Chapter 5 - The Confrontation and the Fall
The gunshot echoed like a cannon in the narrow hallway.
Mateo didn't waste the second chance. He leaped forward, tackling Eduardo’s hired gunman into the corridor walls. The man dropped his suppressed pistol as they hit the floor, tumbling in a violent brawl. Mateo smashed his elbow into the man's jaw, stunned him, and kicked the gun down the hall.
Meanwhile, Eduardo shoved Rebeca off him, striking her across the face with the butt of his handgun. "Useless bitch!" he screamed.
Rebeca hit the wall hard, slumping to the floor, unconscious.
Eduardo pointed his gun back toward the bathroom where Laura and the children were hidden. "If I can't have my life back, Mateo, you don't get yours either!"
"Eduardo!" Mateo roared, scrambling up from the floor and throwing himself directly into Eduardo’s path.
The two men crashed through the glass double doors at the end of the hallway, tumbling out onto the emergency exit balcony three stories above the hospital parking lot. Rain poured down violently, soaking them instantly.
Eduardo swung the gun around, pressing it against Mateo’s ribs. "Goodbye, brother-in-law."
Mateo grabbed Eduardo’s wrist with both hands, twisting it upward with all his remaining strength. A shot fired off into the night sky. Mateo slammed Eduardo back against the metal balcony railing. The slippery metal wet from the rain gave way under their combined weight with a horrific screech of tearing steel.
Eduardo lost his footing, slipping over the edge. In a desperate panic, he grabbed onto Mateo’s jacket, dragging Mateo halfway over the railing into the void.
Mateo hung over the drop, the three-story fall yawning beneath him in the dark. He held onto the remaining sturdy post with one hand while Eduardo dangled below him, clutching Mateo’s jacket for dear life, his eyes wide with pure terror.
"Mateo! Don't let me fall! Please!" Eduardo screamed over the roar of the rain. "Help me!"
Mateo looked down at the man who had stolen his son, stolen a year of his family's life, and tried to murder them in cold blood. Mateo’s grip on the post tightened, his muscles burning with exhaustion.
"You took my son's voice," Mateo said softly, his eyes cold as ice. "Now you answer for it."
Mateo unzipped his jacket.
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Eduardo screamed as the jacket slipped off Mateo’s arms. The man plunged three stories down, crashing heavily onto the roof of a parked police cruiser below.
Mateo pulled himself back over the broken railing onto the safety of the balcony, chest heaving, rain washing the blood and sweat from his face. Seconds later, heavy footsteps thundered up the stairwell as Detective Vargas and SWAT officers flooded the balcony, guns drawn, securing the area.
