CHAPTER 5 The Bloodline Test
Sebastián crossed the room before Octavio reached the elevator.
He caught his cousin by the shoulder and drove him into the wall.
“What did you do?”
Octavio’s head struck the panel.
The elevator doors opened behind him, but Sebastián blocked the entrance.
“I never touched your wife.”
“Then explain the test.”
“I can’t explain fraudulent evidence.”
Valeria watched from a wheelchair near the hospital room.
She should have been resting.
Instead, she had demanded to see the confrontation.
Her newborn remained in the secured nursery, guarded by police and watched by three separate cameras.
Natalia stood beside Valeria.
“Ask him about the clinic,” she said.
Sebastián did not look away from Octavio.
“What clinic?”
“The fertility clinic where your embryos were created.”
Valeria’s face tightened.
Two years earlier, after months of failed attempts to conceive, she and Sebastián had gone through in vitro fertilization at a private center recommended by Rebeca.
The clinic was owned by a charitable medical foundation.
The Alcázar Foundation.
Octavio wiped blood from his lip.
“Thousands of families use that clinic.”
“How many have your DNA in their children?” Sebastián asked.
Octavio’s expression flickered.
That was enough.
Sebastián struck him.
The police officer at the nursery entrance rushed forward.
“Step away from him.”
Octavio straightened his jacket.
Then he looked directly at Valeria.
“You should tell him.”
Valeria’s stomach turned.
“Tell him what?”
“About the night you came to my apartment.”
Sebastián went still.
Natalia whispered, “Don’t react. That’s what he wants.”
But Sebastián was already looking at his wife.
“You went to his apartment?”
Valeria forced herself to breathe.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Seven months ago.”
“Why?”
“Because I found the medication logs.”
Octavio smiled.
“Is that what you’re calling it?”
Valeria’s eyes burned.
“I went there because your name appeared on payments to the nurse who entered our house.”
Sebastián looked at Octavio again.
“He told me he was investigating fraud,” Valeria continued. “He said your mother was hiding financial records. He offered me wine. I didn’t drink it. I stayed less than twenty minutes.”
“There are security images showing you entered after midnight,” Octavio said.
“You changed the timestamp.”
“Can you prove that?”
Valeria looked at Sebastián.
She could see the doubt he was trying to hide.
It hurt because she understood it.
His world had collapsed in one night.
His dead sister was alive.
His mother had drugged his wife.
His cousin’s DNA appeared to match his newborn son.
But understanding his doubt did not make it less painful.
“I never slept with him,” she said.
Sebastián nodded slowly.
“I believe you.”
Octavio laughed.
“No, you don’t.”
Natalia moved toward him.
“What did the clinic do?”
Octavio looked at her with open contempt.
“You spent eleven years in an institution, and now you think anyone will believe you understand genetic medicine?”
“I understand theft.”
She removed a folded page from her coat.
It was a list of identification numbers.
“Every woman on this list was treated at an Alcázar fertility center. Every woman later lost custody, was declared unfit, or was pressured into signing adoption papers.”
Valeria read the names.
There were twenty-three.
One name had been circled.
Mariana Solís.
Natalia’s legal name before Rebeca had changed it after the supposed accident.
“My son was born at one of those clinics,” Natalia said. “They told me he died. I found no death certificate. No burial permit. No body.”
Sebastián looked at her.
“You had a son?”
“I was seventeen.”
“Who was the father?”
Natalia’s eyes moved toward Octavio.
The hallway became silent.
Octavio’s face lost its color.
Sebastián released him slowly.
Natalia shook her head.
“No. Not him.”
She pointed at the clinic records.
“The father doesn’t matter. What matters is that Octavio arranged the paperwork.”
Octavio turned toward the police officer.
“This woman is unstable.”
Natalia’s voice rose.
“I held my baby for six minutes. He had a crescent-shaped birthmark behind his left ear. Then my mother took him.”
Rebeca appeared at the far end of the hallway.
“You were hallucinating.”
Natalia turned.
“You always say that when a woman remembers something you paid to erase.”
Rebeca walked closer.
Her face was calm again.
“You became pregnant by a married man. You threatened to expose him. You were using drugs. You endangered the family and yourself.”
“I was seventeen.”
“You were reckless.”
“You stole my child.”
“I saved him.”
The words escaped before Rebeca could stop them.
Everyone heard.
Natalia’s knees nearly gave way.
Valeria gripped the arms of her wheelchair.
Sebastián stared at his mother.
“You said the baby died.”
Rebeca looked around at the cameras and officers.
Then she chose her words carefully.
“I arranged a private adoption.”
“Where is he?” Natalia demanded.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I protected his identity.”
Natalia crossed the space between them and slapped her.
The sound echoed through the hallway.
Rebeca slowly turned her face back.
“You are proving exactly why you were unfit.”
Natalia raised her hand again, but Valeria spoke.
“Don’t.”
Natalia stopped.
Valeria’s voice was quiet.
“She wants you to lose control.”
A laboratory technician approached with a new report.
She looked nervous.
“We completed a broader paternal comparison.”
Sebastián took the page.
The first test had suggested that the baby’s father was a close relative.
This report identified the most likely match.
The technician looked toward Octavio.
“The probability of biological paternity is 99.8 percent.”
Sebastián’s jaw tightened.
Octavio shook his head.
“That is impossible.”
Valeria stared at him.
For the first time, his fear looked real.
Not calculated.
Not performed.
Real.
Natalia took the report and examined the sample identification number.
Then her eyes narrowed.
“This isn’t the baby’s sample.”
The technician frowned.
“Yes, it is.”
“No. The number on the baby’s bracelet ends in forty-two.”
She pointed at the report.
“This one ends in twenty-four.”
Everyone turned toward the nursery.
The officer opened the door.
The incubator was there.
The blanket was there.
The identification bracelet was there.
But the baby inside was not Valeria’s son.
May you like
The infant had a small crescent-shaped birthmark behind his left ear.
Natalia screamed.
