“No,” he whispered. “That can’t be.”
“Ricardo, you’re frightening me.”
He asked the nurse to leave.
When the door closed, my husband looked at me in a way I had never seen before.
“Javier has exactly the same mark.”
My stomach dropped.
Javier had been Ricardo’s closest friend since high school. He was practically part of our family. He picked up the girls when I couldn’t drive, brought groceries when Ricardo worked late, carried heavy things during my pregnancy, and had sat at our kitchen table countless times drinking coffee.
“What are you trying to say?”
Ricardo laughed bitterly.
“Don’t make me look like an idiot, Mariana.”
“He’s your son.”
“That child has Javier’s birthmark.”
I tried to sit up despite the pain ripping through my body.
“Then get a DNA test. Today. Right now. I don’t care what it costs.”
But Ricardo stepped away.
“I don’t need a test to know what I saw.”
I stared at him.
“Ricardo, please.”
“When the hospital releases you, stay with your sister. I’m not bringing that baby into my house.”
That baby.
The son he had begged for during eight years of marriage had suddenly become *that baby*.
Mateo began crying.
I reached for him while Ricardo grabbed his jacket and walked out without looking back.
I was left alone in that hospital room with the child my husband had wanted more than anything, trying to understand how one tiny mark had destroyed my marriage in less than ten minutes.
Two days later, my sister Daniela welcomed me into her home.
She didn’t ask questions at first. She took Mateo’s stroller, hugged me carefully, and let me cry.
My daughters were already there.
Sofia wanted to know when their father was coming.
Valentina kept asking why we weren’t going home.
Camila still had the welcome sign they had made for Mateo, folded in half.
Three-year-old Renata asked the question that almost destroyed me.
“Is Daddy angry with the baby?”
I couldn’t answer.
Ricardo ignored my calls. Late that night, he finally sent one message.
**My lawyer will contact you. I don’t want a scandal.**
Daniela read it and shook her head.
“Stop chasing him.”
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