Chapter 26
The encrypted phone vibrated on the glass desk in my office at the farm’s administrative headquarters in Campo Grande.
The continuous, shrill ring on the emergency line made my blood run cold before I even answered.
“Talk,” I answered, my voice low and tense.
“Bento, it’s me, Ana. Rosário fainted in the bathroom of the safe house.
” Her voice trembled through the speaker as doors slammed and medical orders mixed with the sound of a siren.
“We’re already on the way to the hospital.
Her blood pressure dropped to eighty over forty, her pulse is weak, and the baby’s showing signs of fetal distress. ”
The office floor disappeared. An invisible, brutal blow sucked the oxygen from my lungs.
My first reaction was absolute desperation.
The irrational urge to punch the glass, scream, and break the desk in half surged through me—I was miles away at the exact moment she needed me most. Power, money, and the Falc?o name couldn’t replace the only thing Rosário still didn’t have in that ambulance: my hand holding hers.
I clenched my jaw, forcing my brain to take icy, methodical control of the situation.
“Which hospital are you heading to?” I stood up from the chair, grabbed my jacket, and crossed the office toward the private elevator, fighting to keep my voice steady.
“To the maternity hospital in the south zone. Maria Rita called the ambulance as soon as she found Rosário collapsed, and her husband activated the medical team and put the helicopters on standby. Since we’re already in S?o Paulo, the doctor decided the advanced life support ambulance would be faster and safer.
We’re going in through the obstetric emergency entrance. ”
“Stay beside her and don’t hang up until you hand her over to the hospital team.” I pressed the elevator button so many times my fingertip burned. “Tell Rosário I’m coming. Tell her she won’t go through this without me.”
I kept Ana on the line while calling the aviation director on the second phone. The siren continued cutting through S?o Paulo’s predawn darkness, and every fluctuation in Rosário’s breathing reached me like a blade.
“Prepare the jet in Campo Grande and file for arrival at Campo de Marte. I’m heading to the airport now.” I stepped into the elevator the instant the commander confirmed the order, without dropping the call with Ana.
There was no rescue for me to command. Ana, Maria Rita, and the men who loved them had already cleared the way, mobilized doctors, drivers, and aircraft before I even answered the phone.
Rosário was surrounded by people capable of protecting her.
Still, nothing diminished the agony of knowing she was facing her fear without my fingers intertwined with hers.
In that moment, my empire had only one purpose: to close the distance between us.
“The crew is ready, sir.” The commander’s confirmation came as the elevator doors opened onto the parking garage.
“Take off as soon as I board.” I ran to the waiting car and climbed in, unable to feel my own legs.
The trip to S?o Paulo was the greatest psychological torture of my life.
The jet engines tore through the predawn sky, but time seemed to drag like tar.
I kept the phone pressed to my ear as Ana narrated Rosário’s arrival at the emergency room, the sound of monitors replacing the siren.
The only image filling my mind was her face, pale and frightened.
If I lost her, if I lost the child who had kicked against my hand weeks before, no hectare or billion would mean anything.
When the jet touched down at Campo de Marte, the sky was beginning to lighten over S?o Paulo.
I was down the stairs before they’d even finished lowering and into the car waiting with its engine running.
The predawn traffic parted before the discreet convoy Arthur, Ana’s husband, had organized, but every traffic light felt like a wall between me and my family.
I crossed the white corridors of the maternity hospital barely breathing.
There was no isolated wing, no armed men transforming her pain into a display of power.
There was only a prepared team, mobilized by Henrique and the husbands of Ana and Maria Rita, working to keep Rosário and the baby alive.
I found Ana and Maria Rita in front of the obstetric center doors, their clothes wrinkled, their faces consumed by fear.
“She’s in there.” Maria Rita stood and grabbed my arms before I could push through the doors.
Her red eyes held no relief, only painful resolve.
“Her blood pressure responded to the IV, but the baby’s heartbeat is still fluctuating.
The obstetrician asked for a few minutes to decide if she can stabilize things or if she’ll need to deliver early. ”
The air wouldn’t return to my lungs. I braced one hand against the wall to keep my knees from buckling as the muffled sound of equipment escaped from behind the doors.
“Is she conscious?” I lifted my head, searching for any answer that wouldn’t destroy me.
“She is, and she asked for you the moment she opened her eyes.” Ana touched my shoulder and pointed toward the door. “Go in when the doctor calls. She needs you to be calm when you walk in.”
I walked to the glass door of the obstetric center, holding back the urgency burning beneath my skin.
Every instinct screamed at me to push through those doors and tear Rosário from danger with my own hands.
Jurandir would have stormed into the room, reminded everyone how much money he had, and mistaken control for protection.
