“If they want children.”
“Yes.”
Alejandro swallowed.
“At least they’ll know.”
The doctor nodded.
Alejandro laughed sadly.
“Imagine that.”
Knowledge.
The very thing everybody had decided he could not handle.
The doctor looked at him.
“There is another matter.”
Alejandro stared.
“Please tell me this family has exhausted its supply of matters.”
The doctor almost smiled.
“This one is medical.”
He explained that Valeria needed rest.
The post-procedure bleeding had stopped.
The baby’s heart rate was strong.
No sign of immediate distress.
Alejandro exhaled.
Then the doctor said something that changed the practical future.
“We should also test you directly.”
Alejandro frowned.
“You already know from the baby.”
“We infer.”
“I want certainty.”
Alejandro almost laughed.
“My mother will love you.”
The test confirmed it.
Balanced translocation.
Same breakpoints as Rafael’s old report.
Biological certainty arrived three days later.
No more inference.
No more plausible alternative.
Rafael Aranda had been Alejandro’s biological father.
Gabriel remained the man who taught him how to be one.
Alejandro spent the next month angry.
Not explosively.
Precisely.
He moved his parents out of the guest wing.
Not permanently from his life.
From the house.
“I need distance.”
Esther accepted it.
Gabriel did too.
Alejandro attended therapy alone.
Then with Valeria.
Eventually with Gabriel.
Esther had to wait.
That was Alejandro’s decision.
She hated it.
He knew she hated it.
For once, her discomfort did not control the timetable.
Valeria struggled with guilt.
Not about an affair that never existed.
About secrecy.
One night, Alejandro found her crying in the nursery.
The room was unfinished.
A crib remained boxed against the wall.
She sat in a chair holding one of the ultrasound images.
He entered quietly.
“What happened?”
She looked up.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
Alejandro sat beside her.
“That sentence runs in this family.”
She flinched.
“I know.”
He regretted the sharpness immediately.
Valeria continued.
“Your mother said the exact same thing.”
Alejandro nodded.
“That’s what scares me.”
She looked at him.
“I don’t want to become her.”
He took her hand.
“Then don’t.”
Her eyes filled.
“How?”
“Next time, tell me something ugly before it becomes a secret.”
She nodded.
“And I’ll try not to punish you for telling me.”
“That sounds easier.”
“It won’t be.”
She almost smiled.
Alejandro looked at the ultrasound.
“Do you regret testing?”
“No.”
“Me neither.”
That surprised both of them.
Valeria stared.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
He thought.
“I regret how.”
He touched the image.
“But our child deserves the truth.”
Weeks later, Alejandro opened Rafael’s box.
Alone.
The first letter was addressed to Esther.
He almost stopped.
Then continued.
The letters did not transform Rafael into a hero.
That helped.
He was charming.
Selfish.
Funny.
Impulsive.
Sometimes apologetic.
Sometimes arrogant.
He loved Esther.
He also knew she was married to his brother.