Maria brought a hand to her mouth.
—Ya po eptiepdo pada.
The doctor picked up the papers.
—The second piece of news is this: the three pregnancies do share genetic material with you. Enough. But not in the usual way that a father shares DNA with his children.
Ricardo felt a buzzing in his ears.
—What does that mean?
The doctor took a deep breath, as if he knew he was about to say something that would change everyone’s life in the room.
—It means, Mr. Mendoza, that you present an extremely rare codiction called tetragametic chimerism.
The silence became absolute.
—What is that?
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