I forced my feet to stay still. Loving Rosário meant trusting the people who knew how to save her.
I stopped an inch from the glass and waited for her to let me in.
Through the window, I saw Rosário lying on a tilted gurney, hooked up to monitors and an IV. The obstetrician ran the transducer over her belly while another doctor adjusted the medication. Her breathing was shallow, and her brown eyes searched the room until they found mine.
I pressed my palm to the glass. On the other side, Rosário raised her free hand with difficulty and spread her fingers toward me.
My name formed on her pale lips. There was no fear of me in that look—only a plea so simple and desperate it shattered everything inside my chest: come.
The doctor followed Rosário’s gaze to the glass and walked to the door.
“Are you the baby’s father?” The obstetrician kept one hand on the handle while sizing me up. I nodded, unable to trust my own voice. “She’s asking for you. Put on the protective gear and stay near her head. Don’t touch the equipment, and follow all instructions.”
A nurse draped the gown over my clothes, covered my hair, and stepped aside. I walked through that door without bringing the president of the holding company, the owner of the lands, or the surname that made men bow. I entered only as the man who loved Rosário and was there to stay.
The rapid sound of the baby’s heartbeat filled the room. Every fluctuation on the monitor twisted my stomach as I made my way to the head of the bed.
“I’m here.” My voice broke when Rosário reached for me. I wrapped her cold fingers in mine and brought them to my lips, feeling her fragile pulse against my mouth.
“Don’t let go.” Rosário squeezed my fingers as another wave of dizziness made her eyes flutter shut.
“Not even if the whole world tries to tear me away.” I pressed my forehead to hers without letting go of her hand, letting our breathing find the same rhythm.
The team continued working around us. The blood pressure cuff squeezed Rosário’s arm at short intervals, the IV dripped through the clear tube, and the obstetrician measured the cord flow on the ultrasound screen. I couldn’t control any of those numbers. All I could do was hold her gaze and stay.
“Look at me, Rosário.” I ran my thumb over her knuckles when fear threatened to pull her under. “Breathe with me. You’re not alone.”
She inhaled slowly, following the rise and fall of my chest, and let the air out through her mouth. The tension in her jaw eased, though her fingers never loosened around mine.
“You came.” An exhausted smile trembled on her lips as her eyes filled with tears.
“I’ll always come to you.” I kissed her damp forehead and stayed bent over her pillow. “Even when I can’t fix what’s happening, I’ll be here to hold your hand.”
“I thought I’d lose the baby before you got here.” The confession came out in a breath that carried all the terror she’d lived through on the way to the hospital.
I pressed her hand to my chest so she could feel my heart beating beneath my shirt.
“You don’t have to be strong alone. Neither do I.” I kept my eyes level with hers, offering the only promise I could still keep without relying on money or power. “We’ll get through every second together.”
The minutes crawled by, marked by the squeeze of Rosário’s fingers and the irregular beeping of the monitor. When the numbers began to climb, the obstetrician’s shoulders relaxed. She adjusted the transducer one last time and studied the screen before turning to us.
“Her pressure is responding, and the baby’s heartbeat is back in a safe range.” The doctor set the device aside and removed her gloves. “The cervix is still closed. We managed to control the crisis, and we won’t need to induce labor now. She’ll be admitted for observation.”
The strength drained from my legs the moment the immediate danger passed. I bent over Rosário’s hand and let the relief wash through me, not bothering to hide my tears.
“You can breathe now.” Rosário caressed my face with the hand I was still holding, weak as she was. I sat in the chair beside the gurney and rested my forehead against her fingers, unable to pull away even an inch.
The door opened shortly after. Aparecida walked in, her face pale and her hair tied up haphazardly.
“Mom…” Rosário tried to sit up, but her mother crossed the room and kissed her forehead before she could. Aparecida checked the monitors, and only then did she let her shoulders relax with relief.
I started to step back to give her space, but she caught my arm.
“I heard the call drop and spent the entire drive not knowing if I’d find my daughter conscious.
” Her gaze cut through me with the hardness I deserved.
“I haven’t forgotten the man who made Rosário suffer.
But today I watched you cross the state—not to give orders or flash your money.
You came to stay by her side when there was nothing you could control. ”
I lowered my head, gently squeezing Rosário’s hand.
“It's where I should have been from the beginning, Dona Aparecida.”
She placed her hand over mine. A small kick answered beneath our palms, drawing a sob from Rosário and making Aparecida close her eyes for an instant.
“Then keep showing up,” she said, lacing her fingers through ours. “Even when you can't save anyone.”
“I will.”
The three of us stayed silent around that life as the first light of morning filtered through the blinds.
For the first time, my power wasn't measured by how many people obeyed my orders, but by the trust of the woman who fell asleep still holding my hand.