The family party was held on the second floor of the mansion.
The doors of the large balcony remained open, and a gentle breeze moved the white curtains. From there, you could see the entire illuminated garden, the pool, and the stone fountains.
Valeria stepped outside for a few minutes to take some air.
She was eight months pregnant.
The dress slightly tightened her stomach, and the conversations inside began to overwhelm her. She placed a hand on the railing and looked out into the garden.
She didn’t know that someone had loosened all the screws a few hours earlier.
As she took a further step, the metal structure detached from the wall.
Valeria felt as if the floor was disappearing beneath her feet.
She let out a scream.
Her body fell into the void, but she managed to hold onto one of the long curtains on the balcony.
The fabric violently tightened.
She was suspended from the second floor, balancing on the stone patio.
One hand held the curtain.
The other desperately protected her belly.
“Help!”My baby!
The sound of the music drowned out her first cries.
The curtain began to slowly tear apart.
Valeria looked down.
The fall could kill her.
Or cause her to lose the baby.
She tried to climb up, but the weight of her body pulled at the fabric with increasing force.
Then Elena, the family’s elderly maid, entered the balcony carrying a tray.
Seeing the railing destroyed, she dropped everything onto the floor.
“Mrs. Valeria!”
She ran towards the edge.
She stretched out her entire body on the floor, with both arms outstretched.
“Give me your hand!”
Valeria tried to reach her.
Her fingers were a few centimeters away.
“I can’t!”
Elena stepped forward a little further, risking half her body on the ledge.
Eventually, she managed to grab her wrist.
“I have her!”
Valeria began to cry.
“Don’t let go of her!”
Elena tried to drag her up.
She was an elderly woman.
She didn’t have enough strength to lift her weight, but she stuck her knees in the floor and kept pulling.The curtain ripped again.
At that moment, footsteps were heard behind them.
Teresa, Daniel’s mother, appeared on the balcony.
She watched the scene with complete calm.
Valeria raised her head.
—¡Help us!
Teresa did not respond.
She looked at Elena’s hand, which was clasped around Valeria’s wrist.
Then she slowly lifted her foot.
And she stepped on the maid’s fingers.
Elena screamed.
—¡Release me!
Teresa pressed harder.
—Let her fall.
Valeria opened her eyes in horror.
—¿What are you doing?
—Ending what must have been an accident.
Elena gritted her teeth.
The skin on her fingers began to bleed under her heel.
Still, she did not release Valeria.
—I will not let her fall.
Teresa stepped on her again.
—You’re an employee.No one will remember your sacrifice.
Elena looked up.
—She did.
Valeria was crying as she tried to hold onto the curtain.
The fabric was almost completely torn.
—¡Daniel! —she shouted with all her strength—Daniel, help me!
As if he had heard her voice, Daniel appeared at the balcony door.
His wife was relieved to see him.
“Daniel!”
He looked at the fallen railing.
Then he looked at his mother.
And finally, he looked at Valeria, who was hanging over the abyss.
She reached out her free hand towards him.
“Help me!”
Daniel walked slowly.
Valeria expected him to kneel next to Elena and lift her up.
But he didn’t.
He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket.
He took out a knife.
Valeria stopped breathing.
“What are you doing?”
Daniel approached the curtain.
He held the fabric with one hand and supported the sheet against it with the other.
“Mom is right.
Valeria’s tears filled her eyes.
“No…”
Daniel began to cut.
The fabric opened up a little more.
Valeria’s body sank several centimeters.
Elena screamed,
“She’s our daughter!”
“She’s also the obstacle that stands between us and the inheritance.”
Valeria looked at him completely devastated.
“Do you also want to kill our baby?”
Elena screamedDaniel averted her gaze for a moment.
Then he looked at her belly.
His face hardened.
“—That baby won’t inherit anything.”
He started moving the knife again.
Only a small section of fabric remained.
Elena tried to pull Valeria with both hands.
Teresa kept pressing her fingers against the floor.
“Let go of her!” she ordered.
“Never again!”
Daniel cut the last part off.
The curtain ripped from the wall.
Valeria fell.
The weight of her body also pulled Elena down.
The maid slid toward the edge.
Teresa lost her balance and stepped back.
Elena managed to grab hold of one leg of a table with one hand.
With the other hand, she continued to hold onto Valeria.
Now they were both hanging.
The old table began to move across the marble.
“Let go of me!” Valeria shouted.We’ll both fall.
—No.
—My weight will drag me down.
Elena tightened her wrist even more.
—I promised not to let go of her.
Daniel watched the scene.
He just needed to push the table away.
He took a step toward her.
