On the day of the consultation, Roberto entered the conference room.
Five doctors stood before him.
Tall, elegant…
and dark-skinned.
Roberto’s heart stopped for a second.
Those faces… they were painfully familiar.
« Good morning, Don Roberto, » said the lead surgeon. »
I’m Dr. Miguel.
These are my brothers:
Dr. Gabriel (anesthesiologist),
Dr. Rafael (cardiologist),
Dr. Uriel (nephrologist)
, and Dr. Samuel (hepatologist). »
« Are you… brothers? » Roberto asked, trembling.
—Yes —Miguel replied—. We are quintuplets.
Roberto’s world collapsed.
« W-where are you from…? » he stammered.
“We were born in this country,” Gabriel said firmly.
“But we grew up in poverty.
Our father abandoned us in 1995 because of the color of our skin.
He said we disgusted him.”
The medical file slipped from Roberto’s hands.
—Y-you…
The door opened.
An elderly woman entered in a wheelchair, elegant and serene.
It was Isabel.
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« Isabel…? » Roberto whispered.
—Hello, Roberto —she said calmly—. It’s been a long time.
Roberto fell to his knees.
« Forgive me! I was wrong!
I thought they weren’t mine… just because they were dark.
I thought that couldn’t exist in my blood! »
Samuel, the geneticist, turned on a tablet.
—Actually, Mr. Roberto —he said—,
we perform DNA tests as part of the protocol.
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