CHAPTER 13 The Dead Man’s Son
No one spoke for several seconds.
Then Sebastián took the phone.
“My father died nine years ago.”
The laboratory director answered carefully.
“The genetic relationship is consistent with biological paternity.”
“That is impossible.”
“Was reproductive material stored before his death?”
Sebastián looked toward Rebeca behind the glass wall.
She had heard.
Her face revealed nothing.
Valeria felt as though the floor had disappeared beneath her.
The embryo implanted in her had supposedly been created from her egg and Sebastián’s sperm.
Now an independent laboratory said Nicolás’s biological father was Sebastián’s dead father, Alejandro Alcázar.
Her son was legally her husband’s half brother.
The idea was so grotesque that Valeria could not immediately understand it.
Sebastián opened the door to the interview room.
The guard tried to stop him.
He pushed past.
“What did you do?”
Rebeca looked at Nicolás through the glass.
“I protected the bloodline.”
“You used my father’s genetic material.”
“He had samples stored during cancer treatment.”
“You put his child inside my wife.”
Rebeca remained calm.
“The trust recognizes direct male descendants of Alejandro Alcázar. Your paternity was always politically useful, but his was legally stronger.”
Valeria entered behind Sebastián.
“You turned my pregnancy into a corporate transaction.”
“I made sure your child could not be removed from the inheritance.”
“You did not even tell me whose child I was carrying.”
“You wanted a baby.”
“I wanted Sebastián’s baby.”
Rebeca’s eyes sharpened.
“And you received a son who can never be excluded from the family.”
Sebastián struck the table.
“He is my brother.”
“He is your responsibility.”
“He is not a document.”
“No. He is the only person in this family whose claim cannot be challenged.”
The prosecutor entered and ordered the conversation recorded.
Rebeca sat back.
She looked tired for the first time.
Not weak.
Tired.
“What happened to the embryo we created?” Valeria asked.
Rebeca said nothing.
Valeria moved closer.
“What happened to my child with Sebastián?”
Rebeca looked toward Emilia.
The girl stood in the doorway.
Everyone followed Rebeca’s gaze.
Valeria’s heart began pounding.
“No.”
Rebeca looked at Emilia with something almost like regret.
“The embryo was viable.”
Emilia stepped backward.
Valeria stared between them.
“That is impossible. Emilia was born fifteen years ago.”
“I am not talking about Emilia.”
“Then where is the child?”
Rebeca turned toward Natalia.
Natalia’s face lost all color.
Mateo.
The two-month-old infant created at the fertility clinic.
The backup heir.
Valeria shook her head.
“No. Mateo is Sofía and Octavio’s son.”
“That is what the first test showed,” Rebeca said.
“Was that test false too?”
“Partly.”
Natalia gripped the doorway.
“What does partly mean?”
Rebeca explained with the cold precision of someone discussing inventory.
Two embryos had been transferred to Sofía.
One was created from Sofía’s egg and Octavio’s sperm.
The other was created from Valeria’s egg and Sebastián’s sperm.
Only one infant had survived delivery.
The clinic recorded Mateo as Octavio’s son because that result served the trust at the time.
No complete independent test had been performed.
Valeria felt her knees weaken.
“Mateo may be mine.”
Rebeca nodded.
“And Sebastián’s.”
Natalia looked toward the state nursery down the hall.
She had spent hours holding Mateo.
Sofía had carried him.
Valeria may have provided the egg.
Three women already loved the same child for different reasons.
The prosecutor demanded an immediate test.
Sofía, still in custody, was informed.
Her reaction was explosive.
“I carried him for nine months,” she shouted through the video screen. “He is mine.”
Valeria stood on the other side of the monitor.
“I am not trying to erase you.”
“You already have a baby.”
“A baby created with my dead father-in-law’s genetic material without my consent.”
“And now you want mine too?”
“I want the truth.”
Sofía laughed through tears.
“Truth is what rich people call the paper they buy.”
The sentence spread online within hours after someone leaked the interview.
Public opinion divided instantly.
Some called Valeria the victim of reproductive assault.
Others accused her of trying to take a poor woman’s child because of DNA.
Some defended Sofía as Mateo’s true mother.
Others argued that she had kidnapped Nicolás and should never be allowed near either child.
The case became a national scandal.
Outside the hospital, protesters gathered.
MOTHERS ARE NOT INCUBATORS.
DNA IS NOT LOVE.
FREE SOFÍA.
JUSTICE FOR VALERIA.
Every side claimed the babies.
Neither baby understood any of it.
The independent results arrived that evening.
Mateo was not Sofía’s biological child.
He was genetically Valeria and Sebastián’s son.
Sofía had carried him.
Valeria had created him.
Sebastián had fathered him.
Legally, nobody knew who should raise him.
Valeria looked at Mateo through the nursery glass.
Then at Nicolás in her arms.
Two sons.
One born from her body but created without her informed consent.
One created from her egg but born from another woman’s body without her knowledge.
Sebastián stood beside her.
“What do we do?”
Valeria whispered, “There is no answer that doesn’t destroy someone.”
Behind them, Emilia spoke.
“There is one more child.”
They turned.
She held Elena’s black notebook.
Inside was an embryo-transfer record dated seven years earlier.
The patient’s name had been removed.
The genetic parents were listed as Valeria Serrano and Sebastián Alcázar.
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The status read:
LIVE BIRTH CONFIRMED.
