Chapter 2 - The DNA Test
Paulina recovered quickly.
She always did.
“That picture was supposed to be gone,” she repeated, but this time she added a dismissive laugh. “Meaning Marisol was supposedly over you. Isn’t that what she’s been pretending for four years?”
Diego did not blink.
“You knew the picture existed.”
“No.”
“You just said—”
“I was being sarcastic.”
“You’re bad at sarcasm when you’re scared.”
Paulina’s eyes flashed.
“I am not scared of a maid.”
Marisol stepped instinctively in front of the hallway leading toward the kitchen.
Not because Paulina was physically threatening Valentina.
Not yet.
But because something in the woman’s expression had changed.
The contempt remained.
Underneath it now lived desperation.
Diego saw it too.
“You’re not going near Marisol or Valentina until I know what happened.”
Paulina stared at him.
“I live here.”
“For the moment.”
Her face went white.
“Excuse me?”
Diego slid the old photograph into the inside pocket of his jacket.
“You heard me.”
“You’re threatening our engagement over a story?”
“No. I’m reconsidering our engagement because I just watched you try to throw a three-year-old child into the street.”
“I was firing an employee!”
“You told Marisol to take her daughter out before you threw the child out yourself.”
Paulina opened her mouth.
“No explanation will make that sound better.”
For once, she said nothing.
Twenty minutes later, Dr. Javier Salazar arrived through the private entrance.
He was Diego’s physician and one of the few people outside the family whom Diego trusted without conditions.
Tall, gray-haired, and permanently unimpressed by wealth, Javier walked into the library carrying a medical case.
He took one look at Diego’s face.
“This is not your annual physical.”
“No.”
Then he noticed Marisol.
Recognition flickered across his features.
Not recognition of her personally.
Recognition of the situation.
“Who is the child?”
Diego’s voice softened.
“Valentina.”
Javier waited.
Diego swallowed.
“She may be mine.”
The doctor nodded once.
No gasp.
No unnecessary question.
“Does the mother consent to testing?”
All eyes moved to Marisol.
She looked toward the kitchen.
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll do cheek swabs. Painless.”
Paulina, who had followed despite Diego’s order to remain upstairs, folded her arms.
“And how long until we know?”
Javier looked at her.
“You are?”
“My fiancée.”
“For the moment,” Diego said.
Paulina shot him a furious look.
Javier pretended not to notice.
“Standard results can take several days. I can request priority handling.”
“How fast?”
“Tomorrow afternoon if I personally deliver the samples and pay for expedited processing.”
“Do it.”
Marisol spoke softly.
“Diego.”
He turned.
“What?”
“This is going to frighten Valentina if everyone stands around watching.”
His expression changed.
Marisol was right.
Again.
He nodded.
“You and Javier take her somewhere comfortable.”
Rosa prepared the sunroom.
Valentina was sitting on the floor building a crooked tower from wooden blocks when they entered.
She looked up at Javier suspiciously.
“Doctor?”
Marisol smiled.
“Yes, but nobody is sick.”
Valentina narrowed her eyes.
That made Diego nearly smile despite everything.
She had his suspicious expression too.
Javier crouched.
“I need to borrow a tiny bit of spit from your cheek.”
Valentina immediately covered her mouth.
“No.”
Marisol knelt beside her.
“It won’t hurt.”
“Why?”
Javier held up the cotton swab.
“Because grown-ups sometimes forget things, and little sticks help us remember.”
Valentina considered this very seriously.
Then she pointed at Diego.
“Him too?”
Javier looked at Diego.
“Yes.”
She lowered her hand.
“Okay.”
The swabs took less than a minute.
When Javier finished, Valentina examined his medical case.
“Do you have stickers?”
The doctor looked offended.
“I’m a very serious physician.”
Valentina stared.
Javier sighed and opened a side pocket.
It was full of animal stickers.
Diego laughed.
An actual laugh.
Marisol looked at him sharply.
It was the first time she had heard it in years.
Valentina chose a yellow giraffe.
