The phone call to the Geneva fertility clinic was one of the hardest calls I ever made. My hands shook as I dialed the number."I need to talk to your security department," I told the woman who answered. "Someone has been using my name at your clinic.""I'm sorry, but we can't share patient information—""I am Emily Reyes. Someone else is pretending to be me, and I need to know what they're doing."Twenty minutes later, I was on a video call with Dr. Heinrich Mueller, the clinic's boss, and their head of security. The man's face looked serious and worried as he looked at files on his computer."Mrs. Reyes, we have a very big problem here. The woman using your name has been coming to our clinic for three weeks.""What has she been doing?""She said she needed fertility treatments for a difficult pregnancy. She brought what looked like real medical records from your American doctors. The records showed that you were pregnant with problems."My stomach felt sick. "What kind of problems?"
That night, we searched through my house like police looking for clues. The air felt heavy and strange, like someone had been watching us for weeks. Alejandro found the first listening device under the kitchen table. It was tiny, no bigger than a coin. Sofia found the second one in my office, stuck under my desk drawer."How long have they been listening to us?" I asked. The small devices sat in Sofia's hand like evil little spies."Maybe weeks. Maybe months." She dropped them into a glass of water. They made a fizzing sound and died. "They heard everything we talked about in this house."I sat down on the couch. I felt sick and angry. Someone had been listening to my private life. "Our plans, our secrets, our personal talks—""That's how they always knew what we were going to do," Alejandro said. His voice was dark and upset. "They weren't just lucky. They were cheating."I sat there feeling angry instead of scared. They wanted to play dirty games? Fine. I could play dirty too."Sofi
The phone call came at 6 AM. It woke me up from the first good sleep I'd had in days."Emily? This is Marcus Webb. I used to work for your husband."I sat up in bed, suddenly wide awake. The morning was still dark outside. Alejandro moved beside me. His eyes opened when he heard me take a sharp breath."I know who you are," I said carefully. Marcus had been Carlos's head of overseas business—the one who helped hide money in foreign banks. "What do you want?""To fix things. Can we meet? There's a lot you don't know about what's happening to you.""I won't meet with anyone who worked for Carlos.""Even if I can prove Javier Reyes isn't who he says he is?"My hand gripped the phone tighter. "What do you mean?""I mean, his real name is Javier Morales. And he's not Carlos's half-brother. He's Daniela's cousin."The room started spinning around me like a broken toy. "That can't be true.""One hour. The coffee shop on Fifth Street. Come alone, or I disappear forever."The line went dead. I
The bright camera lights hurt my eyes like lightning. Each flash made my head hurt worse. The reporters had found our house early in the morning—twenty people with mean looks and nasty questions. They waited outside our gate like hungry birds looking for food.The morning air was cold and sharp. Frost covered the windows, but inside, everything felt hot and scary."Emily! Did you cheat on your husband?""How long have you been with Alejandro?""Are you using your baby to trick him?"I pressed my face against the kitchen window. I watched them ruin the quiet morning that Mateo and I always loved. He sat at the table behind me. His cereal got mushy while he stared at the mess outside."Mom, why are they here?""Just some mixed-up people, baby. Eat your breakfast."But my hands shook as I poured coffee I couldn't drink. Being pregnant already made me feel sick. Now I felt scared too.Alejandro came to the door. His hair was messy from sleeping. His face looked angry and dark like storm c
The phone rang at seven in the morning, cutting through the peaceful kitchen sounds like a sharp knife."Emily, we need to meet. Today." Javier's smooth voice made my skin crawl. Mateo sat at the table eating his cereal, and Alejandro was making coffee. Everything felt normal until my phone rang and shattered the quiet morning."I don't want to talk to you," I said."I think you'll want to hear what I have to say. It's a good deal."I watched Mateo, so innocent and happy, with milk dripping from his spoon. I looked at Alejandro, with dark circles under his eyes from staying up all night worrying about the tax problems. Then I put my hand over my still-flat belly, already wanting to protect the tiny life growing inside me."One hour. Sofia's office," I said."Come alone.""No way."He laughed, but it sounded cold and mean. "Fine. But Emily? This is your last chance to do this the easy way.""He's playing games," Sofia said, walking back and forth behind her desk. The morning sun came t
The man who said he was Carlos's half-brother looked nothing like him.Javier Reyes sat across from Sofia and me in the meeting room at her law office. His expensive suit fit perfectly, his smile looked practiced and cold. Where Carlos had been tall and wide, Javier was thin and wiry. Where Carlos had dark eyes, Javier's were pale green. The only thing they shared was their cockiness."I know this must be shocking," he said, his voice smooth as silk. "Carlos hardly ever talked about family. Our father had... messy relationships.""Messy how?" Sofia asked, her pen ready over her legal pad."Different mothers. Different countries. He grew up in Mexico with his mother after our father's first marriage ended badly." Javier spread a folder of papers across the table. The afternoon light coming through the office windows made the documents look official and threatening. "These are his birth records, DNA test results proving we're related, and the will naming me as the person who gets his ov