Chapter 5 - THE SICKROOM TRAP
Before Mateo could process the terrifying scale of the war Lucía had just declared, the heavy double doors of the cafeteria burst open. A nurse in crisp blue scrubs hurried in, her eyes wide with panic as she scanned the room and locked onto Mateo. “Mr. Navarro! Thank God, we’ve been looking everywhere for you,” she gasped, rushing over. “Your mother’s monitor just spiked. Dr. Hayes is stabilizing her in room 812, but she woke up demanding to see you immediately. She’s... she’s asking for the legal portfolio from the safe in her study.” Mateo froze. The timing was too precise, too calculated. He looked from the nurse to Lucía, whose expression had instantly hardened back into defensive steel. “Is she stable?” Mateo asked, his voice tight. “For now, sir. But her heart condition is severe. You need to come right away.”
Mateo turned back to Lucía, a silent understanding passing between them. The fragile peace of the cafeteria was over. The battlefield had just shifted to the seventh floor of the hospital, right where the matriarch of the Navarro empire lay waiting. “Take the boys to my car,” Mateo said, pulling his titanium black-card holder and a set of heavy keys from his pocket and pressing them into Lucía’s hand. “Parkade level three, sector B. My private driver, Esteban, is waiting in the armored Mercedes. Tell him I sent you, and do not let anyone—not hospital security, not my mother’s assistants—near you until I call.” Lucía looked down at the keys, then up into his eyes, reading the fierce, unyielding protectiveness burning in his gaze. For the first time in five years, she didn't pull away. “Be careful, Mateo,” she murmured. “Elena doesn’t lose gracefully. If she realizes we’re here, she will burn down her own empire before she lets you take what’s yours.” Mateo nodded once, his jaw set like granite. “Let her strike the match. I’m done letting her hold the lighter.”
