“My husband beat me while I was pregnant and his parents laughed… but they didn’t know that a simple message would destroy everything.

Helepa and Raúl, her parents, were sitting like spectators of a daily spectacle, while Nora held her recorded phone, as if my pain were entertainment.

—“Look at her”— said Helepa, smiling with a coldness that chilled the blood— “she thinks that carrying a baby makes her special.”