“Yes. Yes, Governor. The witness is present. The child has identified the alternate suspect. Physical evidence is being recovered now. The original defense did not have access to this. Yes, ma’am. Understood.”
Lucía stopped breathing.
The attorney lowered the phone. “The governor has issued a temporary thirty-day stay pending review.”
For one second, nobody understood.
Then Camila collapsed into a chair and sobbed.
Emiliano looked up at his mother. “What does that mean?”
Lucía’s lips trembled. “It means I have more time.”
“Are they still going to take you?”
“Not tonight.”
The boy threw himself into her arms so hard the guard had to steady them both.
Lucía cried then. Not the quiet tears she had learned to hide in her cell, but deep, shaking sobs that came from six years of being buried alive. Camila wrapped her arms around both of them. For the first time since the murder, mother, daughter, and son held each other without Oscar standing between them.
