CHAPTER 14 The Child Before the Marriage
Valeria read the record again.
Seven years earlier.
Three years before she married Sebastián.
Two years before she met him.
The dates were impossible.
Unless the dates of their meeting were another lie.
Sebastián took the notebook.
“This says our embryo was created before we knew each other.”
Rebeca closed her eyes.
Valeria saw the answer in that reaction.
“You arranged our marriage before we met.”
Rebeca looked at her.
“I arranged an introduction.”
“You selected me.”
“You were genetically suitable.”
The words landed like a physical blow.
Valeria walked toward the glass room.
“Suitable for what?”
Rebeca did not respond.
Natalia did.
“For Emilia.”
Everyone turned.
Natalia held one of the encrypted files open on a laptop.
“I found compatibility reports. Bone marrow markers. Tissue types.”
Emilia stared at the screen.
“Compatibility with me?”
Natalia nodded.
Valeria felt sick.
Her first daughter had been born with a rare immune disorder. The records showed that Rebeca’s doctors expected Emilia to require a stem-cell donor later in life.
Valeria had been selected as a potential source.
But instead of contacting her honestly, Rebeca’s network used reproductive material to create genetically related siblings.
Children who could become donors.
Sebastián read the file.
“They created embryos from us before we met.”
“My eggs,” Valeria whispered. “How did they get my eggs?”
Rebeca answered.
“During the procedure after Emilia’s birth.”
“You told me there were complications.”
“There were.”
“You harvested my eggs while I was unconscious.”
“We preserved options.”
Sebastián looked at her with pure hatred.
“And my genetic material?”
“You provided samples after your supposed fertility diagnosis.”
“Supposed?”
“It ensured cooperation.”
Their marriage had not been arranged in the traditional sense.
It had been engineered.
Rebeca placed Valeria at a foundation event where Sebastián would meet her.
She paid a consultant to change seating assignments.
She instructed friends to invite them to the same weekends.
She encouraged the relationship while pretending to disapprove.
Their love had been real.
But the meeting had not been chance.
Valeria turned toward Sebastián.
“Did you know any of this?”
“No.”
“You believed your mother hated me.”
“She acted like she did.”
“She wanted us together.”
“She wanted our genetics together.”
The realization contaminated every memory.
Their first dinner.
Their first kiss.
The rainy night when Sebastián said he had never believed in fate until he met her.
Fate had been Rebeca with a spreadsheet.
Emilia sat down.
“Was I sick?”
Rebeca’s expression softened.
“You were.”
“Am I still?”
“You improved.”
“Because of what?”
Rebeca looked toward the transfer record.
A child had been born seven years earlier.
A genetically compatible sibling.
The child’s cord blood may have been used to treat Emilia.
Valeria gripped the table.
“Where is that child?”
Rebeca’s voice became quiet.
“With a family.”
“Which family?”
“I do not know where they are now.”
“You know everything.”
“I knew where they were placed. Elena moved them.”
Emilia looked stunned.
“Elena knew?”
“She helped arrange it.”
Valeria laughed, but the sound held no humor.
“My mother helped create a child from my body and gave that child away.”
“She believed it would save Emilia.”
“And after the birth?”
“The child was adopted.”
“Male or female?”
Rebeca hesitated.
“A girl.”
Valeria closed her eyes.
Another daughter.
Another life taken from her before she knew it existed.
Sebastián looked at the transfer details.
“The patient who carried her. Who was she?”
Rebeca looked toward Natalia.
Natalia stopped breathing.
“No.”
Rebeca’s silence confirmed it.
Natalia stood.
“You used me.”
“You were already in the clinic.”
“You put their embryo inside me.”
“You wanted a child.”
“I wanted my son back.”
“You were told pregnancy could help stabilize you.”
Natalia threw the laptop across the room.
It shattered against the wall.
The guards entered.
Natalia screamed at Rebeca.
“You used my body to create a donor for another stolen child!”
Valeria grabbed Natalia before security could.
For a moment, the two women held each other.
Both mothers.
Both used.
Both missing daughters.
Emilia watched them with tears in her eyes.
Then she opened the final page of the file.
The seven-year-old girl had been named Clara.
A recent photograph had been attached.
She stood outside a school wearing a yellow backpack.
Beside her was Elena Serrano.
Valeria touched the screen.
“My mother has her.”
Emilia shook her head.
“No. Elena told me Clara was my cousin.”
“Where do they live?”
Emilia hesitated.
The room became still.
“You know.”
“I knew before tonight.”
Valeria looked at her daughter.
“You knew a child was created from me.”
“I knew Clara had been born to help me.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I did not know you were her biological mother.”
“But you knew Elena was hiding her.”
Emilia’s eyes filled with anger.
“She saved my life.”
“That does not give her the right to steal everyone else’s.”
The prosecutor ordered protection teams to search every address connected to Elena.
Emilia refused to help.
Valeria stepped toward her.
“Tell me where Clara is.”
“No.”
“She is seven years old.”
“She is safe.”
“With the woman who lied about my death, sold you, and helped run an illegal fertility program?”
“With the only mother I have ever known.”
Valeria stared at her.
May you like
Then Emilia delivered the truth that broke what little remained between them.
“If I have to choose between you and Elena, I choose her.”
