The call came at 6:12 a.m., when Daniel Ortega, the finance director of a technology company in Barcelona, ​​was preparing his first coffee of the day. The unknown number and the nurse’s urgent tone made him freeze for a few seconds.

“Mr. Ortega?” the voice on the other end asked. “Your wife has just given birth. We’ve had to transfer her to the intensive care unit. We need you to come to the hospital as soon as possible.”

Daniel almost dropped the cup.
“There must be some mistake,” he stammered. “I… I don’t have a wife.”

But the nurse persisted, repeating his full name, his date of birth, even his ID number. Everything matched. Something inside him told him that hanging up wasn’t an option. And even though every ounce of logic screamed that it made no sense, he was already grabbing his car keys and leaving the house, his heart racing.

During the journey, the thought that tormented him most wasn’t confusion, but the possibility that someone—some unknown woman—might be in danger and need him. If that was the case, he wasn’t going to leave her alone.

When he arrived at Sant Felip Hospital, the neonatal ward was enveloped in a tense silence, the kind of silence only places where life begins and ends truly understand. A doctor greeted him with a frown, as if she had been expecting him.

“Mr. Ortega, thank you for coming so quickly. The patient, Clara Méndez, arrived in labor. She was alone. She gave her name as the baby’s father.” The doctor showed a folder with her information. “You are listed as the emergency contact.”

Daniel swallowed. That name, Clara Méndez, meant nothing to him.

“Doctor,” she said firmly but with a trembling voice, “first of all, are you okay?”

“Stable,” she replied, “but the situation is delicate. The baby is in an incubator.”

Daniel took a deep breath. If a life was at risk and his name was involved, he wasn’t going to shirk that responsibility, even if he didn’t understand how he’d gotten there. Then he said the words that would change everything:

—From this moment on, I am your husband. Register all bills in my name. I want to take care of whatever needs to be done.

The doctor looked at him for a few seconds, surprised by his determination, and then nodded.
“Come with me. There’s something you need to see.”

They hurried through a corridor until they stopped in front of a dimly lit room. Behind the glass, a pale, exhausted young woman slept soundly. And then, when Daniel saw the face of that unknown woman, his world stopped.

Because even though he had never seen her in person, he recognized her instantly.

It was the same woman who had tried to contact him two months earlier… but whose message he had ignored, thinking it was spam.

And now, there was a baby, a false name on the documents, and a silence that demanded urgent answers.

The doctor asked him to wait in a small adjoining room while she spoke with the medical team. Daniel stood there alone, breathing as if the air had thickened. The memory of the message he had ignored began to piece together in his mind with unsettling precision: “I need to talk to you. It’s important. It has to do with something that happened a while ago.” There were no further details. He deleted it without a second thought.

Now, seeing that woman in a hospital bed, with a baby struggling to stabilize, guilt burned in his chest.

The doctor returned with a serious expression.

“Mr. Ortega, we need to clarify a few things,” she said as she sat down across from him. “The patient arrived disoriented, with very advanced contractions. She barely managed to say her name or his. She had no identification. Just a small purse. Her emotional state is fragile. She may be running away from something.”

Daniel felt a chill run down his spine.
“What does the police say?” he asked.

—We haven’t notified you yet. We wanted to speak with you first. There are no signs of recent physical aggression, but there are indications of prolonged stress.

—Can I speak to her?

—When he wakes up. For now, he needs to rest.

Daniel nodded, grateful for the momentary silence. But the doctor added something that chilled him to the bone:

—Before losing consciousness, she insisted that no one but you should go near the baby. She repeated it several times.

Daniel rubbed his forehead, trying to understand.
“Doctor, can I see the child?”

She hesitated for a few seconds, then led him to the neonatal unit. There, amid the soft sounds of monitoring machines, a small incubator stood out because of the name written on a temporary label: Baby Méndez Ortega .

The surname pierced his soul.

