The doctor’s voice was calm, professional, almost gentle.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Rivera… but there is no baby.”
The words dropped like a guillotine.
Diego blinked. “What?”
Allison’s hand tightened around his until her nails dug into his skin. “What do you mean there’s no baby? I’m twelve weeks. We saw the heartbeat last month—”
The doctor turned the screen toward them. The image was clear. Empty.
“No gestational sac. No fetal pole. No heartbeat. What you’re seeing here on the previous scan…” she paused, glancing at Allison, “…appears to have been fabricated or misread. This is what we call a pseudocyesis — a false pregnancy. Or in some cases, a very early miscarriage that the body didn’t fully process.”
The room went deathly silent.
Diego’s mother dropped the bouquet of blue balloons. They floated lazily toward the ceiling like mocking ghosts.
Sophia laughed nervously. “This is a joke, right? Some kind of expensive clinic prank?”
The doctor didn’t smile. “Ms. Allison, your HCG levels are barely elevated. Consistent with either very early pregnancy that has already ended… or no pregnancy at all. The belly you’re showing is likely bloating from other causes. We can run full bloodwork, but medically speaking — there is no child.”
Allison’s face drained of color. She started shaking. “No… no, that can’t be. I felt him move. I have symptoms—”
“You felt what you wanted to feel,” the doctor said quietly.
Diego pulled his hand away from Allison like her skin had burned him. He stood up slowly, staring at the empty black screen as if it had personally betrayed him.
His mother whispered, “All this time… all the money we spent on the nursery… the announcements…”
Diego turned on Allison. “You lied to me?”
Allison reached for him, tears streaming. “Diego, please — I thought I was pregnant. I really did. The test said positive. I—”
“You told me it was a boy!” he roared. “You let my entire family believe we finally had a son!”
The cousins, the aunts, everyone who had come to celebrate the “heir” started backing away. Phones that had been recording happy moments were now lowered in horror.
Sophia looked like she wanted the floor to swallow her. “You made us look like fools. In front of everyone.”
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