The room fell into a deathly silence. Elena’s words had struck Mateo straight to the core. He looked at the device in his hands. Then he looked at his mother-in-law, who was watching him with disdain.
“Fire her, Mateo. She’s a dangerous lunatic,” Doña Leticia demanded.
Mateo looked down at Santi. The little boy had stopped crying and was staring intently at the red light of the device Mateo was holding. For the first time in two years, the child tried to stretch his fingers toward the light. A tiny, clumsy movement, but real.
Mateo made a decision that would change the course of his family forever.
He turned to his mother-in-law.
“Leticia, I want you to pack your things and get out of my house. Right now. And don’t you ever come near my children again. They’re not going to any nursing home.”
The woman opened her mouth, indignant, but seeing Mateo’s lethal gaze, she turned around and left, slamming the door.
Mateo approached Elena. He handed her back the device.
“Tomorrow at 8 AM, my legal team and the directors of Monterrey’s most important hospital will be in my office. You’re going to present your project to them. If you’re lying to me, I’ll destroy you. But if you’re telling the truth… I’ll give you all the millions you need to finish this.”
The next 12 months were a rollercoaster of exhaustion, hope, and tireless work. Mateo pulled every string he could and spent millions of pesos to finance the formal and legal development of Elena’s device. He hired the best engineers and neurologists in Mexico to work under the young woman’s direction. Clinical trials began.
The process was slow, painful, and filled with dark days when it seemed like nothing was working. But Elena never gave up. She worked 18 hours a day and still found time to sit on the rug with the three children, singing them traditional lullabies and giving them therapy.