The baby was tiny, wrapped in wires and sensors, its face pink and restless. Daniel placed his hand on the glass and felt a protective impulse he couldn’t explain. It wasn’t his son… or was it? The thought shook him to his core. He tried to keep his mind straight: he hadn’t met Clara, he had no connection to her. But something didn’t add up.

As he watched the baby, he noticed a nurse placing a blanket inside a clear bag with the mother’s belongings. In the bottom corner was a small, worn notebook. Daniel approached.

“Can I see that?” he asked.

The nurse, recognizing that he was listed as a responsible contact, handed it to him. It was a diary or something similar. The first page was dated three months prior. And underneath, a sentence written in firm handwriting:

“If anything happens to me, he needs to know the truth. Only he can protect him.”

Daniel felt a blow to his chest. He turned the page and found a hand-drawn picture: it was a sketch of a building he knew all too well.

His own office.

And a phrase in the margin:

“What I discovered cannot remain silent.”

Daniel’s world was beginning to fall apart.

Daniel flipped through the pages of the notebook with growing unease. This document was more than a diary: it was a detailed record of an investigation. Clara had worked—as she described it—as an external analyst reviewing the financial flows of several companies, including his own. As he read on, he discovered that she had detected suspicious transactions linking a small group of executives to embezzlement and fictitious contracts.

But there was something worse: one of the names mentioned was that of his own direct boss, the general manager, Marcos Vidal.

Daniel felt a dangerous mix of anger and fear. This wasn’t just a simple complaint; it was a bombshell, a threat to people who wouldn’t hesitate to silence anyone who interfered.

The newspaper explained how Clara had tried to contact him after his name appeared in connection with a transaction he knew nothing about. She suspected he had been used as a front without his consent. And when she tried to warn him, she began receiving pressure and veiled threats.

The pregnancy had driven her to protect herself. And now, after giving birth alone, she had desperately turned to the only name she believed could help her: Daniel.

As he continued reading, a knock on the door made him look up. The doctor entered with a worried expression.

—The patient has woken up. She’s asking for it.

Daniel walked toward the room, notebook in hand. As he entered, Clara slowly opened her eyes. Her weakness was evident, but so was her determination.

—Daniel… —her voice was barely a whisper—. Thank you for coming.

He sat down beside the bed.
“I don’t understand everything, but I’m here. Why me?”

Clara took a deep breath before answering.
“Because… you’re innocent. They wanted to frame you. They used your identity. I found out. And when I realized I was pregnant, I knew my life was in danger. I didn’t trust anyone else… except you.”

“We don’t know each other,” he said gently.

—No. But you were the only person outside their circle. And I needed someone to protect the baby if something happened to me.

Daniel felt the words weigh on him like stones.
“Clara, there are a lot of dangerous people behind this. If what you wrote in the notebook is true…”

“It is,” she replied without hesitation. “I have proof, copies of documents, emails. Everything is saved. And they know it.”

Daniel clenched his fists.
“Then we’ll have to report them. But first we need to think about your safety and the baby’s.”

She nodded, but her eyes filled with fear.
“They won’t let me go that easily.”

At that moment, the door burst open. A nurse rushed in.

—Mr. Ortega… there are two men downstairs asking for you. They don’t look like relatives. They say it’s urgent.

Clara clung to Daniel’s arm.
“It’s them,” she whispered. “They’ve come for the notebook… or for me.”

Daniel stood up with a surge of energy he hadn’t known he possessed.
“I won’t let them hurt you. Not you, not the baby.”

The doctor appeared behind the nurse.
“We have a back exit to the logistics area. If you need to leave undetected, I can help.”

Daniel took the notebook, looked at Clara, and then at the doctor.

—Get it ready. We’re leaving now.

She knew that at that moment her life would change forever. Not because of the risk, nor because of the corporate conspiracy, but because of that irreversible decision: to protect two people who, until that morning, were complete strangers.

But now, they were his responsibility.

And the battle had only just begun.