The moment his former lover gave birth, the doctor paled as soon as the baby appeared.
The maternity ward was overwhelmed that morning. Hallways echoed with urgent voices, hurried footsteps, and the relentless beeping of medical equipment.
In a massive hospital in the heart of Ciudad de México, silence was a rare luxury, nearly impossible to find.
Dr. Alejandro had just finished a difficult cesarean. Wiping sweat from his brow, he mechanically removed his gloves when an emergency call shattered his brief respite.
A woman in active labor, nearly fully dilated, required immediate attention.
Rushed, he changed his surgical gown and stepped into the delivery room. But the moment his gaze locked onto the patients face, time froze.
It was Valeria. The woman who had stood by him for seven years, his love, his support until she vanished without warning, leaving behind only silence and deep wounds.
Now she lay on the bed, face glistening, breath ragged with pain. Her abdomen tightened spasmodically, surrendering to the force of childbirth.
She clutched her phone like a lifeline, her eyes flashing recognitionmixed with fear and disbelief.
*Youre the lead doctor?* she whispered hoarsely.
Alejandro said nothing. He simply nodded and adjusted the bed.
The delivery was complicated. The babys heartbeat weakened, Valerias blood pressure dropped dangerously. The staff worked in tense precision.
Yet Alejandro remained composed, exuding the calm of a man accustomed to storms.
After forty grueling minutes, the newborns first cry pierced the room. Relief washed over everyone.
Alejandro cradled the child carefullybut when he met the babys gaze, his heart lurched. Those deep, dark eyes were his. And those faint dimples just like his as a child.
The rooms noise faded, as if through mist. Then he saw ita tiny droplet-shaped mark on the infants shoulder.
A rare birthmark. Passed from his grandfather, to his father, to him. Now, living proof pulsed in this childs flesh.
The midwife reached for the baby. Alejandro hesitated, then handed him over with painful reluctance. He watched as Valeria, exhausted, turned her head away as though fleeing his stare.
*Why why didnt you ever tell me?* he rasped.
Her lips trembled before tears carved paths down her cheeks.
*I wanted to. But everything was collapsing. My parents pressured me, you were drowning in work I feared youd hate me. That youd leave.*
Silence thickened between them. Then Alejandro took the swaddled infant back, his hands shakingyet his chest swelling with unexpected strength. A fathers instinct.
*Valeria no matter the past, one thing is certain: Ill never abandon you. Nor our son.*
She looked up. Reddened eyes gleamed with fragile hopea spark in the dark.
And beyond the room, the newborns cries echoed. They heralded not just a life beginning, but a rebirthtwo souls once lost, now reunited through that child.
