THE TESTAMENTARY PACT OF EMILIO VÁZQUEZ // EXTRACT
ARTICLE IX: RESTITUTION CLAUSE OF THE HERITATION
“IN THE PRESENT ORDER THAT ALL MY SIXTY-FOUR-MILLION-DOLLAR WORTH,
INCLUDING ALL TITLES OF COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE PROPERTIES,
OVERSEAS AND PATENT ROYALTIES, STAY IN
BLIND FIAT DEPOSIT UNTIL MY GRANDDAUGHTER, LAURA MENDOZA, GIVES BIRTH
A LIVING BIOLOGICAL SON BORN FROM HIS BODY.
ONCE THE BIRTH OF THAT CHILD IS CONFIRMED, ALL GOODS WILL BE TRANSFERRED
IMMEDIATELY, IRREVOCABLY AND ONLY TO LAURA MENDOZA AND HER HEIRS.
# IF LAURA MENDOZA DIED WITHOUT LIVING OFFSPRING, OR IF HER MARRIAGE
IT DISSOLVES WITHOUT THE BORN OF A LIVING SON OF THE UNION, THE WHOLE OF
YOUR HERITAGE WILL PERMANENTLY REVERSE YOUR HUSBAND'S CORPORATE ENTITY:
VANCE-STERLING LOGISTICS LLC.”
“`
The silence in the exam room was absolute.
The ultrasound machine continued its constant and rhythmic pulse: *tum-tum, tum-tum, tum-tum. *
I looked at Diego.
The man I loved for eight years. The man whose shirts I ironed, whose anxieties I relieved, whose failures I carried on my shoulders while working sixty hours a week in my design studio.
The fragments of the nightmare crashed with the devastating and crushing force of a derailment of an armored train:
The sudden insistence on a vasectomy in January. *
* False claims about sterility. *
Public accusations of infidelity. *
*The divorce lawsuit requires that you give up all rights to our housing and reimburse “marital expenses.” *
*The lover got into our bed to provide an alibi for her sudden departure. *
Diego hadn't left me because he thought he was unfaithful.
Diego knew from the beginning that I was pregnant.
He knew because he and Paula were the ones who controlled the abortion schedule.
