“Dr. Raquel, we just received a call. It’s about a 4-year-old boy with a very high fever,” a customer service employee, whom everyone called Lordy, Sorry, or Lorena, told the on-call pediatrician.

“But my shift ended half an hour ago, and as soon as I finish filling out the forms, I’m going home. See if there’s anyone else left,” she asked the pediatrician.

She had spent the entire day on her feet and all she wanted was to get home as soon as possible and rest for ten minutes.

Then Lordy went back into Dr. Raquel’s office.
“I’m afraid there’s no one else left. Dr. Jiménez twisted her ankle; she can’t come to see the child and she’s asking for help. I already called everyone else, but they’re all out making house calls and their schedules are full.”

The girl looked at the pediatrician with pleading eyes. The woman just sighed in response.
“Okay, Lordy. Give me the name and address.”
“Perfect, thank you. I’ll fill out the form and bring it to you.” The girl, very happy, ran off.

A few minutes later he returned.
“I told Nicolás, he’ll take you wherever I tell him. Let’s see what’s wrong with that boy.”

Along the way, Dr. Raquel unfolded the report filled out by the assistant and, as she began to study it, she was surprised.
“Gustavo Urriaga… what a coincidence,” she thought to herself. She had been married for over ten years to a man who also had that uncommon last name, but they had never had children.

The driver glanced at the report for the address and grumbled in annoyance,
“Wow, that’s on the other side of town. I’ve been there a couple of times. What a place, it doesn’t even have a road.”

They arrived at the address in complete silence, and the pediatrician went upstairs to the second floor. There she met a young woman whose face, for some reason, seemed familiar.
“Thank God, and finally!” exclaimed the sick child’s mother. “My husband and I were wondering how much longer we would have to wait. We were told on the phone that all the doctors were out seeing other patients.”
“My shift had already ended, but, as you can see, here I am,” replied Dr. Raquel, her voice weary. “Well, where is our patient?”
“This way, please.” The woman led her down the hallway to the child’s room.

She saw a boy lying in bed. He was pale, with dark hair, dressed in brightly colored pajamas and thick, warm socks. The boy looked at the doctor with a frightened expression.
“Hello, Gustavo, how are you?” Dr. Raquel smiled at him. “Tell me, what happened?”

She turned to the boy’s mother.
“He’s been coughing for two days, and today his fever spiked to 38.5,” the woman said, watching the doctor examine the little boy.
“Let’s check his throat,” Dr. Raquel said, carefully examining the patient. “Well, his lymph nodes are a little swollen. Could you bring him a clean spoon?” she asked the woman.

[Music]
—I’ll bring it to you now—she replied, and called someone over. —Honey, can you bring a clean spoon? We need to check Gustavo’s throat.

Just seconds later, a man in a kitchen apron entered the room and handed Dr. Raquel a spoon. When she looked into his eyes, the doctor froze: it was her own husband, Alberto Arriaga, who was now staring at her in confusion.

The day before, he had told her that he was going on a business trip for three days.

Startled, Dr. Raquel picked up the spoon and carefully examined the child’s throat, explaining to his parents what needed to be done to help him get better.
“Now I’ll give you a prescription,” the pediatrician said calmly. “If his fever doesn’t go down in the next two days, we’ll have to give him injections. You need to give him warm liquids to drink and ventilate his room more often. It’s noticeable in here.”

She sat down at the table, quickly wrote down the recipe, and left after saying goodbye. As soon as she crossed the threshold of her apartment, her husband began calling her. Seeing the number, Raquel rejected call after call. She felt completely bewildered as she recalled what had happened that afternoon. How could this be? So, for all these years, Alberto had been lying to her with complete impunity.

She dreamed of having children, but there was no way she could get pregnant. So the problem was hers, because the other woman was able to conceive a child with her husband.

The next morning, Alberto himself entered the apartment, panting. Seeing his wife’s impassive face, he lowered his gaze guiltily, then looked up.
“Listen, Raquel, I’ve been wanting to tell you this for a while,” he began hesitantly.

But she stopped him with a wave of her hand.
“Why?” she asked. “Just tell me one thing: why have you been lying to me all these years?”
“I didn’t know how to tell you. I loved you, but I also loved the mother of my child,” Alberto said with difficulty. “You and I spent so many years trying, and it just wasn’t meant to be.”

It turned out that, during a company dinner, Alberto drank too much and started flirting with his new colleague, Sara. After the party, they both went to the young woman’s house, and Raquel’s faithful husband stayed the night. In the morning, he made up an excuse and told his wife that he had fallen asleep at a friend’s house after getting drunk.

Shortly after, his coworker announced she was pregnant with his child, and Alberto realized that this was precisely what he had wanted all along. He couldn’t leave his wife, nor could he leave the mother of his unborn child. He got a promotion and told Raquel he would have to travel more for business than before. From then on, he grew accustomed to living with two families at once, hiding his double life from his wife.

After hearing his story, Raquel remained silent for a long time, and then she came up with a solution herself.
“Look, Alberto,” she said, “I know the child isn’t to blame for any of this. I know you dreamed of having him for a long time, but we couldn’t. It would make sense to me if we divorced. They need you, and I honestly can’t live with you after this. So you’re free to do whatever you want.”

Alberto felt a joy he couldn’t hide. He started thanking Raquel, but she had already stopped listening.
“They’re waiting for you, your son has a fever, you must take him medicine,” she reminded him.

The husband decided to leave immediately. He gathered his things instantly and left.

Raquel, relieved, closed the door behind him, and then, when his footsteps faded, she let out a wild scream and hurled a vase from a magazine rack in the hallway against the wall. Suddenly, she felt all the resentment and bitterness she had harbored toward her husband for his betrayal. She moved around the kitchen like a madwoman, smashing everything in her path. She only stopped when she heard insistent knocking at the door.

