CHAPTER 4 — The Birth Certificate Was Fake… And the DNA Results Changed Everything
Diego stared at the scanned document until the words began to blur.
His pulse pounded in his ears.
Mother: Unknown.
Father: Confidential by Court Order.
He compared it to the birth certificate he had carried in his wallet since he was sixteen.
The signatures were different.
The registration numbers didn't match.
Even the official seal had a slight variation.
One of them was genuine.
The other...
was a forgery.
His hands went numb.
For thirty-four years, he had believed he was the biological son of Roberto Salazar and Graciela Salazar.
Now, he wasn't even sure who he was.
At 10:42 a.m., Diego drove straight to his childhood home.
Graciela was sitting in the living room as though nothing had happened.
She calmly stirred sugar into her coffee.
"You should be at work."
Diego threw both birth certificates onto the table.
"What is this?"
She barely glanced at them.
"I don't know."
"Don't lie to me."
"I've had enough drama for one week."
"My birth certificate is fake."
She looked up.
For the first time in years, Diego saw genuine fear flicker across her face.
Only for a second.
Then it disappeared.
"Where did you get that?"
"So it's true."
"I asked you a question."
"And I asked you one first."
He leaned over the table.
"Who am I?"
Graciela slowly set down her coffee cup.
"You are my son."
"Biologically?"
Silence.
"Answer me."
She looked away.
"I raised you."
"That wasn't my question."
Another long silence.
Then...
"I loved you."
Diego felt his stomach drop.
She still hadn't answered.
Before either of them could speak again, someone knocked on the front door.
Three slow, deliberate knocks.
Graciela turned pale.
"No..."
She whispered the word almost involuntarily.
Diego opened the door.
A gray-haired woman in her seventies stood outside carrying a worn leather handbag.
Her eyes immediately filled with tears the moment she saw Diego.
"My God..."
She covered her mouth.
"You have his eyes."
Diego frowned.
"I'm sorry... do I know you?"
The woman shook her head.
"My name is Teresa Álvarez."
She looked past Diego and locked eyes with Graciela.
"We've waited long enough."
Graciela stood up so abruptly that her chair crashed to the floor.
"You shouldn't be here."
"I promised Eduardo I would come when the truth was finally uncovered."
Diego's heart skipped.
"You knew Mariana's father?"
Teresa nodded.
"I was his family's attorney."
Graciela's voice hardened.
"Leave."
Teresa ignored her.
Instead, she opened her handbag and removed a thick sealed envelope.
Across the front was written in Eduardo Villaseñor's unmistakable handwriting.
To be opened only if Diego ever discovers the truth.
Diego's hands trembled.
"My name..."
"It's written for you."
Graciela lunged forward.
"Don't open it!"
Diego stepped back.
"Why?"
"Because none of this concerns you."
Teresa looked directly at him.
"It concerns him more than anyone."
The seal broke with a soft crack.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
The ink had faded, but every word remained clear.
Diego,
If you're reading this, then everything I feared has already happened.
You have discovered that your life was built on lies.
Before you judge Graciela completely, you must know that she was both a victim... and someone who made unforgivable choices afterward.
Diego swallowed hard and continued.
The greatest mistake of my life was waiting too long to tell the truth.
I believed I could protect everyone.
Instead, I destroyed them all.
His breathing became uneven.
The next paragraph made his knees weaken.
The day you were born...
another baby died in the same hospital.
Diego looked up.
"What?"
Teresa quietly nodded.
"Keep reading."
Graciela's son died only minutes after delivery.
She was unconscious from severe blood loss.
She never held him.
She never even saw his face.
Diego slowly lowered the letter.
"What does this have to do with me?"
No one answered.
His eyes returned to the page.
When Graciela awoke...
someone placed another baby into her arms.
His heartbeat stopped.
That baby...
was you.
The room became perfectly silent.
"No..."
The word barely escaped Diego's lips.
He looked from the letter to Graciela.
She was crying now.
Quietly.
Without looking at him.
"You knew?"
She closed her eyes.
"I didn't at first."
Diego felt the room spinning.
"You didn't know?"
"For years... I believed you were mine."
His voice cracked.
"When did you find out?"
Graciela whispered,
"When you were nine."
Diego stared at her in disbelief.
"You knew for twenty-five years..."
"...and never told me?"
"I couldn't."
