CHAPTER 18 The Child Designed to Save Him
Clara sat on the hospital bed swinging her feet.
She did not understand trusts, embryos, genetic theft, or why three women cried whenever they looked at her.
She only understood that a baby named Nicolás was sick.
The doctors explained that testing her required a blood draw.
Donating stem cells would be more complicated.
Elena refused from custody.
“She is not a medical resource.”
Valeria agreed.
“She is not.”
Sebastián looked at the specialist.
“Are there other possible donors?”
“We are testing international registries. Emilia may also be compatible. Mateo may be compatible. But Clara’s markers suggest the strongest likelihood.”
Emilia volunteered immediately.
“Test me first.”
Valeria looked at her daughter.
“You do not have to.”
“I know.”
The words mattered.
Choice.
The one thing every woman in the story had been denied.
Emilia was not a match.
Mateo was tested with court approval after Sofía agreed.
He was not a match either.
Clara was.
The procedure would be painful but generally safe.
Still, Elena refused.
Natalia refused to decide.
Valeria refused to pressure the child.
Sebastián watched Nicolás weaken.
Every hour made his patience thinner.
“We are not asking her to give an organ,” he said. “We are asking for stem cells.”
Valeria’s eyes hardened.
“You think the size of the sacrifice decides whether consent matters?”
“He could die.”
“She is seven.”
“She can understand helping a baby.”
“She cannot understand being created for this purpose.”
“That does not change the medical reality.”
“No. It changes what we are willing to do with it.”
Sebastián looked toward Nicolás’s room.
“If he dies because we were afraid to ask—”
“Ask,” Valeria said. “But do not tell her she owes him.”
Clara listened to the doctors.
Then she asked Natalia one question.
“Will it hurt?”
Natalia knelt in front of her.
“Yes.”
“Will the baby get better?”
“We hope so.”
“Do I have to?”
“No.”
Clara thought for several seconds.
Then she nodded.
“I’ll do it.”
Elena called from jail and screamed at Valeria.
“You manipulated her.”
“I did not speak to her.”
“You allowed them to ask.”
“It is her body.”
“She is seven!”
“Yes.”
“She cannot consent.”
“Then who should decide? You? The woman who hid her? Me? The woman who never knew she existed? Natalia? The woman forced to carry her?”
Elena went silent.
There was no clean mother.
No uncontested authority.
The court appointed an independent child advocate.
After interviews, the advocate concluded Clara understood enough to assent, and the procedure served a compassionate purpose unrelated to the reasons for her creation.
The judge approved it.
Critics called the ruling legalized exploitation.
Others called refusing the donation a different kind of cruelty.
Clara donated.
Nicolás began improving.
For the first time, Rebeca’s program had saved a life openly.
That fact became her defense.
Her attorneys argued that the fertility network had been unethical but medically visionary.
Families whose children had received treatments came forward.
Some defended her.
One mother said, “My daughter is alive because Rebeca found a donor.”
Another replied, “Your miracle may have been someone else’s stolen child.”
The country divided.
Rebeca requested a private meeting with Valeria.
Against legal advice, Valeria agreed.
They sat across from each other in a courthouse room.
Rebeca looked older without pearls or perfect lighting.
“Clara saved Nicolás.”
“Clara chose to help him.”
“She exists because I planned for what others were too emotional to anticipate.”
“She exists because you violated four women.”
“And she is alive.”
“That does not make what you did right.”
“History often forgives methods when outcomes are useful.”
“I won’t.”
Rebeca smiled faintly.
“You already benefited.”
Valeria stood.
Rebeca spoke before she reached the door.
“Sebastián accepted Octavio’s offer.”
Valeria stopped.
“He did not.”
“He signed preliminary terms this morning.”
“You’re lying.”
“Ask him.”
Sebastián was waiting outside.
Valeria looked at his face.
She knew immediately.
“You signed.”
“I secured the company temporarily.”
“You agreed Sofía would receive custody of Mateo.”
“Temporary custody.”
“You traded our son.”
“I prevented forty thousand people from losing their jobs.”
“You sound exactly like her.”
“I am trying to save more than one person.”
“That is what she always says.”
Sebastián stepped closer.
“Mateo loves Sofía. She carried him. You have held him twice.”
“He is my biological child.”
“And Nicolás is biologically my brother, but I am raising him as my son.”
Valeria recoiled.
There it was.
The truth neither of them had said aloud.
Nicolás was not Sebastián’s son.
Not genetically.
Mateo was.
Sebastián had chosen to keep Nicolás with Valeria while allowing Mateo to remain with Sofía.
Perhaps that was compassion.
Perhaps it was convenience.
Perhaps he could not bear to raise the child who proved his mother had used him.
Valeria looked at him.
“Did you choose based on love or based on which baby was easier to explain?”
He had no answer.
Across the hallway, Emilia had been listening.
She walked toward Valeria.
“Elena warned me about him.”
Sebastián turned.
Emilia held up a phone.
A message from Elena had arrived minutes earlier.
It contained a recording of Sebastián speaking with Octavio.
May you like
Sebastián’s voice said:
“Give Sofía Mateo. I only need Valeria to believe the decision came from the court.”
