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***
"My child is alive?"
Ben felt like he was dreaming everything. He needed someone to snap him out of it and bring him back to reality because it was too good to be true.
"What?" Grace was so confused. "Ben, how come you didn't know that the child you had was male. I held that child in my arms when it was delivered."
Alejandra's mouth was wide open. "Wait, you were Ben's nurse? How come you weren't there at the time he was waking up?"
"Because at that time, I was assigned to another hospital in another city and I had to report asap." She said, still in confusion. "I only managed to dress the baby and a car was waiting to take me to another hospital. But then..." She paused and glanced at Ben. "...didn't Dr. Peters tell you this?"
Ben shook his head, almost robotically. "He was the one that told examined my baby and also told me I had a female child."
"Wow!" Grace sighed, placing a hand on her forehead. It was too much for her to handle. "But why would he do that?"
"Do you know what this means?" Alejandra took Ben's hand.
"My baby might be alive and he's out there somewhere and only God knows the state he is in." He sobbed. But he was so excited. The hope that filled him was unlike anything he'd felt before.
"Yeah, but it also means that all this was planned." She said with concern in her voice. "The doctor that helped deliver the child knew the sex of the child and obviously knows exactly what happened to that child."
"But why would he do that?" Grace was in utter shock. "Dr. Peters cared about you more than any of us did. He made sure that your pregnancy was a secret when you asked and made sure that you stayed healthy in all those months."
"I... I don't know." He stuttered, once again filled with a lot of thoughts.
"But..."
"You know what..." Alejandra sighed. "...this is something major and we can't discuss it here. Do you mind coming with us?"
Grace shook her head and the four of them hurriedly left the airport.
***
Carlos and Gustavo were in the office, each busy trying to occupy their minds with work although it wasn't really working. It was now just the two of them. It wasn't gonna be the same without Alejandra and Ben and they knew it.
Suddenly, the door to the office opened and when they looked in the direction, they saw a great surprise, Ben and Alejandra entering. Both of them rose and rushed to the two. As Gustavo rushed to his wife and kissed her passionately, Carlos rushed to Ben and held him tighter without any intention of letting him go.
"Oh my God!" Gustavo's eyes widened in shock. "What are the two doing back here? Was Carlos and I stuck in a time loop? Has it been ten years already?"
"No!" Ben chuckled, a bright smile appearing on his face. "Something happened that made me change my mind." He looked at the two of them with tears of mirth in his eyes. "My child might still be alive."
"What?"
Carlos and Gustavo looked at each other like the devil had just appeared before them. They didn't want to say what was in their minds although both of them thought Ben had lost his mind.
"Ben..."
"It's true!" Ben chuckled in tears. "My child might still be alive... it wasn't a female. It was a male child that I had."
"Ben..." Carlos held his hand. "...I know you haven't been sleeping much the last few weeks. Maybe you need some rest, don't you think."
"I am not crazy." He moved away and rushed to Grace. That was when Gustavo and Carlos saw the lady who was with them. "This is Grace. She was the nurse that attended to me in those night months of my pregnancy. She was with me during my operation and helped deliver my child."
"It is true." Grace nodded. "The baby Ben gave birth to that day was a boy. It might have been long ago but..."
Grace paused for a number of seconds before a smile popped up on her face.
"I remember taking pictures of the baby because I wanted you to see how he was looking like when he was born." Grace said enthusiastically.
"Really?" Ben felt his heart hammer in his chest so hard he gasped. "Do you have those pictures right now?"
"I am not using the same phone but I should have saved them on my google drive."
She took her phone and started scrolling. As she did, Ben felt like someone had dipped him in sea of ice. A shiver went down his spine and his hands began trembling. A few minutes might have passed as Grace checked her phone but to Ben, that was the longest time he had ever waited for anything.
"Here!"
Ben's hands shook uncontrollably as he took the phone. Finally, his eyes landed on that picture and everything went quiet and cold. The world around him seemed to fade away, leaving only the poignant echoes of his heartbeat resonating in the stillness. His breath caught in his throat as he gazed upon the image of the baby he had believed had died.
That was a different baby... it was male and it had a penis... a freaking penis, he heard his voice scream in his head. Tears welled in his eyes, blurring the contours of the picture, yet etching the image of the baby's face deeper into his soul. The weight of years pressed upon him, each passing moment carrying the burden of a grief he had carried in the depths of his being.
He traced the delicate features with trembling fingers, as if seeking reassurance that this was not a cruel trick of fate. As his fingers gently traced the contours of the tiny face captured within the frame, a surge of disbelief mingled with an overwhelming flood of emotions. The baby in the photograph, with innocent eyes that seemed to reflect an untold universe of possibilities, gazed back at him as a spectral reminder of a time he had consigned to the depths of despair.
Emotions long suppressed surged forth like a tidal wave, overwhelming him with a potent mix of joy and sorrow. How many nights had he spent haunted by the specter of loss, tormented by the absence of a beloved child? And yet, here, in this fragile moment suspended in time, hope blossomed anew, fragile yet resilient in its insistence.
"My child!" He whispered, but everyone heard it.
"Wow!" Carlos' mouth gaped. "He's so beautiful. This is a miracle."
"How's this possible?" Gustavo was in awe.
"A miracle, indeed." Alejandra smiled. "Look at that beautiful face. In this moment, I couldn't be prouder to be a grandmother." She placed her hands on Ben's shoulder's squeezing him. "I can't believe you produced such a beautiful child. My grandchild is alive."
