I will never forget that Saturday afternoon in Madrid. The sun poured through the curtains, warming the apartment, and the air smelled faintly of coffee mixed with the soft, lingering scent of rain. My son and daughter-in-law had asked me to watch their two-month-old baby while they ran a few errands. I didn’t even wait for them to finish. “Of course!” I said, my voice full of excitement. Ever since the little one was born, I had been waiting for any excuse to spend time with him. He was my

The phone rang just after two in the morning, slicing straight through my sleep. I didn’t even need to hear the words to know something was wrong. The sound of my husband’s voice alone was enough to jolt me fully awake. This wasn’t Ethan’s usual calm, half-asleep tone. His voice was tight, shaking, rushed—packed with fear. “Lock every door and window in the house,” he said. “Do it now.” For a second, I just sat there in the dark, my heart pounding, my mind struggling to catch up. “What’s going