“If you ever notice unexplained changes in your body, contact Dr. Adams. He knows everything.”
There was a telephone number at the bottom.
I called it.
The man who answered fell silent when he heard my name.
Then he asked:
“Are you Robert’s wife?”
“Yes.”
“Mrs. Margaret… I’ve been expecting your call.”
The following day, he came to my house.
He was a man of about seventy.
The moment he saw my enormous belly, he dropped into a chair.
“My God… Robert was right.”
I demanded an explanation.
He told me that years earlier, Robert had become interested in experimental medical studies because we had lost a child when we were young.
But Dr. Adams emphasized that Robert’s old documents did not explain what was happening to my body.
“You need a complete medical examination, Margaret. At your age, changes like these can have very serious causes.”
I asked him not to tell my children anything until we knew the truth.
But that day at the hospital, I could no longer remain silent.
When Daniel demanded to know who the father was, I answered quietly:
“If the doctors’ suspicions are confirmed, the answer may be connected to the secret your father left behind.”
“My father?! Mom, Dad died twelve years ago!”
I took the letter out of my purse.
Daniel read it.
Then his eyes suddenly stopped on the photograph.
His face turned white.
“Mom… do you recognize this man?”
“No.”
He sank to the floor and began crying.
“I DO.”
It turned out that the man in the photograph was the very same doctor Daniel had worked with years earlier.
And five years ago, that doctor had told Daniel that an important medical document concerning our family existed, but that it couldn’t yet be revealed.
Daniel hadn’t believed him.
But now everything looked different.
I spent the following week in the hospital.
Several specialists examined me.
Finally, the chief physician asked all my family members to come.
I was sitting in my hospital room when he entered, carrying a thick folder.
“Mrs. Margaret, we have the final results.”
My heart was beating so fast I could barely breathe.
“Am I really expecting a baby?”
The doctor paused.
“Your initial examination led to a misunderstanding. The pregnancy has not been confirmed.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“Then what is inside my belly?”
