Page 22 of Deadly Lust

I couldn’t think. I tried to remember, but it was all a fog. Just flashes of sound, of papers, of that woman…the nurse. I couldn’t remember her name. She told me my son was gone. I remember her face—it was cold and uncaring, as if she were shutting herself away from the pain any woman would feel for a new mom who had lost her baby.

My mind latched on to that. She was cold. Uncaring. I didn’t know her name.

She hadn’t given me a bracelet…she had taken mine.

Was she even a nurse?

¡Ay, dios mío!

Julián was Elías? My son was alive…

I had to go get him. I had to tell Grant.

In my haze, another question popped into my head. “But this doesn’t make sense. Joaquín is my biological brother, my flesh and blood. How can he have no DNA match to Julián? His sample must’ve been wrong.”

“The sample is fine, it is accurate. This is second test. Ksyushen’ka. I tested the hair from the brush and from an envelope he sent you. You left it here. Both of his samples had the same DNA but neither of them matched the boy’s. I wanted to be certain, so I compared his DNA against yours. DNA does not lie. It can only mean one truth.”

He continued to speak, but I didn’t comprehend his words. My mind raced through the millions of images of Joaquín and me as kids. Every memory I had from childhood had Joaquín in it.

But it didn’t matter.

After a few seconds, the realization hit me.

Roman was right. There was no other explanation.

If Julián was my son, then Joaquín was not my brother.

Then who the fuck was he?