One night, without telling anyone, Aling Corazon secretly took a strand of the baby’s hair and ordered a DNA test.
The result arrived like a volcanic explosion in the middle of their luxurious living room.
The child was not Marco’s.
Clarissa—the woman they had treated like a queen—had long been involved with another man. She had only used the Dela Cruz family to live a luxurious life and to hide her own mistake.
In an instant, the “heir” they had proudly celebrated became a symbol of their own foolishness and cruelty.
They threw Clarissa out that very night, but the wound to their pride would never heal easily.
Only then did they remember everything.
Aling Corazon remembered her cold words to me.
Marco remembered his silence as I walked away from their home.
In the middle of their humiliation, they realized something else—the only true blood of Marco’s was the child I had been carrying.
The child they had rejected simply because she might be a girl.
One afternoon in Cebu, while I was walking along the beach carrying my daughter Maya, I saw a familiar car stop in front of the house where we were staying.
Marco stepped out, followed by Aling Corazon and her husband.
They looked nothing like the people I last saw in Quezon City.
Their shoulders were slumped, their eyes heavy with sleeplessness and regret.
“My child… please forgive us,” Aling Corazon said as she suddenly knelt on the sand in front of me.
“We made a terrible mistake. We know the truth now… we have no face left to show you. But please, allow us to know our granddaughter.”
Marco couldn’t even look me in the eye.
“We heard your child is a girl,” he whispered. “And she’s beautiful. Please come back to us. We will give you everything. We’ll make everything legal and treat you as the most important part of the family.”
I looked at them for a long moment.
There was no anger left in my heart—only a deep sense of pity.
Pity because their happiness still depended on what they possessed and whose blood ran in someone’s veins, instead of genuine love.
I smiled faintly and held Maya closer.
