Chapter 9: The Child Listed as "Baby B"
Diego couldn't stop thinking about two words.
Sample C.
Then another.
Baby B.
The second DNA report. The missing hospital pages. The newborn bracelet Ricardo had hidden.
Every new answer uncovered an even darker question.
Who was the second baby?
And why had Alejandro Villaseñor gone to such extraordinary lengths to erase that child's existence?
The following morning, Diego met Detective Álvarez outside San Gabriel Hospital.
The building looked older than he remembered.
Its faded stone walls had witnessed thousands of births.
Thousands of lives.
Perhaps too many secrets.
The hospital director greeted them personally.
"I'm very sorry about what happened to your family."
Diego offered a polite nod.
"I need maternity records from four years ago."
The director's expression changed.
"We've already searched."
"And?"
"Several files disappeared."
Diego wasn't surprised anymore.
"Disappeared?"
"The digital archive was corrupted three years ago."
"What about paper records?"
The director hesitated.
"Most were destroyed in a storage fire."
Detective Álvarez frowned.
"A fire?"
"Officially."
Officially.
Diego had learned to hate that word.
They entered the basement archive anyway.
Dust covered rows of forgotten cabinets.
Boxes stretched endlessly beneath flickering fluorescent lights.
An elderly records clerk slowly approached.
"I remember you."
Diego looked confused.
"You do?"
"You came here once."
"When?"
"The day your daughter was born."
Diego's heart skipped.
"I've never been here."
The old woman frowned.
"No..."
She looked closer.
"I'm sorry."
"I thought you were your father."
The resemblance was unmistakable.
"What do you remember?"
She thought carefully.
"Your father wasn't alone."
"Who was with him?"
"A lawyer."
"Do you know his name?"
She nodded slowly.
"Eduardo Serrano."
Detective Álvarez immediately wrote it down.
"What happened?"
The clerk lowered her voice.
"They argued."
"About what?"
"The lawyer kept saying..."
She closed her eyes, trying to remember the exact words.
"'One child can disappear on paper... but not two.'"
Diego felt his stomach tighten.
Two.
Again.
Always two.
Meanwhile, Marisol visited Doña Elena's neighborhood church.
She needed silence.
She needed clarity.
Instead...
She found Carmen Villaseñor sitting alone in the last pew.
Neither woman expected the other.
Carmen stood slowly.
"I wasn't following you."
"I know."
They remained several feet apart.
Finally Carmen spoke.
"I came to pray."
"So did I."
Neither woman smiled.
The church remained almost empty.
Sunlight filtered softly through stained-glass windows.
Carmen looked toward the altar.
"For years I prayed for forgiveness."
Marisol crossed her arms.
"Did it help?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because forgiveness has to come from the people you hurt."
Marisol looked down.
"You can't undo four years."
"I know."
"You can't give Valentina back the father she never had."
"I know."
"You can't give me back the nights I cried believing he abandoned us."
Carmen quietly nodded.
"I know."
For several seconds only silence remained.
Then Carmen reached into her handbag.
"I brought something."
She carefully removed an old photograph.
Marisol stared.
It showed the hospital nursery.
Rows of newborn babies sleeping peacefully.
One nurse smiled toward the camera.
Another adjusted a tiny pink blanket.
In the corner...
Barely visible...
Two bassinets stood side by side.
Each carried a card.
One read:
Baby Reyes
The second...
The name had been scratched away.
Marisol looked up.
"Where did you get this?"
"I found it hidden inside Alejandro's desk."
"Why would he keep it?"
"I don't know."
Marisol studied the image again.
Then froze.
"There."
She pointed toward the background.
"What?"
"A woman."
Near the nursery entrance stood a woman wearing oversized sunglasses despite being indoors.
Only half her face appeared in the picture.
Yet something felt strangely familiar.
Marisol whispered,
"I've seen her before."
At that exact moment...
Paulina Robles entered her mother's apartment across town.
She looked exhausted.
She hadn't slept.
Her mother immediately noticed.
"You look terrible."
"My life is falling apart."
"Sit down."
Paulina obeyed.
"I need you to tell me the truth."
Her mother remained silent.
"You knew Alejandro before I did."
No answer.
"Mamá."
Finally the older woman sighed.
"Yes."
"How?"
"He financed your education."
Paulina stared.
"What?"
"You thought the scholarship came from the university."
"It didn't?"
Her mother slowly shook her head.
"Alejandro Villaseñor paid every tuition bill."
Paulina felt dizzy.
"Why?"
"Because he wanted someone loyal."
"I was a student."
"You were brilliant."
Her mother looked ashamed.
"He believed one day you could become useful."
Paulina whispered,
"He planned my entire future."
"I'm afraid he did."
Tears filled Paulina's eyes.
"So even my career..."
"...began with him."
Late that afternoon, Detective Álvarez finally located Eduardo Serrano.
The retired lawyer now lived quietly outside Querétaro.
He agreed to meet only after Diego promised no reporters would be involved.
The old man welcomed them into a modest study filled with law books.
"I've been expecting this visit."
Diego frowned.
"You have?"
"Since Alejandro died."
Eduardo looked far older than his seventy-eight years.
He walked slowly to a locked cabinet.
From inside he removed an old leather portfolio.
"I kept copies."
"Copies of what?"
"The documents Alejandro ordered me to destroy."
Diego's pulse quickened.
Eduardo placed one file on the desk.
Hospital records.
Birth certificates.
Court papers.
Then...
A single adoption application.
Applicant:
Alejandro Villaseñor
Child:
Baby Girl B
Diego's breathing stopped.
"He tried to adopt her?"
Eduardo nodded.
"He couldn't."
"Why not?"
"Because she wasn't abandoned."
"Then whose child was she?"
The old lawyer looked directly at Diego.
"I never learned."
"What happened to her?"
"I don't know."
"But Alejandro wanted that little girl almost as badly as he wanted to erase Valentina."
Diego stared at the paperwork.
Nothing made sense.
Why would his father try to erase one child...
...while desperately trying to obtain another?
Eduardo slid one final document across the desk.
"This is the only page I refused to destroy."
It was a handwritten note from Alejandro.
Only one sentence appeared.
The wrong baby left the hospital.
The room fell silent.
Detective Álvarez slowly lowered the paper.
Diego felt every hair on his arms stand up.
"The wrong baby..."
He looked at the lawyer.
"What does that mean?"
Eduardo shook his head.
"I asked Alejandro the same question."
"And?"
"He smiled."
The old man swallowed.
"Then he told me..."
"'One day my son will understand why only one child could carry the Villaseñor name.'"
Diego stared at the note.
For the first time...
He began wondering whether Valentina had ever been the real target.
And somewhere, unknown to everyone...
Another little girl had been growing up with a stolen identity.
May you like
Completely unaware that a decision made in a hospital nursery four years earlier...
...had changed the course of both their lives forever.
