5.
OLíVIA SAMPAIO
The call comes two days later.
Not from the Villar Institute.
From Curitiba.
My hands still shake when I answer.
“Dr. Helena Campos?”
“Yes. Is this Olívia Sampaio?”
“Yes.”
She tells me she reviewed the records Renata sent.
She asks questions.
I answer every one.
For ten minutes, I manage to pretend I’m simply one healthcare professional speaking to another about a patient.
Then she says, “I agree that she needs a surgical evaluation.”
My world contracts.
“Now?”
“Within the next few weeks.”
“She isn’t even six.”
I don’t know why I say it.
As if age were an argument.
As if five years should be too young for a heart to demand another surgery.
“I know.”
“Can we wait?”
“There is a chance the team could evaluate her and determine that waiting is still safe. But based on the tests I reviewed, I would not be comfortable delaying an in-person assessment.”
I sit down.
“Thank you.”
“If you’d like, we can schedule it.”
“Yes.”
“Our first opening is about three weeks from now.”
Three weeks.
It sounds short.
Feels endless.
“Put her down for it.”
“I will.”
When the call ends, I sit without moving.
Three weeks.
Renata wanted sooner.
I pick up my phone again.
There is a message from her.
Call me when you can.
I do.
“I spoke to Curitiba.”
“I know. Helena updated me.”
“They can see her in three weeks.”
Renata is quiet.
“What?”
“The other review came back.”
My stomach tightens.
“Which one?”
“The Institute.”
“I asked you to send it anonymously.”
“I did.”
“And?”
“The team recommends an in-person evaluation within one week.”
I close my eyes.
“Who signed the report?”
“Artur Mendon?a.”
I know the name.
Any mother who spends enough time around pediatric cardiology eventually learns certain names.
“Is he really that good?”
“Yes.”
“Better than Helena?”
“I don’t like ranking physicians. His team does have extremely specific experience in pediatric valve reconstruction.”
“One week.”
“Yes.”
My hand curls into a fist.
“They still don’t know who she is?”
“No. Everything was submitted under a code.”
“To schedule her?”
“We would need identifying information.”
I don’t answer.
“Olívia.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Think quickly.”
I hang up.
My head aches.
I leave my office.
The clinic is nearly empty. Manuela is still at school. Camila is sorting files behind the desk.
“I’m stepping out.”
“Everything okay?”
“I need to talk to my mother.”
“Want company?”
I manage a smile.
“No. But thank you.”
Marta is at home.
I find her in the backyard watering plants.
“You have your bad-news face.”
“Manuela needs the evaluation.”
The hose stops moving.
“When?”
“Curitiba can see her in three weeks.”
“And Villar?”
“One.”
My mother closes her eyes.
“Shit.”
“Exactly.”
We go inside.
She makes coffee.
I don’t drink mine.
“If the name on that hospital were anything else, which one would you choose?” she asks.
“Don’t.”
“Answer me.”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
“I would choose whichever team could see her sooner.”
The truth hangs between us.
Marta reaches for my hand.
“Then you have your answer.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“What if he finds out?”
“You are taking your daughter to a cardiologist, not asking permission to walk back into Leonardo Villar’s life.”
“The hospital belongs to the group.”
“The hospital treats thousands of people.”
“Her name—”
“Sampaio.”
“My name too.”
She understands immediately.
Olívia Sampaio.
The name dragged through every news outlet after the wedding.
“Five years have passed.”
“The internet has a longer memory.”
“Doctors are looking at echocardiograms, not gossip columns.”
I rub both hands over my face.
“What if Leonardo finds out?”
Marta’s expression hardens.
“Then he’ll know you exist.”
“He already knows that.”
“He does not know who you became.”
That one hurts.
For a long time, I thought surviving meant proving Leonardo hadn’t destroyed everything.
Then I realized I was still arranging my life around him.
So I stopped.
Recome?o isn’t proof of anything.
Manuela isn’t proof.
Santa Serena isn’t a hiding place.
It’s my life.
“The appointment is only an appointment,” my mother says.
“Only that.”
“You can go, listen, and leave.”
“Without seeing him.”
“If that’s what you want.”
I nod.
My phone vibrates.
álvaro.
One message.
Call me as soon as you can.
My heart jumps.
I call immediately.
“What happened?”
“Are you with your mother?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want to scare you.”
The single most effective way to scare someone.
“Tell me.”
“A man came by the old workshop in S?o Paulo.”
“What man?”
“Said he represented a company trying to find current contact information for you.”
My body turns cold.
“What company?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“Did you give him anything?”
“No.”
“What did he look like?”
“Suit. Asked too many questions. I asked for a card and he left.”
Marta is watching my face.
“What?”
I hold up one finger.
“álvaro, did he say Leonardo’s name?”
“No.”
“Villar?”
“No.”
“Then it could be anything.”
“It could.”
Neither of us believes it.
“If he comes back, don’t tell him where I am.”
“I would never give anyone your information without talking to you.”
I hang up.
My mother folds her arms.
“Now tell me.”
I repeat the conversation.
“Maybe it’s unrelated,” she says.
“Who looks for my address after five years?”
“A bank. Paperwork. Something involving the clinic.”
“At álvaro’s old workshop?”
Marta goes quiet.
I sit down.
The feeling is horribly familiar.
The same sensation I had when photographers started appearing outside the house after the wedding.
Being watched.
Tracked.
Turned into a character in a story someone else controlled.
“I’m not running.”
“No one asked you to.”
“If it’s Leonardo, I won’t.”
My mother sits across from me.
“What exactly are you afraid of?”
The answer is immediate.
“Him finding out about Manuela.”
“He may someday.”
“I know.”
“And she is not an unborn baby he can reject before she ever takes her first breath.”
My eyes sting.
“That does not make him less dangerous.”
“No. It makes you different.”
“How?”
“You are not twenty-three anymore. You are not standing in a church begging a man to believe you.”
My breath catches.
“You have a daughter. A clinic. A life. Lawyers if you need them. People beside you.”
I take her hand.
“And if he wants into her life?”
“Then he learns that nobody gets through your door without knocking.”
That night, I decide not to eliminate the Villar Institute as an option.
That is not the same thing as agreeing to take Manuela there.
For now, I only tell Renata to keep the possibility open while I consider everything else.