She cast a devastated glance around the kitchen, which looked as if it had been hit by an earthquake, and opened the door. Standing there was a tall, burly, middle-aged man in a police uniform. He was just as surprised, if not more so, than the apartment owner herself.
“Dr. Raquel, were you the one who made all this noise?” he asked incredulously.
“Do you know me?” she exclaimed, surprised.

“Yes,” the policeman replied. “I recently took a baby to the hospital for a checkup. Do you remember that newborn boy found in a box next to the grocery store, who almost froze to death?”
“Thank goodness we found him just in time!”
“Of course I remember,” Raquel interrupted. “Then they took him to the orphanage.
” “Yes, now I remember you,” the man, still standing in the doorway, said. “Your neighbors called. They said they heard terrible screams and even a kind of roar coming from your apartment. What happened to you?”

Raquel felt confused.
“Nothing really… certain everyday problems have been getting on my nerves.”
“It happened to me once too,” the policeman said, looking intently at the woman.
“Come in, don’t stand in the doorway,” Raquel said quickly.

The man came in and the first thing he saw was the broken vase. Following his gaze, Raquel smiled nervously.
“The kitchen is much worse; that was the source of the noise the neighbors complained about.”

For some reason, Raquel felt she could trust this calm man, with his intelligent gaze. She invited him into the living room and brought in a tray of tea and biscuits.
“I don’t think I can offer you much more, so if you’re not in a hurry,” she said, handing him a cup. “But seriously, what’s happened?”

The policeman, who introduced himself as Faustino, hadn’t forgotten the purpose of his visit.
“Yesterday I found out my husband was living with another woman and had a child. The boy got sick, and they called me to check on him,” Raquel replied automatically.
“And you…?” Faustino trailed off.
“What about me?” The woman smiled sadly. “I gave him a prescription without showing him how upset I was that my husband, who was supposedly away on a business trip, turned out to be at my patient’s house. Then he came here, like a madman, to explain everything. But is there anything to explain? I told him that, from now on, he was free to do whatever he wanted. Then I had that nervous breakdown… and in the end, you came.
” “Oh, I understand perfectly. I went through something similar myself,” Faustino said, shaking his head thoughtfully.

Raquel listened to her new acquaintance with interest and compassion. Faustino had been raising a son, unaware that his wife had conceived him with another man. The truth came to light when the boy needed blood for surgery: Faustino was ready to donate his, but tests showed that he and his son were not a match in any way.

In the end, his wife admitted that the father was another man. Faustino divorced her, and she took the child and moved to another city. From then on, he heard nothing more from them. For the last three years, the policeman had been living the life of a divorced man, though that hardly mattered to him.

They talked for almost two hours. Raquel jumped when she suddenly received a call from Lorena in customer service.
“Dr. González, good morning. Your boss is going to kill you! We have a meeting in twenty minutes and you’re still not here. Is something wrong?
” “Oh, God, I completely forgot! I’m coming right now.” Raquel jumped up in a panic and started getting ready, much to Faustino’s surprise. “Let me explain: I’m supposed to be at work in half an hour, and all I’ve been doing is spending the morning listening to heartbreaking stories. If I’m late, my boss will kill me.”
“I have a car, so I can give you a ride,” the policeman suggested, getting up from his chair.

They got into the police car and Faustino started it. He turned on the flashing light, so Raquel arrived at the hospital five minutes before the meeting.

After work, he met up with Faustino again, now dressed in civilian clothes. He smiled kindly.
“I wanted to offer my help in dealing with the aftermath of tomorrow’s hurricane.”

Raquel felt confused.
“No, I completely forgot about the… what a mess I’d made! I’d better not see it.”

However, Faustino didn’t hear her and opened the car door in front of her.
“You know, Raquel? I live alone, and my house is in a much worse state, even without hurricanes.”

When they had tidied up the apartment and Faustino went downstairs to take out the trash, he invited Raquel to dinner at a small tavern on the boardwalk.
“I’ve never been to this place before, although I don’t think I’ll be leaving anytime soon,” she said.

Could there be anything better than dinner in a pleasant atmosphere and good company after a hard day at work? There was something incredibly attractive about that man that made her forget her troubles.

They chatted until nightfall. They continued arguing and commenting on things, laughing uncontrollably at some silly scene from a movie, and telling jokes.

A couple of months later, Raquel, completely indifferent, signed the divorce papers. The very next day, Faustino called her.
“Would you like to visit someone you know?”

It was a surprise for Raquel when Faustino took her to the orphanage and showed her a chubby baby examining his toys with a focused gaze.
“Look, it’s the one we found.”

Raquel looked at the boy, smiling all the time.
“How he’s grown!”

Faustino and Raquel began visiting the boy and playing with him. To Raquel’s surprise, after one of the visits, Faustino suggested something.
“We should adopt him, shouldn’t we? The boy didn’t choose his parents, what’s his fault? Let’s adopt him.”

Raquel was lost in thought.
“Being a single man makes it very difficult…”
“That’s precisely what I’m talking about,” Faustino said, his voice filled with emotion. “We’ve both been through some very difficult times, and now we can create another happy family: you, me, and our child. Will you marry me?”

During a few moments of silence, Raquel looked at Faustino, looked at his face full of emotion and then whispered:
—Yes.

A few months later, when Faustino returned from a walk with his baby, Raquel came to the doorway, a mysterious smile playing on her lips. When her husband asked her why, she continued smiling happily, but said nothing. Finally, seeing Faustino’s growing concern, she murmured,
“The day Dani turned two, Faustino and Raquel had a daughter.”