Chapter 3 – The DNA File
The doctor's words echoed through Mariana's mind long after everyone else had fallen silent.
"You may be the only person who can save Emiliano."
She looked from the doctor to Sergio.
Then to Daniel's widow.
No one spoke.
No one dared.
Finally, Mariana found her voice.
"What records are you talking about?"
The doctor sighed.
"I think this conversation should have happened years ago."
He pulled a thin, worn folder from Emiliano's medical file.
The edges were faded.
The paper had yellowed with age.
Across the front was a handwritten date.
Twenty-eight years earlier.
Sergio lowered his head.
"I never wanted you to find out like this."
Mariana's heartbeat quickened.
"You knew?"
"I knew... there was a possibility."
"A possibility of what?"
Before Sergio could answer, an elderly woman appeared in the doorway.
Doña Teresa.
She looked as though she had aged ten years overnight.
Her eyes were swollen from crying.
She stepped into the room clutching another envelope.
"I should have told you before your wedding," she whispered.
"I was afraid."
Mariana stared at her.
"Afraid of what?"
"Of destroying another family."
Doña Teresa slowly sat down.
Her trembling hands opened the envelope.
Inside was an old newspaper clipping.
A photograph of a hospital.
A headline about a fire in the maternity wing nearly three decades ago.
Several newborn records had been destroyed.
A handful of babies had been temporarily identified using handwritten tags until official files could be reconstructed.
Doña Teresa slid another document across the table.
It was a photocopy of an old hospital log.
Two names were circled in red.
Mariana Flores.
Daniel Salgado.
Both babies had been born within minutes of each other.
Both had stayed in the same nursery.
And for nearly six hours after the fire...
their identification bracelets had been missing.
Mariana frowned.
"I don't understand."
The doctor answered quietly.
"Years later, the hospital contacted several affected families."
"They recommended DNA testing because of irregularities in the records."
Mariana felt her stomach tighten.
"My parents never told me."
Doña Teresa lowered her eyes.
"Because they refused."
Sergio finally spoke.
"My parents agreed to the test."
"And?"
"The results showed Daniel was definitely their son."
Mariana exhaled.
"So everything was fine."
Sergio didn't answer.
Instead, Doña Teresa pushed forward the final page.
One paragraph had been highlighted.
'Testing of other potentially affected families was declined. Therefore, complete verification of all newborn placements could not be confirmed.'
Mariana read it twice.
Then a third time.
Her hands began to shake.
"You mean..."
The doctor nodded slowly.
"We don't know whether your biological family is the one who raised you."
The room spun.
Mariana suddenly remembered something she had heard her mother say as a child.
"You don't look like anyone in this family."
Everyone had laughed.
Including her.
Now the memory no longer felt like a joke.
A nurse entered carrying several laboratory forms.
"Doctor, the transplant coordinator is waiting."
The doctor looked at Mariana.
"We don't have much time."
"Emiliano's condition is getting worse."
"We need to know whether you're a compatible donor."
Mariana didn't hesitate this time.
"What do I have to do?"
Hours later...
She sat quietly while a technician collected blood samples.
Across the hallway, Sergio watched through the glass.
Neither of them smiled.
Neither of them knew what tomorrow would bring.
The only certainty was that a little boy's life depended on the answers hidden inside a laboratory.
The waiting was unbearable.
Every phone vibration made them jump.
Every doctor walking toward them felt like a verdict.
Late that afternoon, the transplant specialist finally appeared.
He held a sealed envelope.
"I have the preliminary compatibility results."
Mariana stood immediately.
"So?"
The doctor smiled.
For the first time that day.
"Good news."
Everyone released the breath they had been holding.
"You are a strong bone marrow match."
Daniel's widow burst into tears.
Sergio closed his eyes in relief.
Mariana smiled through her own tears.
Then the doctor continued.
"But..."
The word froze the room again.
"The compatibility is... unusually high."
"High is good, isn't it?"
"It is."
He looked down at the report.
"Except this level of compatibility is rarely seen between unrelated people."
Silence.
The doctor slowly removed another sheet from the envelope.
"I requested an additional DNA analysis."
Mariana felt her heartbeat race.
"What did it show?"
The doctor looked directly at her.
"It confirms that you are not biologically related to Emiliano."
Relief washed across the room.
Then he added one final sentence.
"But it also confirms something none of us expected."
He handed the report to Mariana.
Her eyes scanned the final line.
Then she stopped breathing.
Probability of biological relationship: 99.98%.
Relationship identified:
Half-sibling of Daniel Salgado.
The paper slipped from her fingers.
She looked at Doña Teresa.
Then at Sergio.
"No..."
she whispered.
"That's impossible."
Tears streamed down Doña Teresa's face.
"It means..."
Mariana couldn't finish the sentence.
The doctor did it for her.
"It means Daniel was your biological half-brother."
"And Emiliano..."
Mariana's voice broke.
"...is my nephew."
Every memory of the past twenty-four hours crashed together at once.
The child she believed had destroyed her marriage...
was family.
Her own family.
She covered her face and sobbed.
Not because she had discovered the truth.
But because she had nearly turned her own nephew's greatest battle into a public scandal.
Outside the hospital room, the transplant team was already preparing for surgery.
Inside...
another question remained unanswered.
If Daniel was her biological half-brother...
then who was her real father?
And why had someone buried the truth for twenty-eight years?
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End of Chapter 3...
Coming in Chapter 4: A hidden diary, a dying man's final confession, and the shocking identity of Mariana's biological father threaten to destroy two families forever.
