Chapter 4 - THE DNA TEST
Diego refused to let money decide the next step.
“DNA first.”
Marisol agreed.
Not because she doubted.
Because Lily—Valentina—deserved certainty without whispers.
The test was simple.
A swab.
Valentina hated it anyway.
“They stole my spit.”
Marisol laughed.
Diego looked serious.
“We will recover.”
Valentina considered him strange.
Results came forty-eight hours later.
Probability of paternity:
99.9997%.
Diego read the page three times.
Then walked into the garden alone.
Marisol found him beside the fountain.
“You okay?”
“No.”
Honest.
She sat beside him.
“I lost three years.”
“Yes.”
He looked at her.
“You lost them too.”
“Yes.”
“I want to blame you.”
“I know.”
“But you tried.”
Marisol swallowed.
“I stopped trying.”
“You thought I rejected you.”
“Yes.”
He stared at the water.
“My father caused this.”
“Partly.”
He looked at her.
“And Paulina.”
“Partly.”
Marisol continued.
“But Diego?”
“Yes?”
“You never came looking for me either.”
That hurt.
He had to accept it.
He had returned from Madrid.
Rosa—Marisol—was gone.
He assumed she had chosen to leave.
He felt wounded.
Proud.
So he did not search.
A billionaire who could locate a company in three countries had not bothered to locate a woman he claimed to love.
Because rejection bruised his ego.
“I failed too.”
Marisol nodded.
That mattered.
Then Valentina ran into the garden.
Mrs. Camila, the housekeeper, followed apologetically.
“Señor—”
“It’s okay.”
Valentina stopped between them.
“Are you my daddy?”
Diego froze.
Marisol looked at her.
“Who told you?”
“The doctor paper.”
Of course she had overheard.
Diego crouched.
“Yes.”
Valentina studied him.
“Like real daddy?”
“Yes.”
She thought.
“Do I have to move?”
Marisol’s heart broke.
“No,” both adults said at once.
Valentina relaxed.
“Okay.”
Then:
“Can Daddy make bad pancakes again?”
Diego smiled.
“Apparently.”
That was the beginning.
Not inheritance.
Pancakes.
Diego immediately offered to pay all of Valentina’s medical debt.
Marisol resisted.
He did not push.
He asked instead:
“Can I pay my share?”
That wording changed everything.
She agreed.
They created a custody plan with attorneys.
No surprise power moves.
No mansion ownership.
No removing Valentina from Marisol.
Diego wanted legal recognition.
Marisol wanted security.
Both got part of what they needed.
Paulina watched from outside.
She had moved into a hotel after Diego suspended their engagement.
Not officially canceled yet.
Not because Diego hesitated about marrying her.
Because attorneys were untangling contracts, wedding expenses, and joint property.
Paulina misread that as hope.
She requested a meeting.
Diego accepted.
Public office.
Lawyers present.
She arrived wearing the engagement ring.
Diego noticed.
“Take it off.”
Her face tightened.
“I thought we were discussing us.”
“There is no us.”
“You're throwing away everything over Marisol.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“I'm ending this because you knew I had a child and hid it.”
“My career would have been destroyed if I defied your father.”
“Maybe then.”
“What about later?”
Silence.
“When we started dating?”
Paulina looked away.
“When I proposed?”
Nothing.
“When you watched Valentina in my house every day?”
Her eyes filled.
“I was afraid.”
“There it is.”
She looked at him.
“I loved you.”
“Love without truth becomes control.”
Paulina flinched.
Then Diego asked:
“Where is my father's signed trust amendment?”
Her face changed.
Barely.
Enough.
Diego leaned forward.
“You have it.”
“No.”
“You know where it is.”
“No.”
Her attorney intervened.
“This meeting is over.”
Paulina stood.
Then Marisol, who had come only because her own lawyer insisted, noticed the gold button pinned inside Paulina’s handbag.
The same style Valentina had found near the stairs.
Marisol frowned.
“Where did that button come from?”
Paulina looked down.
Her face went pale.
It was not from a jacket.
It belonged to an old leather document case from Ignacio Villaseñor’s private office.
A case missing since his death.
And now one of its decorative buttons had fallen in Diego’s hallway.
Valentina had not merely found something pretty.
May you like
She had found the first physical link to the missing will.
---
