Luciano Reyes

Seven months.

It’s been seven months since I watched her walk away from me, tears in her eyes, my last name still clinging to her like a ghost. I handed her divorce papers. And she signed them—with a trembling hand and silence I mistook for guilt.

But it wasn’t guilt. It was grief. I thought she was the liar. I thought my best friend—her best friend—was carrying my child. That one reckless night I barely remembered had come back to haunt us. When she asked me to talk first, I refused. When she tried to explain, I cut her off. I chose someone else over her. God, what a fool I was. She didn’t fight me. She didn’t scream. She just signed the papers… and disappeared. It took me months to realize something was wrong. That the woman I thought was carrying my child wasn’t changing at all. No ultrasounds. No appointments. No glow. Nothing but excuses and bitterness. And then I saw her one night — drunk and laughing at a bar with another man, her stomach flat as ever. No trace of the pregnancy she swore she had. That’s when it hit me like a truck. I’d been played. I left her that same night. Filed for divorce the next morning. Rage burned in me. But deeper than rage… was regret. A hollow, gnawing kind that tore at my chest. I went to the hospital after. Stress, chest pains, whatever. The doctor ran a few things, asked questions. And then he said something that froze my world. “Congratulations, by the way. Your ex-wife’s pregnancy is progressing beautifully. The twins are healthy.” Twins. My twins. The doctor looked at me, confused. “I assumed you knew. She registered you as the father, Mr. Reyes.”My hands went cold. My breath stopped. She hadn’t lied. She was pregnant. With my children. I staggered out of that hospital with guilt wrapped around my throat like a noose.

Seven months.

She’s been doing this alone.

She left to protect them from me—from the chaos I created. I chose lies over her. I chose someone else over my family.

And now… I don’t even know where she is.