Then she picked a second sticker.
A blue elephant.
She walked to Diego.
“For you.”
He stared at the sticker in her tiny hand.
“Me?”
“You did the stick too.”
He crouched.
Valentina pressed the elephant onto the sleeve of his thousand-dollar jacket.
Paulina watched from the doorway.
Her expression was impossible to read.
Diego looked down at the ridiculous blue elephant.
Then at Valentina.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
She returned to her blocks.
That tiny exchange terrified Paulina more than any DNA result could.
Because Diego was already changing.
And she knew exactly how dangerous that could become.
Javier sealed the samples.
“I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Call no one else.”
“I know.”
As the doctor left, Diego turned to Marisol.
“You and Valentina are moving upstairs.”
Her eyes widened.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No, Diego.”
He blinked.
Most people did not tell him no.
Marisol had once done it constantly.
“You are not sleeping beside a laundry room another night.”
“That room is fine.”
“It is eight square meters.”
“It has a bed.”
“It has a ventilation pipe running behind the wall.”
“It’s warm.”
“It’s a servant’s room.”
“I am a servant.”
Diego’s jaw tightened.
“You are the mother of my—”
“Potential daughter.”
The words hurt both of them.
Marisol continued more gently.
“Until the result comes back, don’t change everything.”
“Everything is already changed.”
“Not for Valentina.”
Diego looked at the little girl.
She was arranging blocks by color.
“She woke up today believing she lives here because Mommy works here. She doesn’t understand billionaires, inheritances, newspapers, or Villaseñor. She knows her rabbit and her blanket and Rosa’s pancakes.”
Marisol looked directly at him.
“If you suddenly move her into a giant bedroom and everyone starts calling you her father, and then something goes wrong—”
“What could go wrong?”
“I don’t know.”
“Neither do I.”
“That is exactly why I’m asking you to slow down.”
Diego remained silent.
Finally, he nodded.
“Fine.”
Marisol relaxed slightly.
“But you’re not working today.”
“I have to.”
“No.”
“Diego—”
“You said not to change Valentina’s world. Fine. But I’m not going to watch her mother scrub Paulina’s bathtub while we wait to learn whether I missed three years of my daughter’s life.”
Paulina’s voice cut through the room.
“You’re being dramatic.”
Diego turned.
“Leave.”
“This is my home too.”
“No. It is not.”
The room froze.
Paulina stared at him.
Diego’s voice remained calm.
“The mansion belongs to Villaseñor Holdings. You have lived here because I invited you.”
She touched her engagement ring.
“We are getting married in six weeks.”
“We were.”
Marisol looked away.
Paulina took a step toward Diego.
“Do not do this because you’re emotional.”
“I’m doing this because for the first time in six months I’m seeing you clearly.”
“You loved me yesterday.”
“Yesterday you hadn’t threatened a child in front of me.”
“She is not your child yet!”
Valentina looked up.
Paulina realized too late how loud she had become.
The little girl’s eyes filled with uncertainty.
Diego crossed the room immediately.
He crouched beside her.
“Hey.”
Valentina looked at Paulina.
“She’s mad.”
“Yes.”
“At me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Diego glanced at Marisol.
He had no idea what to say.
Marisol rescued him.
“Sometimes adults get upset when things change.”
Valentina nodded as though this made perfect sense.
Then she whispered to Diego.
“Did I do bad?”
His heart broke.
“No.”
“You promise?”
Diego held out his little finger.
“I promise.”
Valentina hooked hers around it.
Paulina watched.
Something cold entered her face.
Without another word, she turned and walked away.
Diego waited until she disappeared.
Then he looked at Marisol.
“She needs to leave the house.”
Marisol said nothing.
“You disagree?”
“I think you need to understand what she knows first.”
Diego studied her.
“You think she knows more than she admitted.”
“I think Paulina recognized me years before you ever introduced us.”
“How?”
Marisol hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
They found the answer sooner than expected.
At eleven that morning, Diego summoned his head of security, Mateo Cruz.