But before he touched her, a voice resonated from inside.
—¡Stay away from them!
Elena’s son, Mateo, appeared at the door.
He worked as a gardener at the mansion and had heard the shouts from the courtyard.
He was carrying a metal bar in his hand.
Daniel raised the knife.
—Don’t get involved in family matters.
Mateo looked at his mother, hanging from the balcony.
—She’s my family.
He ran towards the table and held her tight before she moved another inch.
Then he started pulling at Elena.
Daniel threw himself at him.
They both struggled.
The knife fell to the ground.
Teresa tried to pick it up.
But Valeria shouted from the void:
—¡There are cameras!
Everyone stopped.
She pointed with her gaze at a small camera placed on the balcony door.Teresa smiled.
—We disconnected the power.
Then a voice spoke from the house’s sound system.
—Not everyone.
It was the head of security.
He had seen the railing detach from the frame through an outdoor camera in the garden and had just called the police.
The mansion’s alarms began to sound.
Daniel looked at his mother.
—We need to leave.
Teresa refused.
—Let’s finish this first.
He reached out to push the table away.
Mateo tried to stop her, while continuing to hold Elena.
The table slipped back down.
One of its legs reached the edge.
Valeria felt the maid’s hand begin to lose strength.
—Elena…
—I’m still here.
Below, several mansion workers ran toward the garden.
They quickly stretched out a large protective tarp used to cover the pool.
—¡Jump!—one of them shouted.
Valeria looked down.
The canvas was not completely secured.
Falling from that height was still dangerous,
especially for the baby.
Mateo managed to grab his mother’s arm.
—Pull Valeria up first!
Elena denied.
—I can’t lift her.
Valeria felt a sharp contraction.
She screamed.
The pressure in her stomach increased.
—The baby…
Elena looked at her.
—What’s going on?
—I think he’s coming.
Daniel heard those words.
For the first time, he seemed to hesitate.
For just a second.
Teresa leaned toward him.
—If he’s born, it’s all over.
Daniel looked again at the knife on the floor.
He ran towards him.
But before he could reach the knife, the balcony doors opened suddenly.
Two policemen entered, pointing their guns.
—No one moves!
Daniel stopped running.
Teresa tried to run.
One of the officers grabbed her.
The other two ran towards the edge to help Mateo.
Everyone pulled on Elena.
But Valeria’s arm began to slip.The blood and sweat made it impossible to keep a grip on her.
—Don’t let go of her!—an agent shouted.
Elena cried.
—I can’t feel my fingers anymore.
Valeria looked at the old woman.
She understood that, if she continued to hold her hand, she could definitely drag her into the void.
—Thank you for saving us.
—Don’t let go.
Valeria began to gently release her hand.
Elena opened her eyes in horror.
—¡No!
—My baby needs you to survive so that she can tell the truth.
Before Elena could stop her, Valeria’s fingers slipped from her grasp.
She fell.
The scream reverberated throughout the mansion.
Below, the workers began to lift the tarp.
Valeria’s body slammed into her.
The fabric sank violently. One of the supports broke.
For a few seconds, no one could see her.
Elena shouted her name from the balcony.
The paramedics, who had just arrived, ran towards the garden.
They found Valeria lying unconscious on the tarp.
A hand was still protecting her belly.
The doctor checked her pulse.
Then he placed a fetal monitor.
Everyone remained silent.Daniel, who was standing on the balcony, watched from above.
Teresa did the same.
The device emitted a sound.
A heartbeat.
Then another.
The baby was still alive.
Valeria slowly opened her eyes.
But before she could speak, another contraction ran through her body.
The doctor raised his head.
“She’s in labor.”
As they carried her to the ambulance, police officers examined the railing.
The screws had been deliberately removed.
In Daniel’s pocket, they found the knife with the curtain fibers embedded inside.
And in Teresa’s purse, a recent copy of the family will.
A clause was marked in red:
If the heir does not survive, all actions will revert to Daniel and his mother.
Elena walked down the garden with her hands tied behind her back.
Valeria reached out a hand from the stretcher.
“You did not release me,” she cried.
The maid smiled through tears.
“I will never do that again,” she said.
The ambulance doors began to close.
Teresa, as she was being led to the patrol car, shouted,
“That baby is not the only heir!”
Everyone froze in place.
Daniel looked up, surprised.
Valeria looked at his mother-in-law.
“What does that mean?” Teresa smiled.
“Ask Elena why she has been living in this house for thirty years.”
Valeria slowly turned to the old maid.
Elena’s face lost all color.
Before she could respond, the ambulance doors closed with the sirens on.
Valeria and her baby remained alive.
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