Part 4: Twenty Years of Silence
My mother’s words hung in the air as if time had stopped moving.
—Sofia… is your other daughter.
I felt my legs giving out.
I had to lean on the back of a chair to keep from falling. My breathing was so rapid I could barely hear what was happening around me.
Sofia looked at all of us with wide eyes.
“What does that mean…?” she asked, her voice trembling.
My mother cried uncontrollably.
My father remained motionless, his gaze fixed on the ground.
Finally, it was I who broke the silence.
—I need someone to explain absolutely everything to me.
My father slowly raised his head.
—After the delivery, one of the girls was born completely healthy. Her name was Valentina. The other arrived with severe respiratory distress, and the doctors told us she had to be transferred immediately to a specialized hospital.
I felt a lump in my throat.
—I was told that he had died.
My mother nodded as she wiped away her tears.
—We know… and it should never have happened.
For a few seconds nobody spoke.
My father continued.
—There was a terrible administrative mix-up that night. You were sedated after giving birth, and we were the only family members we could reach. The doctors asked for our authorization to start emergency treatment while they tried to contact you.
—And then?
My mother took a deep breath.
—The first few months were very difficult. Sofia needed several medical interventions. The specialists didn’t know if she would survive.
I looked at the young woman.
She was a healthy, strong, and lively girl.
It was impossible to imagine everything that had happened when he was a baby.
—Why did they never look for me when he recovered?
That was the question I had been waiting twenty years to ask.
My father closed his eyes.
—Because we made the worst mistake of our lives.
Her voice sounded completely different.
It was no longer the firm voice of the proud man he remembered.
It was the voice of someone who had been living with guilt for too long.
—During the first few months we thought that, when everything was over, we would talk to you.
My mother added:
—But time passed… and each day it became more difficult for us to face what had happened.
I didn’t understand.
-Difficult?
My mother nodded.
—We felt ashamed.
He lowered his gaze.
—We were wrong about you. When we learned you were struggling to get ahead on your own, we wanted to find you many times… but we no longer knew how.
Tears filled her eyes again.
—We thought you would never forgive us.
I looked at Sofia.
She remained completely motionless.
Suddenly he spoke.
-So…
He paused.
—Is Valentina… my twin sister?
No one answered.
It wasn’t necessary.
The answer was written on our faces.
Sofia began to cry.
She sat down slowly on the sofa without taking her eyes off me.
—All my life I thought my parents had died in an accident when I was little.
Those words surprised me.
-That?
My mother started crying again.
—That’s what we were advised to tell you.
-Who?
—The psychologist who treated you when you were a child. She thought it would be less painful than growing up believing you had been abandoned.
Sofia shook her head.
-So…
He looked directly at me.
—I’ve been living with my grandparents for twenty years… without knowing that my mother was still alive?
I couldn’t hold back the tears.
—I also lived for twenty years believing that you had not survived.
Neither of them knew what to do.
There were too many mixed emotions.
Rage.
Sadness.
Relief.
Confusion.
After a few seconds, Sofia slowly got up.
He walked towards me.
We stood face to face.
For a few moments neither of them spoke.
Finally, he raised a hand and gently touched my face.
—We look very much alike…
I smiled through my tears.
-Yeah…
She smiled too.
It was the first smile since that conversation began.
Without thinking twice, he hugged me.
It was a long hug.
Silent.
A hug capable of recovering twenty lost years.
My mother burst into tears even harder.
My father put a hand to his face trying to hide his own tears.
When we finally parted ways, Sofia asked me a question I will never forget.
—What is Valentina like?
I smiled.
—She has the same smile as you.
She loves to read, cook, and always finds a way to make others laugh.
Sofia let out a small laugh.
—Then I think I’m going to love her very much.
I slowly took out my mobile phone.
I looked for a recent photograph of Valentina.
I showed it to her.
Sofia stared at the screen for several seconds.
Then he smiled.
—It’s incredible…
We look like the same person.
At that moment I understood that there was still a long way to go.
There were wounds that needed healing.
Unanswered questions.
And, above all…
The most important match of all was still to come.
The moment when two sisters, separated since the day of their birth, would see each other for the first time without imagining that that instant would forever change the history of our family.