Mateo had served in the Mexican Navy before entering private security. He was forty-three, broad-shouldered, careful, and one of the few men willing to argue with Diego when necessary.
Diego gave him a simple instruction.
“I want everything on Marisol’s attempts to contact me four years ago.”
Mateo looked surprised.
“Everything?”
“Building security logs. Visitor records. archived emails. Mailroom documents. Cecilia Navarro’s records. Anything that exists.”
Paulina was not mentioned.
But Mateo knew Diego well enough.
“And Ms. Robles?”
Diego looked toward the closed library doors.
“Discreetly.”
Mateo nodded.
By lunchtime, the mansion had become strangely quiet.
Paulina locked herself in the upstairs suite.
Marisol stayed with Valentina in the kitchen.
Diego tried to work from his study but read the same contract paragraph eleven times.
At one thirty, his phone rang.
Mateo.
“I found something.”
Diego stood.
“What?”
“An archived visitor log.”
“And?”
“Marisol Hernández entered Villaseñor corporate headquarters on March 8 four years ago.”
Diego closed his eyes.
Marisol had told the truth.
“She returned March 15 and March 29.”
“Who signed her in?”
“Cecilia Navarro.”
Diego gripped the phone.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
A pause.
“On March 29, another visitor arrived seventeen minutes after Marisol.”
Diego’s instincts sharpened.
“Who?”
“Paulina Robles.”
Diego went completely still.
Four years ago, he had not been dating Paulina.
They had barely known each other.
“What was she doing there?”
“Officially? She was visiting your mother’s foundation.”
“My mother was already dead.”
“The foundation remained active.”
“Who did she meet?”
Mateo hesitated.
“Cecilia Navarro.”
Diego turned toward the window.
His reflection looked unfamiliar.
“There’s more,” Mateo said.
“What?”
“I pulled security footage from the old archival backup.”
“You found video?”
“One clip.”
Diego’s voice dropped.
“Send it.”
Thirty seconds later, the file appeared.
The footage was grainy.
Black-and-white.
No audio.
But the date was clear.
March 29.
Marisol entered the lobby at 10:12 a.m.
She was thinner.
Younger.
Terrified.
Diego watched her approach the elevator with Cecilia.
At 10:39, Marisol came back down alone.
She was crying.
She held an envelope in one hand.
Diego stopped the video.
His stomach twisted.
He forced himself to continue.
At 10:56, Paulina entered.
Elegant even then.
She walked directly to the elevator.
At 12:07, she came down.
Cecilia was beside her.
They stopped near the lobby doors.
Cecilia handed Paulina something.
A yellow folder.
Paulina opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Even through poor resolution, Diego knew what it was.
An ultrasound.
Paulina stared at it.
Then smiled.
Not happily.
Triumphantly.
Diego replayed that moment three times.
At the end of the clip, Paulina removed her phone.
She made a call.
And though there was no audio, Diego could read the first words on her lips.
It’s done.
His blood turned cold.
He walked out of the study.
Across the corridor.
Up the stairs.
He did not knock on Paulina’s bedroom door.
He opened it.
Paulina was standing beside a suitcase.
She spun around.
Diego held up his phone.
The frozen image showed her holding Marisol’s ultrasound.
Paulina’s face collapsed.
“Explain.”
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Paulina looked toward the open suitcase.
Diego followed her gaze.
Inside were clothes.
Jewelry.
A passport.
And a one-way airline ticket to Madrid.
“You were leaving.”
Paulina slowly straightened.
Diego stepped into the room.
“Who were you calling that day?”
She remained silent.
“Who helped Cecilia keep my daughter from me?”
Still nothing.
His voice became colder.
“Paulina.”
She looked him directly in the eyes.
Then she finally answered.
“Your father.”
May you like
And downstairs, unaware that the Villaseñor family was about to tear itself apart, Valentina was drawing a picture of Diego beside her and Marisol.
Above the three figures, in shaky purple crayon, she drew one enormous house.
