“I already know what’s on there,” he snapped. “Proof she cheated.”
Paola stood beside him silently, but Laura noticed the small smile hiding at the corner of her mouth.
Like she had already won.
Dr. Salinas didn’t react.
She simply turned the monitor slightly toward Diego.
Then pointed carefully at the screen.
“This pregnancy is approximately fourteen weeks along,” she said calmly.
The room went silent.
Laura blinked.
Diego frowned immediately.
“What?”
The doctor kept her voice professional.
“Fourteen weeks. Possibly a few days more.”
Diego laughed once.
Cold.
“That’s impossible.”
Dr. Salinas picked up the chart.
“You said your vasectomy was performed two months ago?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“That would be approximately eight weeks ago.”
Now Diego’s expression began changing.
Slowly.
Subtly.
Like someone realizing the floor beneath him wasn’t stable anymore.
The doctor continued.
“That means conception happened before your procedure.”
Laura felt her heart stop.
Paola’s face lost color instantly.
And Diego…
Diego stared at the screen without blinking.
“No,” he whispered.
Dr. Salinas nodded gently.
“Yes.”
Then she added the sentence that shattered the room completely.
“Biologically speaking, this timeline strongly supports that you are the father.”
Silence exploded through the office.
Laura looked at Diego with tears already burning in her eyes.
Because suddenly every insult replayed in her head at once.
Unfaithful.
Liar.
Shameless.
Every accusation.
Every cruel look.
Every moment he abandoned her while she begged him to believe her.
All while carrying his child.
Paola stepped backward first.
“Wait…” she whispered nervously. “You told me the dates proved—”
Diego turned toward her sharply.
“I thought they did.”
Laura almost laughed from the sheer brutality of it all.
Thought.
He destroyed their marriage over something he never even confirmed.
Dr. Salinas folded her hands calmly.
“This situation is more common than people realize,” she explained carefully. “A vasectomy is not immediately effective. Patients must complete follow-up testing to confirm sterility.”
Laura closed her eyes.
She had told him that.
Repeatedly.
But Diego never wanted facts.
He wanted someone to blame.
Paola suddenly looked uncomfortable standing there.
Very uncomfortable.
Because now she was no longer the woman rescuing a betrayed man.
She was simply the affair partner standing beside a husband who abandoned his pregnant wife too quickly.
Diego finally looked at Laura again.
And for the first time since this nightmare began…
He looked uncertain.
“Laura…” he started.
“No.”
The word came out instantly.
Sharp.
Firm.
Stronger than she expected.
Tears slid down her cheeks anyway.
“You don’t get to say my name like that now.”
Diego swallowed hard.
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t want to know,” Laura corrected.
That hit harder.
Because it was true.
The doctor quietly stepped away, sensing the storm building inside the room.
Laura slowly sat up from the exam table, wiping the gel from her stomach with trembling hands.
Her baby.
His baby.
The child he rejected before hearing its heartbeat.
The child he called someone else’s.
The child he already tried to financially abandon.
Paola crossed her arms awkwardly.
“I think I should go.”
Nobody stopped her.
Not even Diego.
That seemed to hurt her pride more than anything else.
She grabbed her purse and walked quickly toward the door, heels clicking fast against the floor.
Then she disappeared.
Just like that.
Laura watched Diego carefully now.
This man had once been her safest place.
Now he looked like a stranger standing in pieces.
“I made a mistake,” he whispered.
Laura stared at him in disbelief.
A mistake?
Not forgetting milk at the grocery store.
Not missing an appointment.
He publicly humiliated her.
Destroyed her reputation.
Moved in with another woman.
Tried forcing her to sign away her rights.
And called it a mistake.
Laura let out one broken laugh through tears.
“No,” she said quietly. “You made a choice.”
Diego’s eyes filled with panic for the first time.
“Please…”
But Laura picked up her purse slowly.
Then looked at the ultrasound screen one more time.
The tiny heartbeat still flickered there.
Alive.
Innocent.
Completely unaware that its father almost threw its entire family away because suspicion mattered more to him than trust.
Laura placed one protective hand over her stomach.
Then finally looked back at Diego.
“You didn’t just leave me,” she whispered.
“You left us.”
And somehow…
That was the sentence he could not survive hearing.
