CHAPTER 252 — Where Fear Learns to Wait (Milagros’s Point of View) I never thought going to the doctor could feel like this. This time, it wasn’t just a checkup. It felt like carrying my heart in my hands and my soul by a thread. That morning, I didn’t go alone. Sofía and Mom walked beside me from the moment we got out of the car. One on each side, as if my body were fragile and, at the same time, sacred. I let them take care of me. I needed it. For the first time, I didn’t feel guilty about that. Mom talked to me on the way to the doctor’s office. She told me that what I was going through, she had gone through too. That with Martina, not even a quarter of what happened with Benjamin had happened. With him, fear had followed her through almost the entire pregnancy, because they never knew what might happen, and everything had been very complicated. With me, it had been different—everything more careful, more contained… but the fear had still been there, hovering over them dur

CHAPTER 254 — Where Love Learns to Keep Watch (Ayden’s POV) She was discharged, and we came home late that night. The apartment was silent—that particular kind of silence that lingers after a storm. I carried her from the car to the bedroom as if the whole world might shatter if I made one wrong move. Not because Milagros couldn’t walk, but because I needed to feel her close, light in my arms, protected. Mine. On that short walk, I felt something new: fear mixed with a responsibility that didn’t weigh me down, but left its mark. I wasn’t carrying her out of obligation. I was carrying her out of love. As if holding her were my way of telling the world that, as long as she was with me, nothing had the right to hurt her. Our home—my home—was full of memories. Photos of us as children, scattered but vivid. The little red toy car I still kept on a shelf, like a talisman from another life. Images of laughter, beaches, a shared childhood… back when we knew nothing about love, but were a

CHAPTER 256 — The Silence of Those Who Love Too Deeply(Ayden’s POV)At first, I thought what was happening to me was nothing.A little dizziness.And it wasn’t the first time.A strange warmth creeping up the back of my neck.That uncomfortable feeling that my body wasn’t quite obeying me, as if it were moving one second behind my mind.I didn’t think much of it.I couldn’t burden her with it now.All I cared about was her.Milagros already had too much on her plate. Two babies growing inside her, a body begging for rest when her soul had always been made to keep moving forward, medical tests, bed rest, a wedding in just a few days… how could I possibly add anything else to her load?So I did what seemed right at the time.I kept quiet.That morning, I left her fast asleep, her breathing so calm it soothed me just to watch her. I stayed there for a while, looking at her. I thought about how unfair it would be to worry her about my dizziness when she was sustaining two more lives with

CHAPTER 258 — Where Silence Breaks at Home (Milagros’s Point of View) The whole day felt like a thorn in my side. It wasn’t a fight with Ayden. Things were fine between us, despite everything we were going through. It wasn’t a big deal. On the surface, it wasn’t anything “serious”… and yet, since early that morning, I had felt that something wasn’t quite right. Like when your body warns you before your mind does, and you end up arguing with your own intuition because you don’t want to seem like you’re overreacting. Ayden had slipped out quietly. I caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye—just a fleeting glimpse, the kind you catch when you’re still half-asleep: the movement of his shoulder, the rustle of fabric, the door closing gently so he wouldn’t wake me. I lay still, listening to the silence someone leaves behind when they go… and I told myself the same thing I always did. He has too much on his plate. He’s carrying enough already. Don’t add another worry to

CHAPTER 260 — The Candle That Holds HopeThe apartment was silent.It wasn’t an awkward silence, but the new kind of quiet that settles in when two people have truly begun to care for each other. Milagros was reclining on the couch, a light blanket draped over her legs, her hands resting—almost without realizing it—on her belly. Ayden was close by.Always close by.As if he had finally understood that distance was no longer an option.Several days had passed like that.Light meals.Shared naps.Gentle kisses.Brief conversations, as if neither of them wanted to say out loud what they were both thinking: they were waiting for something that could change everything.Ayden’s phone vibrated on the living room coffee table.The sound made both of their hearts skip.They felt it at the same time.Ayden looked at the phone.Milagros looked at him.“It’s the clinic,” he said, without answering yet.Milagros nodded slowly.Ayden answered.He listened in silence.He swallowed hard.“The results