"Why?"
"Because by then..."
"...you were already my son."
He laughed bitterly.
"No."
"I raised you."
"You lied to me."
"I protected you."
"You protected yourself."
Teresa interrupted softly.
"Graciela did not switch the babies."
Both of them looked at her.
"The hospital did."
Diego frowned.
"What?"
"There was a fire in the maternity ward that night."
"Medical records were destroyed."
"Several infants were temporarily identified incorrectly."
"The staff panicked."
"They covered their mistake."
Diego struggled to process the words.
"So..."
"I really could have been switched by accident?"
Teresa nodded.
"Yes."
"But that's only half the story."
She reached into her bag again.
This time, she removed a sealed DNA report.
The envelope had never been opened.
"The technology didn't exist back then."
"We tested everything three months ago."
Diego stared at the report.
"My DNA?"
"Yes."
"Who requested it?"
Teresa smiled sadly.
"Mariana."
Diego's eyes widened.
"Mariana knew?"
"Not everything."
"But she suspected."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"She wanted proof."
His hands trembled as he opened the report.
The first page confirmed what he already feared.
Probability of maternity with Graciela Salazar: 0%.
He wasn't her biological son.
He turned the page.
His breathing stopped.
Probability of paternity with Roberto Salazar: 0%.
His father wasn't his father either.
He kept reading.
The final page contained one line highlighted in yellow.
Closest biological match located: Eduardo Villaseñor.
Diego froze.
His lips moved.
No sound came out.
Finally...
He whispered,
"No..."
Teresa gently nodded.
"Yes."
Graciela burst into tears.
"I never wanted him to know."
Diego slowly turned toward her.
"What did you just say?"
She covered her face.
"I loved you too much to lose you."
"You knew."
"I found out twelve years ago."
Diego felt something inside him shatter.
"You knew I wasn't your son..."
"...and you still let me hate my own family?"
She sobbed harder.
"I was afraid."
"So you let me believe Mariana's family ruined our lives."
"I thought if you learned the truth..."
"...you'd leave me."
Diego took one slow step backward.
Then another.
He no longer recognized the woman standing before him.
Teresa quietly wiped away a tear.
"There is still something you don't know."
Diego laughed hollowly.
"There's more?"
She nodded.
"Much more."
She pointed toward the DNA report.
"Read the appendix."
Diego flipped to the final page.
There, attached with a paper clip, was a copy of an adoption authorization.
His eyes scanned the signatures.
One belonged to Eduardo Villaseñor.
The other...
made his blood run cold.
Lucía Villaseñor.
Mariana's mother.
The woman Diego believed had died before he met Mariana.
The document stated that both parents had voluntarily surrendered custody of their newborn son under confidential judicial protection.
Diego looked up in shock.
"They gave me away?"
Teresa's eyes filled with tears.
"They believed you were dead."
"What?"
"The hospital told them their baby had not survived."
Diego's knees buckled.
"They buried..."
"...an empty coffin."
Thousands of memories collided inside his mind.
Every family dinner.
Every insult.
Every cruel word spoken by Graciela against Mariana.
Every lie.
Every silence.
He had spent seven years married to Mariana.
Seven years.
Without either of them knowing the impossible truth.
If the DNA report was correct...
Mariana wasn't just his wife.
She had unknowingly married...
the son her own parents believed they had lost forever.
Teresa quickly shook her head.
Before Diego could spiral further, she spoke firmly.
"No."
"You are not Eduardo and Lucía's biological son."
Diego stared at her, confused.
"The DNA report doesn't mean what you think."
She pointed to the highlighted line.
"It says closest biological match, not parent-child confirmation."
"The sample matched because Eduardo's preserved family DNA was the closest profile in the database."
"There is one person whose DNA has not yet been tested."
Diego whispered,
"Who?"
Teresa looked directly into his eyes.
"The woman listed as 'Unknown' on your real birth certificate."
She slowly reached into her handbag one final time.
This time...
she removed an old photograph.
A young nurse stood smiling in front of the maternity ward.
In her arms...
she was holding a newborn baby.
On the back of the photograph, written in blue ink, were seven chilling words:
"Find Nurse Isabel Moreno before she dies."
Teresa's voice trembled.
"She disappeared the morning after you were born."
"And yesterday..."
May you like
"...someone tried to kill her."
END OF CHAPTER 4
