Chapter 13 - The Man Everyone Buried
The door opened slowly.
A man stood in the hallway.
Older.
Thinner.
But alive.
Paola gasped.
“Rafael?”
The man nodded.
My uncle.
The man we'd buried twelve years earlier.
He looked at me.
“I know what your mother did.”
I couldn't speak.
Mariana held Lucia's hand.
Rafael walked inside.
“I didn't die.”
“Then whose funeral did we attend?”
“Someone who had no family.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because your mother wanted me gone.”
“What did you know?”
“Everything.”
He sat down.
“Your father discovered Victoria was alive.”
“Victoria?”
“Yes.”
“The woman who raised Lucia?”
Rafael nodded.
“She was your father's first wife.”
I looked at Paola.
She was crying.
Rafael continued.
“Your mother hated her.”
“Why?”
“Because your father never stopped loving her.”
That wasn't the answer I expected.
“But what about the children?”
Rafael looked at Mariana.
“Your daughter was taken because your mother believed she could use the adoption network to control people.”
Mariana's face hardened.
“And my daughter?”
“She was placed with Victoria.”
“Why?”
“Because Victoria agreed to protect her.”
Mariana began crying.
“I thought she died.”
Rafael lowered his head.
“I know.”
Then he looked at me.
“And your father's first son…”
I waited.
“His name was Emiliano.”
My heart stopped.
“Where is he?”
Rafael looked toward the hospital photograph.
“Your father believed he had died.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
“Where is he?”
Rafael looked at Lucia.
“She knows.”
Lucia shook her head.
“No.”
Rafael smiled sadly.
“You do.”
Lucia began crying.
She pulled a small necklace from beneath her shirt.
A silver pendant.
I recognized it.
My father had owned one exactly like it.
“What does it mean?”
Lucia opened the pendant.
Inside was a tiny photograph.
A baby.
And a name.
Emiliano Vargas.
Mariana stared.
“Who is he?”
Lucia whispered:
“My brother.”
I couldn't breathe.
“Where is he?”
Lucia looked at me.
“He's been closer than you think.”
Then Rafael said something that made the room go silent.
“Your son isn't named after him by coincidence.”
I stared at him.
“What are you saying?”
Before he could answer, police sirens sounded outside.
Rafael stood.
“We have to go.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother called them.”
The front door burst open.
Officers entered.
Behind them stood Ofelia.
She looked at me.
Then at Mariana.
Then at the baby.
May you like
And smiled.
“You brought him.”
