apologetic.
Some contradictory.
I stopped answering emotional arguments.
Everything important went through Gabriela.
Paula eventually ended her relationship with him.
I heard that from her, not him.
After the baby was born, she intended to establish paternity formally.
The great irony was impossible to miss.
Diego had undergone a vasectomy.
Then both women he’d been involved with became pregnant within months of it.
The procedure had not provided the certainty he’d assumed.
His arrogance had done the rest.
When Mateo and Elena were born, I cried before I even saw them properly.
Mateo screamed first.
Elena followed seconds later.
Two furious little voices filled the operating room.
“Are they okay?” I kept asking.
“They’re beautiful,” the nurse said.
I kissed them both.
I didn’t think about Diego.
Not then.
That day belonged to them.
Several weeks later, the paternity testing Diego had demanded was completed through the proper process.
I
