The Last Baby
Seven months later, Bishop Álvarez was awaiting trial.
Beatriz was cooperating with investigators.
Doctor Paloma had surrendered her medical license.
The Valdés trust had been frozen.
Esperanza temporarily left formal religious life.
Not because she had lost her faith.
Because she refused to allow vows of obedience to be used against her again.
She lived with Tomás and Miguel in a protected home.
Mother Caridad visited constantly.
At thirty-eight weeks, Esperanza went into labor.
Nine hours later, at 4:22 in the morning, a baby girl was born.
Healthy.
Strong.
Esperanza cried as the nurse placed her daughter against her chest.
Then the pediatrician looked at the newborn’s left hand.
Six tiny fingers.
The Valdés genetic marker.
But that wasn’t the detail that changed everything.
Behind the baby’s left ear was a pale crescent-shaped mark.
Mother Caridad had seen it before.
Behind Esperanza’s own left ear.
New DNA testing was ordered.
Doctor Ignacio arrived personally.
“I repeated the test three times.”
Esperanza held the newborn tighter.
“What did you find?”
“The original comparison wasn’t exactly wrong. The reference samples supplied through Paloma’s system were mislabeled.”
He placed the report down.
“The children are biologically related to you.”
Esperanza stared.
“How?”
“Not as their mother.”
A pause.
“You are their aunt.”
The boys had been created from Esteban Valdés and Lucía Valdés.
But Lucía had an identical twin sister.
Mariana Salazar.
Esperanza’s mother.
The existence of Mariana had been erased from the official Valdés history because it complicated inheritance.
That was another reason Esperanza had been chosen.
Genetically, she was the closest living female relative to Lucía.
Then Ignacio revealed something stranger.
The newborn’s mitochondrial DNA didn’t match Lucía.
The egg used to create the final embryo came from Mariana.
Before Mariana disappeared, her reproductive material had been obtained during medical treatment.
The last embryo had been created using Mariana’s egg and Esteban Valdés’s preserved sperm.
The newborn Esperanza had just delivered was therefore biologically connected to her not simply as a niece.
She was Esperanza’s half sister.
Esperanza stared down at the baby.
Her daughter.
And, biologically, her sister.
Two days later, Sister Beatriz asked to speak with her.
“I switched the embryo.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother asked me to.”
Beatriz revealed that she and Mariana had once been friends.
Mariana had hidden one embryo created from her own egg among the Valdés specimens.
She hoped that if anything happened to her, it might someday prove she had existed.
Years later, Beatriz became involved with Álvarez.
At first for money.
Later because of threats.
Before the third transfer, she found Mariana’s hidden embryo and substituted it.
“You put my mother’s embryo inside me without asking?”
“Yes.”
Esperanza stood.
“You all keep saying you did terrible things because you were trying to fix other terrible things.”
Paloma violated her autonomy to protect her daughter.
Beatriz violated it to preserve Mariana’s evidence.
Álvarez exploited her to save money, power, and institutions.
Everyone had a reason.
Esperanza looked directly at Beatriz.
“There is no holy reason for stealing someone’s choice.”
Then she walked away.
