CHAPTER 2 — "GET THAT JANITOR OUT OF MY DELIVERY ROOM!"
The delivery room exploded into chaos.
For one long second...
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
The only sound was the relentless warning from the fetal heart monitor.
BEEP... BEEP... BEEP...
Each tone echoed like a countdown toward tragedy.
Dr. Fernando Cárdenas stared at the woman standing calmly in the doorway.
A janitor.
Wearing faded blue scrubs.
A worn apron.
Rubber shoes stained by years of bleach.
She looked completely out of place among twelve elite specialists dressed in sterile surgical gowns.
Then his face hardened.
"Who allowed her in here?"
No one answered.
"I asked a question!"
Still...
Silence.
Rosalba stood perfectly still.
Her weathered hands rested quietly at her sides.
She wasn't intimidated by the bright lights...
Or the expensive equipment...
Or the famous doctors surrounding the operating table.
She was looking only at Sofía.
The exhausted mother's breathing had become dangerously shallow.
Her lips were turning pale.
Her strength was disappearing.
Alejandro stepped forward.
"You said you could help."
Rosalba nodded once.
"I believe I can."
Before she could say another word, Doña Victoria stormed across the room.
"You've lost your mind!"
She pointed toward the door.
"Security!"
"Remove this woman immediately!"
"This is a private hospital, not a village market!"
Several nurses looked away awkwardly.
They had heard those words before.
Rosalba had spent years quietly cleaning rooms while wealthy families pretended she didn't exist.
But today...
The insults sounded strangely distant.
Because another contraction struck Sofía.
Her scream filled the room.
Then...
She whispered weakly,
"...please..."
"I can't..."
Dr. Isabel Moreno checked the monitors again.
"The baby's heart rate is eighty-six."
The room became noticeably quieter.
Everyone knew what that number meant.
Time was slipping away.
"We're preparing surgery," Dr. Cárdenas said firmly.
"It is our only remaining option."
Rosalba finally spoke.
"Will she survive it?"
The question hung in the air.
No one answered immediately.
Because everyone already knew the truth.
The chief anesthesiologist finally lowered his eyes.
"We don't know."
Rosalba slowly looked from one physician to another.
"Twelve brilliant doctors."
"Twelve people trying to save one family."
She gave them a small respectful nod.
"I am not your enemy."
That unexpected answer caught several doctors off guard.
She wasn't mocking them.
She wasn't claiming they were incompetent.
She simply continued.
"You have knowledge I never had."
"And I have experiences you never lived."
Dr. Cárdenas folded his arms.
"Experience?"
"You mop floors."
Rosalba smiled sadly.
"Today."
"Yes."
"But long before this hospital knew my name..."
"...people called me for a different reason."
No one spoke.
Even the nurses seemed curious.
Rosalba looked toward Sofía again.
"I grew up in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca."
"My grandmother was a traditional birth attendant."
"My mother was one too."
"I assisted births before I was old enough to vote."
Dr. Cárdenas scoffed.
"So this is folklore."
"No."
Rosalba answered quietly.
"This is my life."
Before anyone could respond, a young resident standing near the ultrasound machine suddenly stepped forward.
His name badge read:
Dr. Mateo Salazar.
He had remained silent throughout the argument.
Now he stared at Rosalba with widening eyes.
"Wait..."
Everyone looked at him.
"You said Oaxaca?"
Rosalba nodded.
"The village of Yalálag."
Mateo's expression changed instantly.
"My grandmother..."
"...used to tell me about a woman there."
"A legendary midwife named Jacinta Hernández."
Rosalba smiled for the first time.
"She was my grandmother."
The young doctor's face turned pale.
"I've heard that name since I was a child."
"My grandmother said women traveled for days just to reach her."
The room fell silent again.
Even Dr. Cárdenas hesitated.
Doña Victoria laughed loudly.
"Oh, wonderful."
"Now we're sharing bedtime stories while my granddaughter is dying."
Alejandro closed his eyes.
"Enough."
His voice was calm...
But exhausted.
He looked at every physician in the room.
"I want one honest answer."
"If we continue exactly as planned..."
"What are my wife's chances?"
Nobody answered.
He repeated the question.
"What..."
"...are..."
"...her chances?"
Finally Dr. Moreno spoke.
"We are doing everything medicine allows."
"That wasn't my question."
She swallowed hard.
"There is a significant risk."
"And the baby?"
Another painful silence.
Alejandro understood.
Neither life could be guaranteed.
He slowly turned toward Rosalba.
"What exactly are you asking to do?"
She answered carefully.
"I am not asking anyone to stop treating your wife."
"I am not asking anyone to ignore medical science."
"I am asking for one opportunity to show the doctors something I noticed."
Every eye in the room focused on her.
She continued.
"If they believe what I see is impossible..."
"I will leave immediately."
"I won't touch your wife."
"But if what I notice helps..."
"...perhaps it gives this family one more chance."
Dr. Cárdenas looked furious.
"This is absurd."
Yet...
He couldn't ignore one uncomfortable truth.
His own plan carried enormous danger.
Dr. Mateo quietly leaned toward the chief physician.
"Doctor..."
"It costs us less than a minute to hear her."
The older doctor glared at him.
"A minute may be all we have left."
"Exactly."
Those words lingered.
Alejandro looked at the clock.
Then at Sofía.
Then at the monitor.
Finally...
He made the decision that shocked everyone.
"One minute."
He faced the room.
"She gets one minute."
"If anything she says makes no sense..."
"...we proceed exactly as planned."
Dr. Cárdenas clenched his jaw.
"This hospital will never approve—"
"I own the patient's consent."
Alejandro interrupted.
"And she's my wife."
The room became completely silent.
Rosalba stepped forward slowly.
She stopped beside Sofía's bed.
Instead of reaching toward the patient...
She gently took Sofía's trembling hand.
"My name is Rosalba."
"I'm going to ask you something."
Sofía barely opened her eyes.
"Can you hear me?"
A tiny nod.
"When your contractions began..."
"Where did you first feel the strongest pressure?"
No doctor in the room expected that question.
But Sofía answered immediately.
"My..."
"...back..."
Rosalba closed her eyes.
Exactly as she suspected.
She looked toward the ultrasound monitor.
Then quietly whispered,
"I think everyone has been looking in the right place..."
"...from the wrong angle."
The doctors turned toward the screen.
Dr. Mateo's eyes widened.
Because for the first time since the nightmare began...
He noticed something that none of them had discussed aloud.
Something that changed the atmosphere inside Room 402 in an instant.
And before anyone could speak...
The fetal heart monitor suddenly let out one long, terrifying alarm.
BEEEEEEEEEP...
May you like
End of Chapter 2...
Chapter 3 can reveal what Dr. Mateo noticed, while keeping the resolution grounded in the medical team's emergency care rather than portraying the janitor as performing a miraculous delivery.
