ursula coming with a bag in her hand.
As soon as her friend reaches her, Maria throws herself into her arms and starts crying again.
"It's okay, it's over now," Ursula tries to calm her, hugging her tight.
Although she knows she did it, Maria doesn't even remember the moment when she found herself able to call Ursula to explain hysterically what had happened. Everything is a confused blur in her mind, mixed with images of the park, the screams, and Trinidad's blood.
"How are Trinidad and Benjamin?" Ursula asks knowing Maria won't answer her.
"We still don't know anything," Oliver responds.
When Maria calms down a bit, Ursula guides her to one of the bathrooms and locks herself in there with her. The small space smells of disinfectant and the fluorescent lights highlight the paleness of Maria's face giving her an almost ghostly appearance.
"I brought you clean clothes, let's get that blood-stained shirt off you and clean you up a bit," Ursula resolves, and Maria lets herself be handled like a rag doll.
She's grateful Ursula is there and takes those minutes spent cleaning her to get lost in her thoughts, but once her friend has erased all traces of blood from her body, she feels a bit better and starts to recover and be the strong woman she usually is.
"I was very scared," she admits to Ursula, who continues looking at her with a clinical eye searching for traces of blood on her skin.
"I can imagine. It's in all the news, you have to be very unbalanced to do something like that in a park full of children," Ursula responds, carefully folding the stained shirt to put it in a bag.
"I wasn't scared for the children," Maria admits and looks at her fixedly, "I was only scared for Trinidad.
Everything happened so fast, but when I saw her body shake from the impact.
.." Maria looks at her hands, which are still trembling, "I could only think about not wanting to lose her, the rest of the world didn't matter to me," she admits with shame.
"Yeah..." Ursula smiles softly and caresses her cheek, "that's what happens when you fall in love, you're terrified of losing that person, but Trinidad is strong and she'll get through this, you'll see."
Maria nods, unable to say anything or think otherwise.
The two return to Oliver just as the doctor who operated on Trinidad appears and explains that it was a somewhat complicated operation because the bullet had lodged in the businesswoman's shoulder blade, but that she's out of danger and they'll be able to see her when they take her to her room in a few hours.
"And Benjamin?" Oliver asks.
"About him I can only tell you he's still in surgery, they'll come to inform you when they finish."
The man leaves and the three stay there, relieved by the news about Trinidad and worried about Benjamin.
"I need you to do something," Maria tells Ursula.
"Of course, just ask."
"We need to locate Trinidad's parents and bring them here, I'd like them to be with her when she wakes up. It shouldn't be difficult, we know her previous name and looking into her past with that son of a bitch..."
"Don't worry, I know how to do it," Ursula interrupts her.
"I know they're from Salamanca," Maria continues, dazed, "you'll have to look for flights."
"I don't know if we'll manage to bring them before she wakes up," Ursula raises her eyebrows, "but I assure you she'll see her parents."
"You can use Trinidad's private plane, I'm sure she won't mind," Oliver intervenes, "I can ask them to fly it to Salamanca right now and wait there while you locate them."
"You have permission to do that?" Maria asks surprised.
"Well, technically only Benjamin has it, but while he's incapacitated, I'm next in command, so yes," he responds nervously.
"Good, then do it," Ursula says and says goodbye to Maria with a hug.
When Trinidad opens her eyes she feels a heaviness in her eyelids that she hasn't experienced in a long time.
She's very tired and has some discomfort in her shoulder, so she closes them again ready to continue with that dream she doesn't want to wake up from, but then she hears a voice that sounds familiar and that she hasn't heard in many years, her mother's, and her eyes open again.
"Daughter, are you awake?"
Trinidad blinks again confused and focuses.
She doesn't see blurry, she sees her clearly and knows it's her.
Although she hasn't been able to see them, Trinidad has always known about her parents since she started having financial stability, when she hired a private detective to make monthly reports for her, and he was also the man who got them a prepaid credit card that Trinidad has been reloading every month so her parents wouldn't lack anything.
She tries to respond to her mother, but she can't because then she also sees her father, standing right behind, and emotions overflow her and she breaks down crying.
Her parents hug her and comfort her until Trinidad's mind, too exhausted during these years and unable to process so much, shuts off again to continue sleeping.