As the doctor attended the birth of his former lover, he paled the moment the baby appeared.
The maternity ward was overwhelmed that morning. The corridors echoed with hurried voices, brisk footsteps, and the relentless hum of medical equipment.
In a massive hospital in the heart of Mexico City, silence was a rare luxury, nearly impossible to find.
Dr. Alejandro had just finished a difficult cesarean. He wiped his brow and mechanically removed his gloves when an emergency call shattered his moment of respite.
A woman in active labor, nearly fully dilated, urgently needed the on-duty physician.
Rushed, he changed his surgical coat and stepped into the delivery room. But the moment his gaze settled on the patients face, time froze.
It was Valeria. The woman who had been with him for seven years, his love, his support who had then vanished suddenlyno explanation, no wordleaving only silence and deep wounds behind.
Now she lay on the bed, sweat beading her face, her breath ragged and pained. Her abdomen tightened in spasms, yielding to the force of childbirth.
She clutched her phone tightly, like a lifeline, her eyes filled with recognition mixed with fear and disbelief.
*”You… you’re the head doctor?”* she whispered hoarsely.
Alejandro didnt speak. He simply nodded and adjusted the bed into position.
The birth proved complicated. The babys heartbeat weakened, Valerias blood pressure dropped alarmingly. The entire staff was tense but worked in sync, with precision.
Yet Alejandro remained composed, radiating the cool calm of a doctor accustomed to weathering storms.
After nearly forty exhausting minutes, the delivery room was pierced by the newborns first cry. A wave of relief swept through everyone present.
Alejandro carefully cradled the baby. But the moment he met its eyes, his heart faltered. Those same dark, deep eyes were his. The same faint dimples in the cheeksjust like his as a child.
The sounds around him faded, everything distant as if through fog. Then he saw ita tiny droplet-shaped birthmark on the babys shoulder.
A rare family trait, passed from his grandfather to his father, then to him. Now, living proof pulsed in this infants body.
The nurse reached out to take the newborn. Alejandro hesitated before handing the child over, his movements heavy. His eyes followed as the woman gently stroked the babys cheek before carrying it away to be cleaned and swaddled.
Alejandro approached the bed. Valeria turned her head, exhausted, as if fleeing his gaze.
*”Why… why didnt you ever tell me?”* he murmured, his voice rough.
Her lips trembled before tears streaked her cheeks.
*”I wanted to… but everything was falling apart. My parents pressured me, you were drowning in work… I was afraid youd hate me, that youd leave.”*
The silence between them grew thick, suffocating. Alejandro took the now-swaddled infant in his arms. His fingers shook, but his chest swelled with unexpected strengtha fathers instinct.
*”Valeria… no matter what happened before, one thing is certain: I will never abandon you. Not you, not our son,”* he said firmly.
She looked up. Her reddened eyes suddenly shimmered with fragile hopea flicker in the dark.
And outside, in the hallway, the newborns strong cry echoed. It wasnt just the announcement of a new life. It was the sound of rebirthof two souls once lost, now found again through the life of that child.
