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I was still lying there with cold gel on my stomach, my heart pounding hard.
Dr. Salinas looked at me more gently.
“Based on what we see today, that is the most likely explanation.”
Not at me.
Never at me.
Then the doctor moved the probe again.
Not fear.
“Wait,” she said.
My breath caught. “What is it?”
Dr. Salinas pointed at the monitor.
“There is another gestational sac.”
I froze.
She adjusted the image again, and a second tiny shape appeared on the screen.
But there.
Then another heartbeat filled the room.
Fast.
Strong.
Alive.
The doctor smiled softly.
“Mrs. Laura,” she said, “there are two.”
I covered my mouth.
Two.
Not one baby.
Two.
Two lives growing inside me while the world called me unfaithful. Two hearts beating while Diego posted pictures with Paola and let everyone believe I had betrayed him. Two children their own father had denied before even knowing they existed.
Dr. Salinas turned down the sound to give me a moment, but those heartbeats kept echoing in my head.
Diego collapsed into a chair as if his legs had given out.
“No,” he whispered. “No, no, no.”
Paola looked between him and the screen, anger and fear mixing on her face.
“Twins?”
“An early twin pregnancy,” Dr. Salinas said gently. “It will need careful monitoring.”
I cried, but it was different from the tears I had cried alone on the bathroom floor.
There was pain.
But there was strength too.
I wiped my face with the back of my hand.
“Doctor, are my babies okay?”
My babies.
The words broke me and held me together at the same time.
“For now, yes,” she said. “Both have cardiac activity. You will need regular checkups, rest, testing, and as much peace as possible.”
Diego let out a bitter, broken sound. “Peace. Of course.”
Dr. Salinas turned toward him.
“With respect, sir, if you are here to upset my patient further, I will ask you to leave.”
My patient.
Not his accused wife.
Not the woman everyone had judged.
Me.
For the first time in weeks, someone stood on my side.
Diego rose. “Laura, we need to talk.”
I slowly sat up. The doctor helped me clean the gel from my stomach and handed me a towel. My hands were shaking, but not from fear anymore.
“No,” I said.
Diego frowned. “What do you mean, no?”
“We are not talking here. Not now. And not in front of her.”
I looked at Paola.
Her face flushed.
“This isn’t my fault that you—”
“You knew he was married,” I said. “You knew I was pregnant, and you still came here to watch me be humiliated. Don’t pretend you are innocent.”
Paola opened her mouth but found nothing worth saying.
Diego stepped closer.
“Laura, I didn’t know. The vasectomy—”
“The vasectomy didn’t make you look at me like I disgusted you. It didn’t make you leave with her that night. It didn’t make you post that photo online. It didn’t make you send me papers trying to take my house and charge me for our marriage like I was a failed investment.”
Paola stared at him. “You charged her expenses?”
Diego closed his eyes. “It was a legal strategy.”
I almost laughed.
“What a pretty name for cruelty.”
I grabbed my bag. Dr. Salinas handed me the ultrasound pictures, and I held them against my chest like armor.
“I want to continue my care with you,” I told the doctor. “But please do not share any information with him unless I am present.”
Diego lifted his head. “I’m the father.”
There it was.
Late.
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