My husband yelled at me on the phone, ‘Grab the girl and run now!’ — Ten minutes later, the police surrounded the entire house

My husband suddenly called me and asked, bluntly,
“Where are you right now?”

I was at my sister’s house, in a quiet neighborhood of Mexico City, celebrating my niece’s birthday. The room was packed, there was laughter, balloons and the smell of freshly cut cake.
“At my sister’s house,” I answered. The whole family is here.

On the other end of the line there was a strange, heavy silence, as if something had gotten stuck in the air.

Then he spoke, in a voice that did not know him:
“Listen to me well. Grab our daughter and jump out of that house right now.

I let out a nervous laugh, the kind that comes out when something doesn’t add up.
“What?” Why?

He shouted at me, no longer restrained:
“Do it now! Don’t ask anything!

That voice was not his. It wasn’t courage. It was pure fear, real fear.

I took my daughter in my arms and started walking towards the exit. My heart was pounding so hard that I felt like everyone could hear it. What happened next was terrifying.

My husband’s voice no longer sounded like him.
She was tense. Forcibly controlled. Terrified.

“Where are you exactly?” he asked.

I looked around my sister Mariana’s living room. Pink balloons floated near the ceiling. My niece Lucía was opening presents sitting on the floor, while the uncles laughed and recorded with their cell phones, saying that this video went directly to the family group.

“At my sister’s house,” I repeated. It’s Lucía’s birthday. The whole family is there.

Silence.
Too long.

“Listen to me carefully,” he said at last. Take Emma and get out of that house. Right now.

I felt a knot in my stomach that left me breathless.
“What’s going on, Daniel?”