I felt the cold floor against my cheek. The smell of burnt grease from the still-on pan. Helena’s laughter echoed somewhere far away, as if it were coming from another room, from another world.

 

My vision was becoming blurry.

The baby moved inside me.

That was the only thing that kept me conscious.

“Please… hold on…”, I thought.

Victor paced the kitchen, breathing heavily. The stick was still in his hand.

—She always does the same thing —Helena said with annoyance—. She cries, she faints, she puts on a show.

“If she were my wife,” Raúl grumbled, “she would have learned by now.”

Nora kept recording.

“This is going to go viral,” she muttered. “Pregnant wife drama.”

I tried to move.

I couldn’t.

Then something was heard.

At first I thought it was my imagination.

An engine.

Then another one.

Then the squeal of tires braking in front of the house.

Victor frowned.

—Who the hell arrives at this hour?

Helena got up to look out the window.

And then her face changed.

The smile disappeared.

—Victor…

-That?

—I think you have… a visitor.

Blows.

Three brutal knocks on the door.

No blows.

**Impacts.**

“OPEN THE DOOR!” roared a male voice.

I knew that voice.

Even through the fog of my mind.

Alex.

My brother.

Victor rolled his eyes.

—That idiot.

Raul got up.

—I’ll take care of it.

He walked to the door and opened it just a few centimeters.

He didn’t have time to say a word.

The door exploded inwards.

Alex stormed in.

Tall. Broad-shouldered. The look of someone who had seen too much war.

Her gaze swept across the kitchen.

The stick.

My body on the ground.

The blood on my leg.

The belly she protected with her arms.

The silence that followed was deadly.

Alex didn’t scream.

He made no threats.

He only said one sentence.

—Who was it?

Victor stepped forward arrogantly.

—This is my house. Get out of here before—

It didn’t end.

Alex hit him.

One single blow.

Victor fell against the table like a sack of cement.

The dishes broke.

Helena screamed.

-YOU’RE CRAZY!

Raúl tried to intervene.

Alex pushed him against the wall as if he weighed nothing.

—Don’t you dare touch me.

Nora dropped the phone.

Alex walked towards me.

He knelt down.

—Hey… hey… look at me.

I tried to open my eyes.

—Alex…

His face changed when he saw the bruise on my thigh.

—Were you beaten?

I barely nodded.

Silence returned.

That silence that precedes something irreversible.

Alex took a deep breath.

Then he took out his phone.

—911. I need an ambulance and police. Domestic violence. Pregnant victim.

Helena shouted:

—This is a family matter!

Alex slowly raised his gaze.

I will never forget that look.

—It stopped being family when they touched my sister.

Five minutes later.

Mermaids.

Red lights.

The house was filled with police officers.

Paramedics.

Body cameras recording everything.

One of the officers looked at the stick on the ground.

—What happened here?

Nora started to cry.

—It was a misunderstanding.

The paramedic lifted my shirt slightly to check my abdomen.

—We need to take her to the hospital.

Alex walked towards the officers.

—I have proof.

He pointed to the ground.

Nora’s phone.

The same one who had been recording.

The officer picked him up.

He played the video.

Helena’s laughter.

Raúl’s voice.

The coup.

The plea.

The silence in the room became absolute.

The officer looked at Victor.

—Hands behind your back.

-That?

—He is under arrest for aggravated assault and domestic violence.

Victor shouted:

—She’s my wife!

The officer replied:

—It’s not your property.

Helena tried to intervene.

—This will ruin our family.

The officer looked at her.

—Madam… you already did that yourselves.

The handcuffs clicked.

Raúl was also arrested.

Helena was screaming.

Nora was crying.

As they carried me away on the stretcher, Alex walked beside me.

He took my hand.

-I arrived.

I tried to smile.

—I knew you’d come.

He looked at my belly.

—You two are going to be fine.

Three months later.

The trial was quick.

Nora’s video was the main piece of evidence.

Victor received several years in prison.

Raúl too.

Helena faced charges for inciting violence.

Nora… disappeared from social media.

I gave birth to a girl.

I called her **Luna**.

One afternoon, Alex was holding her in his arms at the hospital.

“Do you know something?” he said, smiling.

-That?

—That message you sent…

-Yeah.

—It was the most important one I’ve ever received.

I looked at my daughter.

She slept peacefully.

And for the first time I understood something that no one had ever told me before:

Sometimes you don’t need to be strong to save yourself.

Sometimes…

You just need to send **a message**.