Chapter 9: The Second Family Secret

Chapter 9: The Second Family Secret

The claim was absurd.

At least, that was what I wanted to believe.

But my mother’s face changed when I asked her.

She turned toward the hospital window.

“Tell me he’s my father,” I said.

She closed her eyes.

“Rodrigo raised you.”

“That isn’t what I asked.”

“He loved you before you were born.”

The room grew unbearably quiet.

My mother explained that Rodrigo had been unable to have children after an injury during his military service.

Years later, she became pregnant.

The biological father was not a lover.

It was Rafael.

My father’s brother.

The revelation left me unable to speak.

“It happened once,” she said. “Rodrigo asked him to help us.”

I stared at Rafael, who stood near the door with tears in his eyes.

“So you’re my father.”

“Biologically,” he said. “But Rodrigo was your father in every way that mattered.”

Jorge must have discovered the truth through old medical records.

If I was not Rodrigo’s biological son, he planned to challenge my inheritance and argue that the land passed to a missing relative—Rafael—who had been legally declared dead.

But Rafael was alive.

That should have ended the challenge.

Instead, it gave us a new danger.

“If Jorge learns Rafael is alive,” Marisol said, “he’ll become the primary target.”

Rafael nodded.

“He already knows.”

My mother began coughing.

A nurse rushed in as the monitor beside her bed changed rhythm.

While the staff stabilized her, Marisol received a message from the city development board.

The emergency hearing had been moved forward.

It would begin in ninety minutes.

Attached was the list of witnesses.

The final name made me freeze.

Dr. Esteban Valez.

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